Eric Armit's World View - RIP Ron Olver by Eric Armit Mar 31st 2007

I hope you will indulge me as I send my deepest sympathy to the family of Ron Olver who died at the age of 91 on Monday 26th March. Ron worked for Boxing News for more than 50 years and for many of those years was Assistant Editor. In later years he was the voice of the ex-Boxers Associations and kept us in touch with many of our old idols. Despite ill health he continued to write with the help of his wife Phil and their daughter until shortly before his death. On a personal basis if had not been for Ron you would not be reading this article. It was he who first introduced me to Boxing News, who first encouraged me to publish records, issue ratings and write a column and also introduced me to the Commonwealth Council. I owed him so much. He was a good friend who was always ready with advice and a steady head when I might have been in danger of losing mine and I will miss him badly. Rest in peace my old friend. You have to wonder about the discipline of modern boxers and their support team. WBA flyweight champion Lorenzo Parra came nowhere near making the weight for his defence against perennial challenger Takefumi Sakata in Tokyo on March 19. Despite weeks to prepare Parra was 6lbs overweight at the first weigh-in and still almost 5lbs over at the second. That is disgraceful for a professional athlete, but unfortunately not unusual. It must have been obvious to Parra and his team that he was never going to make the weight so you have to assume that he turned up just for the money which defrauded the fans and the TV Company who were there for a title fight. Even when the fight went ahead Parra did not earn his money as he retired in his corner with a shoulder injury after just two rounds. There should be an automatic ban for one year and forfeit of purse money for any fighter failing to make the weight in a title fight. That might go some way towards solving the problem. Veteran Tontcho Tontchev continued his successful comeback with a first round stoppage of Frenchman Frederic Gosset in Tirana on March 3. The 34 year old Bulgarian lightweight lost to Oscar De La Hoya in the 1992 Olympics and took a silver in the 1996 Games then won his first 24 pro fights. He lost his way for a bit after that but wins last year over Dean Phillips and Jon Honney have given him a way back and he gets a shot at the EBU lightweight title in April. Mexican Cristian Bejerano also collected a medal in the Olympics. The 25 year old welterweight was a World Junior gold medallist, World Championships and Pan American Games bronze medallist before taking the bronze in Sydney in 2000, making him one of the most successful amateurs to come out of Mexico. He turned pro in March 2001 but became disillusioned and fought only once in 2004 and once in 2005. After a year out he returned in Chihuahua on March 3 and halted the Jose Napoles trained Arnold Gamboa in eight rounds for win No 13. The talented southpaw seems to be serious about his career again. On the same show another of those promising Mexican youngsters Miguel “Mickey Mouse” Roman kayoed experienced Oscar Arciniega in two rounds. Only 21 years old, the super-bantamweight to watch, has 20 wins including victories over former Prince Naseem Hamed victim Cesar Soto and world title challenger Raul Juarez. The former undefeated WBO light-middleweight and middleweight champion Harry Simon had his first fight in almost five years as he outpointed novice Stephan Ngueza in the early hours of Sunday 4th March in Windhoek. At the end of the eight rounds Simon had taken a unanimous verdict but the fighter from Gabon gave him a tough workout. Now 34, Simon has been inactive due to his involvement in two fatal accident motor car court cases . He was cleared of involvement in the first case but the second case is still ongoing. Simon won the WBO light-middleweight title by beating Winky Wright in 1998 and made 4 defences before relinquishing the title to move up to middleweight. He won the WBO interim title and then in April 2002 won the full title but then literally ran into trouble and has been tied up in court cases ever since. No weights were given for this fight but it was stated to be at super-middleweight although Simon said he will eventually move back down to middleweight. Simon, who now claims to have been born in 1974and not 1972 as his record shows, claims he can fight until he is 40. In other bouts on the show 36 