Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Jan 18th 2007

I would give my Fighter of the Year for 2006 award to Floyd Mayweather and when he stops Oscar De La Hoya he may well cement it for 2007 as well. Manny Pacquiao for me ran him a very very close second and honourable mentions for Mikkel Kessler and Vic Darchinyan, but other than that it was a pretty modest year for champions. Can't argue with Joe Calzaghe for British Fighter of the Year but it is strange how a British fighter-Ricky Hatton-can become a “world” champion for the third time, and get so little credit for it. . It just goes to show again how much titles have been devalued. Honourable mentions to Junior Witter, Enzo Maccarinelli, David Haye, Clinton Woods, Carl Froch and Alex Arthur who all helped to raise the profile of British boxing during the year with Haye having a good claim to be EBU Champion of the Year with 3 defences, two against unbeaten fighters. Some parts of Africa are very much a black hole (if you will excuse the pun) when it comes to getting news and information, so I will start with a bit of a round up. In Uganda Justin Juuko is still fighting-but in the courts. A series of farcical episodes and poor administration led to the Minister of Sport dissolving the Ugandan Amateur Board. Justin led one of the groups looking to take over and the Sports Ministry tried to mediate between Justin's crowd and the opposition. A first Presidential election ended in a draw and during the second election Justin and his crowd walked out. The Sports Ministry promptly declared the other party the winner and now Justin is taking legal action to have the decision overturned. Justin collected a range of titles during his professional career winning the Commonwealth super-featherweight title by beating Tony Pep of Canada in Cardiff in 1995 and also at various times held the WBC International and NABF super-featherweight titles, the ABU light-welterweight title and lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr for the WBC super-featherweight title. His last appearance here saw him stopped by Michael Gomez in May 2004 and he finished with a 39-9 record. Ike Quartey went that step further than Justin and won the WBA light-middleweight title and is still active. He is putting the money he has earned to good use and is currently financing the building of a 3-storey general purposes hospital in Accra. Things like this don't make news, but if he put one foot wrong it would be all over the front pages at home. On the subject of health, I see that Tommy Morrison is trying hard to launch a comeback. The former WBO heavyweight champion retired due to a positive result from an HIV test before a fight in 1996, but fought once more in Japan before bowing out completely. He claims to have passed some tests and is now undergoing medical examinations in Arizona with a view to resuming his career. Now 38, Tommy blew a million dollar fight with Lennox Lewis when he lost his WBO title on an upset to Michael Bentt in 1993. He fought Lennox in 1995 but that was for the IBC title. The local Commission in Arizona will take some convincing before letting Tommy fight again. Back to the more mundane-what has been happening where-stuff. In Tepic, Mexico on December 14 the former WBC super-bantamweight champion Oscar Larios had a quiet night as he decisioned mediocre Ramon Mendez. It was Oscar's second win since losing on points to Manny Pacquiao in July and he is enough of a scalp to have a part to play in the super-featherweight or featherweight divisions. On the same night in Irvine, California, another former champion had a win as Mike Anchondo decisioned Panamanian corner filler Armando Cordoba. Anchondo dropped his WBO super-featherweight title when he failed to make the weight for a defence against Jorge Barrios in 2005(who later on lost the same title on the scales). Mike was out of action for a while but has now scored a couple of wins to give him a 27-1 record. He was 2lbs over the lightweight limit for this one. Again on December 14 and at a Casino in Lemoore, California prospects Malik Scott and Wes Ferguson scored wins. Heavyweight Scott decisioned proven trial horse Andy Greeley and Ferguson outpointed Cris Favela. Scott is 26 so he is in no hurry but he seems to have taken a long time and 26 wins to get not very far. If his people had more confidence in him they would be moving him quicker. Scott holds a win over Sultan Ibragimov in the amateurs. He was 1999 US champion but lost out to Mike Bennett for the spot on the US Olympic team for the Sydney Games. Lightweight Ferguson, who is trained by Roger Mayweather, and is just 21, has a 15-1-1 record. The WBC International title seems to attract a wide variety of matches. One of the better ones was in Hamburg on December 15 when Italian hope Dominico (Vulcano) Spada collected the title with an eighth round stoppage of Turk Mustafa Karagol. Both were unbeaten going in. Spada, a 26 year old from Rome has 22 wins. Karagol falls to 8-1, but he is really no novice as he was a top amateur and represented Turkey in the Athens Olympics. Back in Mexico one of my tips, Raul Martinez, moved to 17 wins by decsioning experienced Arturo Estrada over ten rounds in Monterrey on December 15. The 24 year old bantamweight from San Antonio failed to make the US team for Athens losing out in the trials at flyweight. On a show in Navojoa on the same night featherweight Leonilo Miranda made it 24 wins and 23 inside the distance in a row as he flattened Carlos Garcia in one round. A southpaw, Leonilo is still to be tested but the locals love him. Another unbeaten run was extended as Brazilian super-featherweight Adailton De Jesus halted Jairo Moura in five rounds in Sap Paulo. Adailton is 18-0 with only one fight going the distance, but he did not set the area alight when he boxed in the USA, so the jury is still waiting to see the evidence. On the same show cruiserweight Laudelino Barros moved to 25 wins in 26 fights as he kayoed Adolfo Trinidad in two rounds. A Pan American silver medallist and former Olympian, Laudelino has won eight in a row since an upset loss to Danny Batcheleder in 2004, but progress can't be measured against guys like Trinidad. World rated light-heavyweight Hugo Garay just has to keep busy and keep winning and a third title shot will come his way. In Buenos Aires on December 16 Hugo registered win No 27 against 2 losses as he kayoed Fernando Vera in four rounds. The 26 year old from Tigre has twice come close in fights with WBO champion Zsolt Erdei, so he is for real. It could be that Marcos Maidana is also for real. In Buenos Aires on December 22 he halted the former WBA lightweight title challenger Miguel Callist from Panama in three rounds. This was an eliminator for the WBA light-welterweight title and the 23 year old from Santa Fe moved to No 2 in the WBA ratings and to 18-0 with 17 inside. He was Argentinian champion in 2002 and 2003 as an amateur but in the two Americas Qualifiers for the 2004 Olympics he lost to Juan de Dios Navarro and Rock Allen, who are both now unbeaten pro prospects and also names to watch for.

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