Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Nov 15th 2006

America suddenly has some hope looming on the heavyweight horizon as in recent weeks two of their fighters won major fights. The only problem is that one of them is a 44 year old Evander Holyfield and the other is 34 year old Shannon Briggs. Like most people concerned with boxing I wish that Evander had walked away for good years back. At 44, and after well documented medical concerns, he would be doing the sport a favour by staying outside the ropes. He has been one of the all time greats, is assured of a place in the Hall of Fame, has more than enough money to live on, but still has that hunger for adulation, that emotional “fix” of having his arm lifted in victory. Perhaps he wants to be older than George Foreman was when he regained the heavyweight title (44 for the WBO and 45 for the IBF/WBA) and perhaps he feels that Wladimir Klitschko, Nikolai Valuev, Oleg Maskaev and Briggs are no tougher than Tommy Morrison and Michael Moorer, from whom Foreman won his titles, but really I do not care. For me it is like watching the James Bond film where he is handcuffed to a ticking bomb and all you want is for him to get out before the bomb goes off. The difference is that Evander has a key to the cuffs and does not seem to even realise that the clock is ticking. Tony Tubbs is another who seems deaf to the ticking of the clock. He is still fighting out in the sticks at the age of 48 and is unbeaten in his last five fights over the past two years against poor opposition. This is a guy who was WBA heavyweight champion 21 years ago and 8 years ago was disposed off in two rounds by Mike Tyson eight years ago. Tick. tick, tick……….. It would have been a brave man, or an idiot, who predicted in 1998 that Briggs was ever likely to hold a version of the world title. He was out of his depth back then as Lennox Lewis bounced him on the canvas three times on the way to retaining his WBC title. Things did not get much better for Shannon as he was lucky to get a draw with Francois Botha in 1999 and hit a low as he lost on points in 2000 to Sedreck Fields who had a 9 wins 9 losses record at the time, and is not much better now. Briggs persevered and has come good in the end. The above is also encouraging for British boxing. We now appear to have six young heavyweight prospects coming through, Matt Skelton is a mere 39, Danny Williams is 33, Audley Harrison is 35, Henry Akinwande is 41, Scott Gammer is 30 and Michael Sprott just 31. These guys could be fighting each other for another ten years yet. Now there's a cheering thought. Aldo “Movie Star” Rios retained his South American lightweight title with a fourth round kayo of Sergio Gonzalez in Rio Negro on October 13. Aldo may be no movie star but he really should get a supporting actor Oscar as he lost to Steve Johnston for the WBC lightweight title, Artur Grigorian for the WBO lightweight title and in 2003 to Ricky Hatton for the WBU light-welterweight title. To be fair he has had one starring role when he stopped Jason Cook in three rounds in 2004 for the IBO lightweight title, but Isaac Hlatshwayo took that of him last February. The rough 32 year old from Neuquen has a 42-4 record and could yet land another support role as he is the type the promoters of world champions like, saleable but not too dangerous.. Venezuelan WBA super-featherweight champion Edwin Valero has relocated to Japan. He is a big draw there and will find plenty of under-talented and over-rated challengers out in the East. The wild man is unlikely to ever be allowed to fight in the USA due to his past head injury so this is as good a base as any for him. Valero is a wild swinging chancer with awesome power who relies on taking his opponent out before he is nailed himself and it makes for some very short and exciting action (18 first round finishes in 20 inside the distance fights). He seems to think that defence is something you put around de garden, but you don't blink when he is around. The dream match would have him in with Manny Paquiao, but he is so wide open that it could be a one round job-for Manny if he keeps his own chin out of the way. Farkhad “Masa” Bakirov headed in the other direction from Valero as the “Uzbek Panther” returned from four years of campaigning in Japan to outpoint Sergey Starkov in Tashkent on October 14. Bakirov, now 33 and a welterweight, is unbeaten with 24 wins and 2 draws. It is curious but when looking through some old amateur stuff I found