Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Jul 23rd 2007

Ricky Hatton may have set some kind of record, in six fights he has fought for five different titles for four different bodies in two divisions. He started with a WBU title defence against Ray Oliveira, a stoppage of Konstantin Tszyu for the IBF title and Carlos Maussa for the WBA title, all at light-welterweight. Next was a win over Luis Collazo for the WBA welterweight title then down to light-welterweight to win the IBF title again and lastly Jose Luis Castillo for the IBO title. Some achievement. If you are a boxing fan then there is one thing you should try to get to and that is the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota in upstate New York. It is an interesting place to visit at any time but at the annual inauguration held each June ,it is a fans dream. You can rub shoulders with so many great fighters. Marvin Hagler, Alexis Arguello, Ruben Olivares, Aaron Pryor, Carmen Basilio, George Chuvalo, John Stracey and other are regulars such as those being inducted-this year including Roberto Duran and Ricardo Lopez-will be there. Apart from the boxers, guys such as Stan Chistodulul, Angelo Dundee, Bert Sugar, Russell Peltz etc. turn up and there is a very good Boxing Memorabilia Fair. All of the stars are approachable, all chat and sign autographs, and other outstanding boxers will give informal interviews and question-and -answer sessions on their lives career. Canastota is not an easy place to get to and accommodation is limited but it is well worth a visit any June. A few weeks back I was musing on how settled the flyweight division was. IBF champion Vic Darchinyan had held the title since 2004, WBC king Pongsaklek Wonjongkam since 2001, WBA title holder Lorenzo Parra since 2003 and WBO holder Omar Narvaez since 2002. Of the four Narvaez looked the most vulnerable, but now he is the only one left , as the other three all surrender their titles in shock losses( well Parra lost his on the scales and that was a shock). Boxing is always capable of surprising you. You have to hand it to the WBF they know how to give boxing a bad name. They have a vacant heavyweight title so they have Frans Botha-38 years old and out of the ring for five years- fight Bob Mirovic-a 41 year old who had lost his last two fights for minor titls of the other sanctioning bodies-how can they expect anyone to take them serious, but then perhaps it does not matter as long as the sanctioning fee arrives. It is not just in the big fights that safety is important. If the reported weights were accurate then for his July 7 fight in Cologne Andy Lee outweighed victim Thomas Hengstberger by 13lbs which for middleweights is ridiculous and with Hengstberger having had just one fight in almost two years that made it even worse. It is always nice to see a boxer putting something back into the sport. Acelino Freitas, the former double 2world”champion has opened a gym and sports club IAPF (Instituto Acelino Popo Freitas) in the Salvador District of Sao Paulo providing facilities for the youth of the city. Freitas is hugely popular in Brazil. Despite his two division titles and his winning his first 29 fights inside the distance, after the way he bowed out against Diego Corrales and Juan Diaz non-Brazilians may judge him a bit more harshly. JD Chapman may be rated No 15 by the WBC, but until the Arkansas heavyweight starts fighting serious opposition in real fight cities he will convince no one. In Fort Smith on June 23 he halted Jeff Yeoman in four rounds to go to 27 wins in a row and 24 inside the distance. He is 6'5” tall, weighs around 18 stones and has been trained by both Michael Moorer and Jeff Mayweather, so the only question is-can he fight? Same question hangs over heavyweight Donnell Holmes who stopped veteran Stacy Goodman in one round on the same show. Holmes has 27 wins and two draws and is one of many fighter trained by Buddy McGirt but even the draws were against nobodies. Ukrainian welterweight Viktor Plotnikov scored a twelve round decision over Eugenio Monteiro in Lvov on June 26. The lanky 29 year old has 18 wins and a no contest. Monteiro beat Gilbert Eastman, Takaloo and Anthony Farnell here in 2003/4 but has gone downhill after a period out for being a