Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Apr 28th 2008

The result was more important than the performance in Joe Calzaghe's win over Bernard Hopkins. It was not a great fight, but it was a significant win that cements Joe's status as one of Britain's best ever boxers. The only thing that stopped it being one of the best wins for British fighter in the USA is that Joe was a very heavy favourite with hardly anyone expecting Hopkins to win and that in turn is a reflection of how Joe's wins over Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler impressed the Americans. Having said that it was strange to hear Joe talk enthusiastically about a possible bout with Roy Jones, a 39-year-old who has been kayoed and outpointed by Antonio Tarver and kayoed by Glen Johnson, but I guess that, like Hopkins, the name is bigger than the man. It was amazing to see Jose Sulaiman putting out a WBC publicity blurb urging the citizens of Kiev to vote for Vitali Klitschko in the elections for Mayor of the city. If Sulaiman wanted to make a personal endorsement then that would be his right, but to use the offices of the WBC, which has often shouted about separating sport and politics, is a misuse of his office. The great Alexis Arguello is standing for Mayor of Managua, but, despite being a former WBC champion, Sulaiman has not campaigned for him! When the “Interim” world champions were introduced they were projected as a fair way of not stripping a champion when he was suffering from a long term injury and unable to defend his title. Any pretence of that has long since gone. On April 12 Chad Dawson retained his WBC light-heavyweight title by decisioning Glen Johnson and one week later Adrian Diaconu outpointed Chris Henry to win the vacant WBC Interim light-heavyweight title. On April 12 Miguel Cotto retained the WBA welterweight title by forcing Alfonso Gomez to retire in five rounds and on April 19 in Kiev Juri Nuzhnienko retained his WBA Interim welterweight title with a tenth technical draw against Irving Garcia. What a farce, and just as ridiculous is the WBO Interim lightweight champion Joel Casamayor being ordered to defend his Interim title against the actual champion Nate Campbell. Talk about the dog and the tail. Normally nicknames reflect a lack of imagination and wishful thinking. Words such as “Danger”, “Kayo”, “Killer” “Crusher”, “Hurricane” etc. are used. However the recent IBF super-featherweight title fight in South Africa featured winner Cassius “Mr Shy Guy” Baloyi beating defending champion Mzonke “The Rose of Khayelitsha” Fana. “Shy Guy”, “Rose”? These guys had better not start a trend. Could we have Audley “Hesitant” Harrison, Mike “Petunia” Tyson, Floyd “Modest” Mayweather. No, I think not. It seems that there are too many titles and too few boxers these days. A boxer recently fought for the vacant Australian super-bantamweight title without having won any of his eight pro fights, and a challenger for the vacant Spanish welterweight title had a total of three four round and three six round fights going in. Novices really. American flyweight hope Rayonta Whitfield took a majority verdict over useful Mexican Manuel Vargas in his hometown of Augusta on April 9.”Stingray” has 21 wins and this was described as an eliminator for the IBF and WBO titles. Rayonta is already rated number one by the WBO. One of these days they will give Jesus Soto Karass an easy match. In Atlantic City on April 11 he retained his WBC Continental Americas welterweight title with a points win over Chris Smith. The 25-year-old from Los Mochis has defended his title five times. He has a 20-3-3 record and in his last three fight his opponents have combined records of 62-9-2. Those three losses came in consecutive fights in 2004/2005 against guys with combined records of 44-0. The WBC have him at number nine which is some level of recognition. If anything former Ricky Hatton victim Ben Tackie gets matched even tougher than Jesus. On this show he dropped a split decision to Puerto Rican Henry Bruseles, his fourth loss in a row, all against good opposition. A minor upset in Villa Park, Illinois, on April 11 saw unbeaten but unknown lightweight David Torres kayo former WBA and WBC featherweight title challenger Oscar Leon in five rounds. Torres, a pro since 2003, was having only his first fight outside his home