Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Dec 17th 2007

Good to see Matt Skelton getting a shot at a version of the heavyweight title. One sure thing is that even if he wins he can't expect the sort of welcome that Samuel Peter received in Nigeria, and he only won the interim WBC title. Samuel got the expected official welcome at the airport and a street parade. He was also awarded the Order of Nigeria and a meeting with the President. Slightly less traditional was his promotion to Deputy Superintendent of Police. It appears that Samuel was adopted by the police back in 1992, when he was just 12 years old, and has been a member of the Force ever since. Best of luck to Matt. If lucky he could end up with an MBE, but promotion to Deputy Superintendent may be a stretch. Another returnee was Ugandan Kassim Ouma. The former IBF light-middleweight champion was welcomed home in Kampala recently. A far cry from earlier times when he was told he faced imprisonment for deserting from the Ugandan army if he ever came home. He was “impressed” into the service as a child and “deserted” on a trip to the USA to box. No mention of any promotion, but I guess he could have been shot as a deserter so he has not come out of it too badly. The recent WBC light-flyweight title match that saw Edgar Sosa easily beat Roberto Leyva was a pretty bad match with Leyva having no right fighting for the title. However I was interested to see that Leyva's manager is the former WBC bantamweight champion Raul “Jibaro” Perez. I interviewed Jibaro at a WBC convention in Mexico City in preparation for an article I did on him. Mike Tyson was at the same Convention and I was amazed when Jibaro and Mike were standing together that they were the same height. There are lots of former world champions fighting at this time, but then with so many titles you would expect that. Oliver Fennell has already covered the result of the fight for Nobuo Nashiro, but another, Veeraphol Sahaprom was also a winner. There is some background to these two. Nashiro, in halting the mediocre Thai Petchklongpai Sor Thantip, was having only his eleventh fight but already he has had a very eventful career. Tragically, one opponent Seiji Tanaka died after their bout. Nobou had just 14 amateur fights but still won the Japanese title in his seventh fight and the WBA title in only his eighth, beating Martin Castillo, who twice beat Floyd Mayweather Jr in the amateurs, and then lost his title in his tenth fight. After less than a dozen fights most guys are still fighting six round bouts. Even more remarkable is Veeraphol Sahaprom. On November 27 in Nonthaburi he outpointed Richard Laano to win the vacant WBC Asian Boxing Council bantamweight title. His achievements make Nashiro look pedestrian. A huge Muay Thai star, Veeraphol won the WBC International super-flyweight title in his first international style bout and the WBA bantamweight title in his fourth. He lost the title in his first defence to Nana Yaw Konadu and then was unbeaten in his next 45 contests over a period of nine years making 15 defences of the WBC title he won in 1998. Now 39 and with a 60-3-2 record he has to be considered one of the great bantamweights of all time. Generally when an African turns up in Eastern Europe he has been brought in to lose. Recently Namibian hope Paulus Moses bucked that trend with his ninth round stoppage of Andrei Kudriavtsev in Donetsk and now Kenyan Sande Otieno has done the same. On November 29 in Tyumen, Russia, Sande retained his WBC International super-bantamweight title with a points win over Marcel Kasimov to go to 16 wins. With Ghanaian Anyetei Laryea holding the Commonwealth title there looks to be a good match there. On the subject of African boxing I recently met up with Hall of Fame referee Stanley Christodulu who is acting as an advisor for a TV company who will be putting on a series of shows in Africa. They have nine dates settled and intend to stage the shows in different countries, mainly members of the Commonwealth. The first show is set for Tanzania in February with Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Malawi and Ghana other possible sites. Potentially this could give boxing in these areas a tremendous boost. With no natural support base in America, Frenchman Jean Paul Mendy may find it tough to make his way there. In Charleston on November 29, in his first bout since drawing with Anthony Hanshaw for the vacant IBO super-middleweight title in January, Jean Paul had little trouble in halting Chris Holt in five rounds. The unbeaten southpaw, a former French champion, has 24 wins and a draw, but may struggle to get a big fight. Why do they do it? On December 1 in Cancun the former WBC light-flyweight champion Melchor Cob Castro returned to the ring with a second round kayo of Jorge Romero. The 39-year-old southpaw, who at his peak fought the best men around retired back in 2004. Melchor has said that his aim is a shot at the current WBC super-flyweight champion Cristian Mijares and as he weighed 119lbs for this one I guess taking off four pounds is not out of the question, but at 39 it is a bad idea. Even then it would be an improvement on Frenchman Franck Gorjux who collapsed within a round in the last defence for Mijares. Over in Montreal, Sebastian “Double Trouble” Demers retained his IBF International middleweight title with a points win over Mohammed Said on December 1. The lanky Canadian has a 22-1 record with his only loss being to Arthur Abraham for the IBF title. In a light-welterweight contest on the show Canadian champion Antonin Decarie took an eight round verdict over Andres Villafane and has 17 wins. In Manila on December 2 super-flyweight hope A J Banal halted Jovanny Soto in nine rounds to retain his WBO Asia Pacific title. The 18-year-old southpaw has 16 wins and a technical draw. Nigerian heavyweight Gbenga ”bang Bang” Oloukun continued his winning ways as he kayoed Latvian Edgar Kalnars in three rounds in Soelden, Austria on December 4. Gbenga has 14 wins. Belarus-born light-middleweight Yuri Foreman took his score to 24 wins as he retained his NABF title with a points win over Ukrainian-born Russian Andrey Tsurkan in New York on December 6. Yuri is one of the few active Jewish boxers. Tsurkan dropped to 25-3. My Argentinian contacts tell me that Germany-based Marcos Maidana may be the best prospect they have produced in a long time. In Hamburg on December 7 the Santa Fe light-welterweight kayoed Manuel Garnica in eight rounds. Marcos has won all 21 of his fights inside the distance. Garnica made his reputation with a win over Ricky Hatton victim Carlos Maussa in August 2006, but has slipped since then. I am sure you will be delighted to know that there is another sanctioning body out there. On December 9 in Sao Paulo 37-year-old Giovanni Andrade halted Sergio Rodriguez to win the World Boxing Commission super-bantamweight title. To show you what a bad name some of these guys give us on the same night in Berlin Robert Rolle won the vacant Global Boxing Council light-heavyweight title by stopping Mayala Mbungi in seven rounds. Going in Mbungi had failed to win any of his 22 fights with 4 draws and 18 losses. What a farce.

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