Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Mar 19th 2008

The world never stands still. Now the WBC have announced that they propose to use TV replays at ringside to rule on controversial moments during a fight. They have in mind such incidents as how cuts are caused and whether blows were low or landed after the bell. They envisage a ringside panel of three reviewing these relays and then, where necessary, over-ruling the referee. There is an argument that this would ensure that the decisions made are correct but I just can't feel comfortable about it. I can see a situation like that we see in rugby and cricket where the man in the middle cops out on making decisions and lets the panel make them for him. For me incompetent judging is a bigger problem and sitting at ringside waiting for three wise men to tell us what happened seems a recipe for even more confusion. Part of the fall out from the big night in Cancun has been a claim by Willie Savannah, the manager of Juan Diaz, that no mandatory drugs testing was carried out before or after any of the title fights. Some of that may be down to his fighter losing to a much older Nate Campbell, but if he is correct then that is a serious breach of the championship rules and needs to be investigated. Still on the subject of drugs, the Nevada Commission has said that it will soon implement random drug testing for fighters in the State. It will be interesting to see whether other States follow suit. If you are of a certain age you might just have heard of Bash Ali. The 52-year-old Nigerian is desperately trying to get a visa to go to the USA to defend his World Boxing Federation cruiserweight. At his peak back in the 1980's and 90's he challenged for the WBC, WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles and in 2000 won the WBF title(not the current WBF body). However when the WBF refused to recognise him Bash took legal action in a Californian court and won a settlement that put them out of business. That did not stop Bash defending against Tony Booth in 2004. Now he wants to get into the Guinness Book of records by being the oldest world champion to defend his title by defending against John Strohl in the USA, but can't get a visa. He claims a conspiracy to stop him, but as there is no longer a World Boxing Federation the Guinness guys might not accept his claim anyway. It was sad to read in a piece by Wallace Matthews that Joe Frazier is in a bad way. The former world heavyweight champion suffered a split spine in a car accident in 2002, is a diabetic, is blind in one eye and needs a wheelchair to get around. Joe still has money, but it is disappearing rapidly as he has a large family of dependants. I can still vividly remember that great left hook that put Muhammad Ali down in their March 1971 bout. Heavyweight Joe Mesi may soon be exchanging words instead of blows. Joe is considering running for the State Senate in New York. He is being courted by both the Republicans and the Democrats. In view of his past medical problems I would feel better if Joe followed the paths of politics. Perhaps we could offer a white collar alternative with Joe for President and Hilary and Barack exchanging blows . Perhaps in view of Bill Clinton's past experience I better say exchanging punches! Norway does not have many professionals but those they do have are of good quality. Geir Inge Jorgensen may be the best around right now. In Belgrade on February 26 he moved his record to 25-1 with a first round kayo of Gheroghe Florin. His only loss was for the Nordic light-welterweight title to Amir Khan opponent Martin Kristjansen in October 2006. Coming super-middleweight Lukas Wilaschek took an easy one as he padded his record with a second round stoppage of Titus Szabo in Solden, Austria on February 28. The Polish-born German double European silver medallist has 20 wins. On the same night In Savigliano Giuseppe Tobia Loriga won the vacant Italian light-middleweight title with a split verdict over previously unbeaten Luca Pasqua. A former Italian amateur champion, Loriga has 24 wins and a draw and is rated No 11 by the EBU. Down in Agrentina unbeaten banger Lucas Matthysse beat the dangerous but erratic Colombian Jorge Luis Noriega on a fourth round retirement in Ascencion on February 29. The 25-year-old light-welterweight has 21 wins, with 20 inside the distance and is rated No 5 by the WBO. Over in Canada, middleweight Renan St Juste, raised his record to 16-1-1 with a fifth round stoppage of Jordanian-born Mohammad Said in Montreal to win the vacant WBC Continental Americas title. Renan has a first round stoppage victory over Walid Smitchet who gave John Duddy a war. Raul “Rayito” Garcia has high hopes of an early shot at the IBF straw weight title after taking a wide decision over Colombian Ronald Barrera in La Paz, on February 29. Raul overcame