State of Washington and in fact only his second fight outside of Tacoma. He has 20 wins. Down in Auckland, New Zealand heavyweight Shane Cameron returned to action with a seventh round kayo of Jonathan Haggler. This was Cameron's first fight since being halted in twelve rounds by Friday Ahunanya in November. This fight was for the vacant WBO Oriental, Interim WBO Asian Pacific and IBF Pan Pacific titles. Nine sanctioning fees have been paid in the last three fights featuring Cameron. If the sanctioning fee is £1000 that is £9000 in money that could have gone to the boxers as I am sure Cameron's fans could not care about these titles. British cruiserweight Ola Afolabi pulled off an upset when he wore down unbeaten Eric Fields and halted him in ten rounds in Tacoma on April 13. Inactive since stopping Orlin Norris back in November 2005 it was a decisive win that took Ola's record to 12-1-3 and his reward was a contract with Main Events. Fields dropped to 11-1. David Haye victim Giacobbe Fragomeni kept his European Union cruiserweight title with a points win over Bulgarian veteran Konstantin Semerdjiev in Campione d'Ialia on April 15. Really just a mark time fight for Giacobbe, he is ranked number two by the EBU, one behind Jean Marc Mormeck and one ahead of Enzo Maccarinelli. It was disappointing to see Semerdjiev get a title fight as he was slipped in the EU ratings at number 22 after a six round draw with a guy having his first pro fight! Going back to Diaconu's close points win over previously unbeaten Chris Henry, this was in Bucharest on April 19, and was a good match that saw “The Shark” move to 25 wins. Henry lost for the first time after 21 wins and he showed enough to came again. On the same show the former WBA lightweight champion Raul Balbi was kayoed in three rounds by Romanian light-welterweight Ionut Dan Ion. Ion, 21-year-old southpaw, has 21 wins. Now 34, Balbi lost here to Souleymane Mbaye for the vacant WBA light-welterweight title in September 2006. On the same night in Magdeburg, German Sebastian Zbik retained his WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title with a points win over Marco Schulze. With 22 wins and rated number two by the WBO, Zbik will move into the mandatory position after the Kelly Pavlik vs. Gary Lockett title fight. In a light-welterweight bout the highly-touted Argentinian Marcos Miranda also moved to 22 wins by halting Arturo Morua in three rounds. “El Chino” has only been taken the distance once and is the mandatory for WBA champion Andreas Kotelnik. Morua was halted in nine rounds by Junior Witter for the WBC title in January 2007. A clash of veterans in Frederikssund, Denmark, on April 19 saw Evans Ashira kayo Mamadou Thiam in six rounds for the vacant UBO Inter-Continental light-middleweight title. Now 38, Ashira is at his real weight after losing to Joe Calzaghe for the WBO super-middleweight title in September 2005 and Howard Eastman for the Commonwealth middleweight title in April 2007. Thiam, now 36, lost to Felix Trinidad for the WBA light-middleweight title in 2000 and twice held the European title, which he never lost in the ring. Costa Rican heavyweight Carl Davis Drummond had to step up in quality of opposition after local criticism and in San Jose on April 19 he took an eleven round points verdict over experienced Panamanian Luis Pineda to retain his WBA Fedlatin title. The 33-year-old Drummond has 25 wins, but will have to leave Costa Rica to get any kind of world title chance, than we might find out if he can fight. Former IBF light-welterweight champion Juan Urango is in line for a shot at his old title after kayoing Argentinian Carlos Vilches in four rounds in Hollywood, Florida, on April 23. The 27-year-old southpaw from Colombia won the vacant IBF title by decisioning Naoufel Ben Rabah in June 2006 and then dropped the title in his first defence in January 2007 when Ricky Hatton outpointed him. He has a 20-1-1 record, but has done nothing since losing to Ricky. Vilches lost on points to Ricky for the WBU title in June 2004 and although now the South American champion had also done nothing to deserve a spot in an eliminator. In a middleweight bout prospect Joe Greene halted the former Commonwealth welterweight champion Joshua Okine in nine rounds. Southpaw Joe has 19 wins.

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