Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Nov 21st 2007

The “reward for losing” policy kicked in again this time for Soulemayne M'baye. His fight in Levallois-Perret on November 10 appears to have been given eliminator status by the WBC . This is the guy who in his previous fight pitifully surrendered his WBA title against Gavin Rees, who at the time of that fight was not even rated in the WBC top 40. Run that past me again Jose? To make it even worse his opponent in the eliminator for the light-welterweight title was Panamanian Ameth Diaz who was rated No 9 lightweight by the WBC . Nice to see Californian lightweight Victor Ortiz being highly touted. The 20-year-old has a 20-1-1 record with the draw being of the technical nature and the loss being a disqualification. Hidden away in his amateur days is a first round stoppage defeat in 2003 in a Junior Olympic International Tournament to a guy named Amir Khan. Who knows if their careers keep going as they are right now they could meet again, and this time for a much bigger prize. A well-matched European featherweight title bout had a disappointing outcome as cuts forced the end of Alberto Servidei's defence against Spaniard Sergio Blanco in Ravenna on October 31. The fight was declared a technical draw after eight rounds with one official having each fighter in front and one scoring it a draw. The 32-year-old Servidei has 25 wins and two draws and Blanco 17 wins and one draw. On the same show Domenico Urbano retained his EU featherweight title with a fifth round stoppage of fellow-Italian David Chianella. It was Urbano's fourth defence. In a 22-2 record the losses have been against Servidei and Spend Abazi, which is no disgrace. On another October 31 show, this one in San Juan, Puerto Rican southpaw prospect Juan Manuel Lopez made it 20 wins, 18 inside, as he halted Omar Adorno in two rounds in retaining his WBO Latino super-bantamweight title. A cruiserweight fight on the show curiously saw Russian Alex Alexeev kayo Francisco Alvarez in four rounds . Uzbek-born Alexeev, an outstanding prospect, and another southpaw, has 13 wins but what was he doing in Puerto Rico? Argentinean puncher Lucas Matthysse extended his winning run to 20 with a second round kayo of Esteban de Jesus Morales in Rojas on November 2. The 25-year-old light-welterweight from Trelew has won 19 of those fights inside the distance, 15 of them within the first six minutes, but we will have to wait until he travels to find out how good he is. Morales lost on points to Colin Dunne here in 2002 for the WBU lightweight title. In a lightweight bout on the show southpaw Matias Ferreyra, a former top amateur, decisioned Alejandro Gomez and has 18 wins in 19 fights. Obviously Mexican Saul Roman did not realise he had been brought in to lose to Kassim Ouma and upset the odds. However he was not the only one to buck the smart money on that November 2 show in Cabazon. In a featherweight bout Jose “Pitbull” Diaz, the brother of the WBA, IBF and WBO lightweight champion Juan, saw his unbeaten streak broken at 14. The fighter who did it was Mexican Miguel Munguia -who had lost nine of his last ten including seven in a row. Even Roman was not without such an experience because in his last fight before upsetting Ouma he lost to Daniel Stanisavljevic who had a 7-12-2 record going in. They don't make good losers like the used to. At least one fight went the way it was planned as bantamweight Nestor Rocha moved to 18-1 with a ninth round stoppage of former Olympian Cesar Morales. Nicaragua seems to have a coming star in little Roman Gonzalez. Light-flyweight, or sometimes strawweight, “Little Chocolate” was very impressive in stopping world rated Filipino Eriberto Gejon in one round in Tokyo on November 3. Still only 20, Gonzalez had kayoed former world title challengers Jose Luis Varela and Miguel Tellez in his last two fights, and now has 15 wins, seven being first round finishes. Gejon's only losses in 26 fights before this were in shots at Yutaka Niida for the WBA strawweight title. American heavyweight hope JD Chapman finally appeared in Paris. Okay it was the High School in Paris, Arkansas. You have to wonder about a so called prospect when he rarely leaves the backwoods. In Paris on November 2 Chapman made it 28 wins by kayoing 35 year old practiced loser Marcus Rhodes in one round. Chapman, standing 6‘5“, and weighing over 18 stones is nicknamed “The Natural”. He has won 25 of those fights inside the distance but there are no ”names” on his record and he has only fought outside the Arkansas/Oklahoma circuit four times. He will have to take a chance sometime and then timber…. Unlike Chapman, super-bantamweight Mike Oliver is not afraid to take on good opposition. His points win over Al Seeger in Uncasville on November 8 took him to 21 in a row. This was for the vacant IBO super-bantamweight title and the 27-year-old Hartford southpaw has beaten Adam Carrera, Gary Stark, Vernie Torres, Cruz Carbajal and now Seeger in a steady progression. Mike was a top amateur, he beat Martin Power in London on a USA vs. England match in 2000, who turned pro in 2001 but was out for a while, or should that be in for a while, after being jailed in 2003. Mexican super-middleweight Ricardo Cortes improved his record to 22-1-1 with a second round stoppage of Kenyan Joshua Onyango in San Jose on November 8. The only loss for the tall 24-year-old was on a disqualification and he gained revenge for both that and the draw on his record. Onyango lost to Michael Jones in six rounds in Liverpool in 2002 for the Commonwealth light-middleweight title. It was a good night for fighters from the Dominican Republic in New York on November 9 as both Francisco Lorenzo and Argenis Mendez scored wins. Lorenzo, a veteran at 36, showed he still has a future as he decisioned once beaten Mexican super-featherweight Lupe Rosales. Francisco has a 30-4 record and Rosales dropped to 25-2. Mendez, who fights in the same division, is only 21. He was a World Junior silver medallist and competed in the 2004 Olympics. His points win over Jorge Ruiz was his ninth. National titles just ain't what they used to be. On November 10 in Wasquehal Karim Chakim lifted the French super-featherweight title with an eighth round stoppage of Amir Khan victim Mohammed Medjadji. Karim was coming into the fight off a stoppage loss and his record is an ordinary 12-7. Five days later in Dijon, the former French super-featherweight champion Osman Aktas won the vacant featherweight title with a ten rounds points victory over Samir Kasmi who has a 7-6 record. What are guys with a 12-7 and a 7-6 record doing fighting for National titles? The truth is that with the exception of Cyril Thomas, France has no fighters of any quality in these two divisions. You work with what you have. Prospects? Germany is packed with them Sebastian Kober - 27-year-old heavyweight from Frankfurt. So far as a pro he has amassed 11 straight wins, all inside the distance only once going beyond three rounds. 6'3 ½” tall and weighs around 16 stones which is just about right for today's heavyweights. Good amateur pedigree. European Junior champion in1997, Olympic bronze medal in 2000, European Championships bronze in 2002, World Military Champion in 2002 and 2005, bronze in 2003 World Championships and competed in 2004 Olympics. Strangely he was not considered a puncher in the amateurs. We need to see him tested, but looks good. Vitali Tajbert - Kazak-born but now a German citizen and represented Germany as an amateur. 25 years old super-featherweight, already rated No 2 in Europe after just 13 fights, all wins but a bit flattering as the opposition has not been strong. Still to find his power as a pro with only five inside the distance endings. Again good amateur pedigree very similar to Kober. 1999 European Junior bronze medal, 2000 World Junior gold medal,2003 World Championship silver medal, gold medal 2004 European championships, bronze medal 2004 Olympics and gold at the 2005 World Military. Probably more advanced than Kober at this stage and definitely one to watch. Also check out Eric's latest Commonwealth rankings on the Rankings page

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