a badly damaged nose to floor Barrera, who had problems with the weight. “Rayito” has 22 wins and a draw with 15 stoppages or kayos. Still on the little guys, Nicaraguan sensation Roman Gonzalez has been working overtime in his last two bouts. In another February 29 show, this one in Managua, the 20-year-old light-flyweight floored Javier Murillo seven times but could not put him away and had to settle for a points victory. That's two points wins in a row after winning his first 16 inside the distance for the WBA's No 1. Zambian's had high hopes of staging a big show in Lusaka on March 1 as local heavyweight Joseph Chingangu was to challenge the unbeaten ABU champion Freddie Frimpong. However, Frimpong had to pull out and the title was declared vacant. A poor substitute fight saw the 41-year-old Chingangu halt novice Isaac Paakwesi Ankra from Ghana in five rounds to lift the title. Chingangu halted Herbie Hide in two rounds here in 2001 but Herbie gained his revenge with a first round kayo in 2005. A show in Comodoro Rivadavia on March 7 saw Hector Saldivia, Sergio Medina and Carlos Vilches score wins. Saldivia retained the Argentinian welterweight title with a first round kayo of Jorge Miranda. “El Tigre” has 25 wins in 26 fights. Medina won the interim national super-bantamweight title by decisioning Ramon Torres and has 30 wins against a loss to Rey Bautista in May last year in a WBO title eliminator. Vilches, who took Ricky Hatton the distance in June 2004, moved to ten wins in a row with a points win over Sergio Benitez. Carlos has a 53-7-2 record and bounces between light-welterweight and welterweight. Still in Argentina, Cesar Cuenca, the man of many nicknames and powder puff punching power, retained his Argentinian light-welterweight title with his customary points win over Juan Godoy in San Luis Bariloche on March 8. Known variously as “Fred Astaire”, “Uppercut”, “Chaco” and El Distinto” plain old Cesar has 32 wins and one no decision and has only managed to win one fight inside the distance. The 22-year-old southpaw has beaten Godoy three times and holds a win over Vilches. It is not unusual in these days to find more than one title at stake in a fight, however it is unusual to find two fighters fighting each other for titles in different divisions in the same fight. That happened down the Cancun show where Adrian Hernandez halted Gilberto Keb Baas in four rounds. Hernandez was defending his WBC Continental Americas light-flyweight title and Keb Baas had his NABF flyweight title up for grabs. Both were inside the light-flyweight limit. Hernandez, a real prospect, is trained by the legendary Lupe Pintor. Christophe Dettinger is a relative novice, but he is also the French cruiserweight champion. In Cugnaux on March 8 he retained the title with a points win over former champion Merick Roberge. The tall 26-year-old has nine wins. Mexican Urbano Antillon may be the “dark horse” of the lightweight division. His first round kayo of Bobby Pacquiao in Las Vegas on March 13 takes his record to 22 straight, 15 inside the distance including his last five. Bobby is not a patch on brother Manny. On the same show giant Ty Fields made it 41 wins in 42 fights as he halted Rod Wills inside a round. At 6'8”,and almost 20 stones, he fits the modern pattern, but so does the poor opposition. Ty won his first 14 in the first round and has a total of 25 first round finishes in his 37 quick endings but we still don't know if he is real. Humberto Soto is no dark horse as his abilities are well known. He is hoping for a title shot in May on a show which will see a super-flyweight unification fight between WBC champion Cristian Mijares and WBA champion Alex Munoz. In a warm up Humberto halted Carlos Urias in five rounds in Los Mochis on March 14. There had been talk of a shot at IBF champion Mzonke Fana, but Fana is due to defend against Cassius Baloyi ,so Edwin Valero is the next target-now that would be a battle. What a pity to see 39-year-old Melchor Cob Castro back in the ring. In Cancun on March 14 he halted Ramon Flores in three rounds. This was the second fight on his comeback for the little southpaw who was briefly WBC light-flyweight champion in 1991and lost only eleven of over 80 fights which saw him battle with greats such as Humberto Gonzalez, Mike Carbajal and Jorge Arce. The times they are a changing. Take the fight for the European Union super-middleweight title in Odense on March 14. Lolenga Mock-born in Zaire and now a Danish citizen-won on a split verdict over Muhamed Ali Ndiaye-born in Senegal and now an Italian citizen. Both are good fighters with Mock's experience with his 28-11-1 record just edging it. Ndiaye lost for the first time after 13 wins. Mock has turned things around after a mid-career spell of just one in in nine bouts.

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