naughty boy. The EU titles occasionally throw up some decent matches and in Chomutov on June 28 the streaking Italian light-heavyweight Antonio Brancalion retained his title with a split verdict over Czech hope Tomasz Adamek. Brancalion has lost only once-to current WBA champion Stipe Drews for the EBU title-in his last 13 fights. Adamek, not to be confused with the Pole who held the W”BC light-heavyweight title, went in with 9 wins and a draw. On the same night in Auckland Kiwi heavy hope Shane Cameron halted inept Brazilian Julimar Francisco Hipolito in one round. The 29 year old “Mountain Warrior” has 19 wins with only two lasting the distance. Cameron, a 2002 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, can fight but this sort of opponent is a waste of his time. Three “titles “were on the line, the IBF Pan Pacific, WBA Pan Pacific and WBO Asia Pacific-yippee. The old and the new were featured on a show in St Charles, Missouri on June 28. The old was 37 year old former WBA featherweight champion Freddie Norwood who scored his fourth win on his comeback by outpointing poor Armando Cordoba. Southpaw Fred made seven defences of the WBA title before being beaten by Derrick Gainer in 2000, his only loss in 39 fights. He was then out until June 2006. He weighed 9st 7lbs for this one. Cordoba has registered ten losses and one no contest in his last eleven. The new was 21 year old Deandre “The Bull” Latimore who halted Sean Wilson in two. Light-middleweight Latimore moved to 14-1 and then to 15-1 by beating Rod Tatum on a third round kayo 16 days later in St Louis. He is trained by former top bantamweight Harold Petty who was good enough to beat guys such as “Hall of Famer” Daniel Zaragoza (twice), James Manning, Hilario Zapata and Kelvin Seabrooks ,but the only “world “ title he had a shot at was the WBU at super-featherweight when he was 35. Useful Mexican super-bantamweight Antonio Meza continued to re-build after a 2006 loss as he halted Romel Aguilar in three rounds in Mexicali on June 29 for the vacant WBC Fecarbox title. Antonio has 23 wins in 25 fights, losing only to Julio Zarate and Ricardo Castillo. In a supporting fight Jorge Paez Jr returned to the winning ranks as he kayoed Carlos Urrea in two rounds. He was upset and halted by Ramon Guevara in four rounds in March and is now 14-1 Keep an eye out for light-welterweight Marcos Maidana. The Argentina halted veteran Hungarian Lazlo Komjathi in three rounds in Stuttgart on June 30 and was hailed by the countries top trainer, Amilcar Brusa, as the best prospect in Argentina. Maidana is from Santa Fe, the same town as Carlos Monzon, and Brusa trained the great middleweight champion. Maidana, who has just turned 24, has 19 wins with 18 inside the distance. Spanish light-middleweight hope Ruben Varon suffered an upset loss when he was forced to retire after two rounds of his fight with Venezuelan Jairo Alvarez on June 30 in Alcala. Varon's only other inside the distance loss in a 30-4 record was against Scott Dixon in May 2001. Russian Sasha Alex Bakhtin returned after 17 months with an eighth round stoppage of Jesse Maca in Tokyo on July 1. Bakhtin was stripped of the Japanese bantamweight title after being involved in a street fight. He now has 17 wins. Maca is 35 and has had nearly 80 fights. A show in Prague on July 4 saw 35 year old Roman Kracik raise his record to 25-1 with a fifth round stoppage of Romans Dabolins and in Latin American action on July 6 Leonilo Miranda, Ceferino Labarda and Gonzalo Basile scored wins. Miranda retained the Mexican interim featherweight title with a ninth round kayo of Armando Guzman, and now has 27 wins, 26 inside the distance, but has yet to fight outside his home State of Sonora. Argentinian Labarda won the vacant WBC Latino super-bantamweight title in his hometown of Cordoba with a second round kayo of Diego Ramirez. Ceferino has 16 wins and as an amateur won bronze medals in the World Juniors and Pan Americans, a gold in the South Americans and competed in the 2000 Olympics. Heavyweight Basile, also Argentinian, out pointed Brazilian Edson Nascimento in Chivilcoy and has a 30-2 record. Sounds good but one of the losses were a first round blow-out by Alex Dimitrenko.

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