Aldo Colliander - From Sweden with intent by David Statham May 30th 2008

David Haye's impending 'assault' on the heavyweight division has dominated boxing headlines this week. His intricate and exciting plans, given to the press at London's O2 Arena, have provoked great interest particularly because all four of his scheduled fights will be against top ten world-ranked opponents. But while the confident Londoner zooms in on the world's hardest-hitters there's one man, living in Radford, Nottinghamshire, who he should be looking out for. 6' 5" Senegal born, boxing-rapper, Aldo Collainder has amassed a 15-2 professional record. His only defeats have come to Cuba's undefeated Odlanier Solis and future Michael Sprott opponent (May 31st) Taras Bidenko. In his last outing, he defeated 58 fight veteran Robert Daniels (49-9-1) on a unanimous decision over six rounds. Aldo fights out of Nottingham's Majestic Gym (home to Jason Booth and Barrington Brown) and he's sparred with world-ranked heavyweights, Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Povetkin and Juan Carlos Gomez. But speaking to Nottingham's Evening Post, the thirty-year-old remarked he's not impressed with many of the top heavyweight fighters. He said: "I would beat John Ruiz and Hasim Rahman. Alexander Dimitrenko is nothing special and Oleg Maskaev is too old. Oliver McCall beat Samil Sam but I wasn't impressed." And of the newest and most exciting heavyweight prospect, he said: ''Haye is too cocky. He should stay in the cruiserweight ranks. He's not a natural heavyweight. I think he'll get hurt if he ever fights Klitschko.'' Aldo, who is originally from Senegal, isn't afraid of travelling abroad to achieve his dream of being the heavyweight champion of the world. He's fought in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria and the Ukraine. And he made the journey from his home in Stockholm to England because, he believes, there are much better opportunities. He said: "Boxing is big in England. They have the real fighters like Joe Calzaghe, Clinton Woods and Carl Froch. The English are better than the Germans and the Russians, who are like robots." Colliander has Bedford's tough Matt Skelton in his sights and he said he fancies a crack at WBA champ, Ruslan Chagaev (who defeated Skelton earlier this year) because he believes he can beat him 'black and blue' just like he did in training. For now, London's cruiserweight champ David Haye is the focus on the heavyweight scene, but if Aldo Colliander can back up his bold claims, he won't be the only one who's getting the attention in the coming months.

Go back Comment on this article | Send to a friend | Print

There are no comments. Click here to be the first who comment on this article.