a “Farhod” Bakirov from Uzbekistan winning World Championship and World Military silver medals in 1997 at light-welterweight which has me wondering if the coincidence is too much of a coincidence. Mike Sprott seems to be reluctant to act the fall guy out in Germany. It was good to see him retain his EU heavyweight title and turn back previously unbeaten Rene Dettweiler (18 wins in a row) in Mulheim on November 4, as the German's do not import fighters to have them win. It is the second time Michael has upset their plans having beating Cengiz Koch(21-0) in an earlier defence of his EU title. In prestige terms the EU titles may not mean much but to Michael they have been a good earner and they also carry a high EBU rating with them. It was a pity that the EBU lowered its standards to such an abysmal level when they allowed Frenchman Antoine Palatis to fight Michael for the vacant title in February, a guy who won only 5 of his last 24 fights at the time. Records can be very deceptive. Argentinean Gonzalo Basile lasted less than a round against Ukrainian giant Alex Dimitrenko in Stuttgart on October 28 . Basile came in with a record of 25 wins in 26 fights but showed nothing. It is not the first time an Argentinean heavyweight has done this in Germany. Back in 2003 Fabio Moli came over with a record of 40-2 and 2 no contests and lasted just over 100 seconds against Wladimir Klitschko. Going back even further I can remember the furore when poor Alberto Lovell fought Joe Bugner here in 1974. He was on the slide but had a 49-6-1 record and was the son of an Olympic gold medallist. He looked pitiful in going out in two rounds and the papers crucified him. They can produce good heavyweights down Buenos Aires way-Luis Firpo, Oscar Bonavena, Eduardo Corletti-but they are the exception and there are plenty of poor fighters around to pad their records. The 6'7” “Baby Face” Dimitrenko has 23 wins. On the same Stuttgart show Uzbek Alek Alekseev was given a better test by a more modest Argentinean as he outpointed Luis Rical. Cruiserweight Alekseev, a 24 year old southpaw, was Russian amateur champion in 2002 and 2003, World Military Champion in both 2002 and 2003 and a World Championship silver medallist in 2003. He had the misfortune to run in Cuban Orlando Solis in the 1st series of the 2004 Olympics. He has to be worth watching. Cruiserweight No 1 O'Neil Bell has lost only once and that was on a fourth round kayo in his second pro fight back in 1998. His conqueror that night was another newcomer with a 3-1 record going in. It was hardly a crossroads fight, but whilst Bell is now the top man in the division, the guy who beat him, Algerian Mohamed Benguesmia, is so far out of the picture that he might as well be on another planet. Benguesmia , now 36, had a recent kayo win over a fourth rate Romanian in Oran on 31st October in defence of his IBF Intercontinental cruiserweight title. Mohamed has a very decent looking 36-3-1 record with 31 wins inside the distance and is unbeaten in his last 22 going back to 2000. However he seems content to play in the small pool with the little fishes. Lanky Panamanian southpaw Roberto Vasquez has a different agenda with a shot at the interim WBA flyweight title coming up. The “Spiderman” took an easy ten round verdict over Horlan Hamilton in Panama City on October 28 and the former undefeated WBA light-flyweight champion is now 23-1 after losing his first pro fight. Welterweight Lucas Matthysse, a previous prospect of these pages, moved to 16 wins as he kayoed Diego Ponce in two rounds in Buenos Aires on October 21. The 24 year old from Junin has 15 inside the distance, all within the first four rounds, but don't forget the bit about rubbish to pack you record with in Argentina. One to watch Andre Berto - Another welterweight. 23 year old born in Miami of Haitian descent. He has 15 wins, 13 inside the distance and all of the last eleven inside. His pedigree is 20001 National Golden Gloves champion, RU 2002 US Championships( beating Sechew Powell), RU 2003 US Championships, 2003 National Golden Gloves champion, Bronze medal 2003 World Championships(beating Darren Barker). In the US Olympic trials he lost to Juan McPherson only for the decision to be changed and beat Vanes Martirosyan only to lose to Martirosyan in a box-off. He then entered the Americas trials representing Haiti and won through to Athens only to lose to Frenchman Xavier Noel. He has looked good so far.

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