year old South African Jan Piet Bergman kayoed local welterweight Gottlieb Shileka in eight rounds and Bethuel “Tyson” Uushona retained the Namibian welterweight title with a points win over Kanime Kanime. Uushona, who had been inactive for 21 months, has 13 wins including a 2004 win over Commonwealth welterweight champion Ali Nuumbembe. Bergmans last fight had been a loss to James Hare here in September 2003. Filipinos are only taken to Japan for one thing-to lose. Unfortunately Alex Escaner did not seem to realise this. In Gifu on March 4 he ruined the unbeaten record of home town super-bantamweight Akio Konishi with a crushing second round stoppage. Escaner went in with just 14 wins in 30 fights and Konishi with 20 straight-how could Escaner get it so wrong! You might even think that there is a disease of dyslexia amongst Filipinos. In Brisbane on March 9 Ranee Ganoy also threw away the book as he kayoed former IBF super-featherweight champion Robert Peden in eight rounds. It was Peden's first fight since losing to Marco Antonio Barrera in a title unifier in September 2005, and this was definitely not supposed to happen. Ganoy, now based in Australia has a modest 22-10-2 record but has won 8 of his last 9. French cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Monrose is also on a good run. In La Lamentin, in distant Martinique, on March 9 he beat Jindrich Velecky on a fifth round retirement. After losing his first fight, the 25 year old has won 18 in a row and is rated No 4 challenger to David Haye by the EBU. Another national champion, Italian welterweight Daniele Petrucci, was in action. In Rome on March 9 Petrucci moved to 17 wins as he kayoed Zoran Didanovic in two rounds. Daniele missed out on the Olympics when he lost to Neil Perkins in the European qualifiers. On the same night in Torreon, Mexico, Marco Antonio Rubio retained his national middleweight title with a ninth round stoppage of Erik Esquivel. Marco has a 37-4-1 record with 32 wins inside the distance but is in rebuilding mode after losing to Ukrainian Zaurbek Baysangurov last September. So far the Ukraine is dominating the new European External-EU Ratings. On March 9 in Donetsk Vyacheslav Senchenko made the first defence of his welterweight title with a sixth round kayo of No 7 rated challenger Andrei Yeskin from Kazakhstan and light-welterweight Vladimir Kravets kayoed his No 11 rated challenger Vadim Astapuk in two. A third External title fight saw a third victory for a Ukrainian as Andrey Kudriatsev out pointed Yauhen Kruhlik for the vacant lightweight title. The records for the winners are 21-0, 12-0 and for Kudriatsev 23-3 or 18-5 depending on who you believe. In a fourth bout another fine Ukrainian super-middleweight prospect,22 year old Stas Kashtanov, halted Kimfuta Makussu in one round and has 18 wins. Philadelphia middleweight Tyrone Brunson is chasing Edwin Valero's record of consecutive first round wins. On March 9 in Mount Pleasant he halted David Johnson in one round . That takes Brunson to 15 in a row but the opposition has been very poor. Valero managed 18 and although much of his opposition was also poor he has since proved he can punch just as hard against world class opponents. You have to wonder about the future planning that some managers come up with. Guyanan bantamweight Leon Moore registered himself on the world scene with a very disputed loss to former IBF flyweight champion Irene Pacheco. That should have projected Leon into some big money, or at least significant, matches. Instead he turns up in Kyrgyzstan fighting an unknown novice-and losing! On March 16 in Bishkek Leon dropped a decision to local fighter Timur Shailezov for the vacant NABA title. Even if he had won it would have done nothing for Leon as Shailezov was an eight-fight novice and I can't believe that he was paid a fortune for this fight. Three former members of the Mexican national team as amateurs scored wins on a show in La Paz on March 16. Ramiro Reducindo topped the show as he halted Eduardo Ayala in seven rounds to retain the national cruiserweight title. A fight for the Mundo Hispano interim strawweight title saw Raul Hirales halt Jesus Iribe in eight rounds and super-featherweight Juan Castaneda kayoed Martin Fing in one. Reducindo, Mexico's most successful big man in the amateurs with gold medals in the Central American and Pan American Games has eight wins. Hirales started at 15 and had around 100 amateur fights and now claims 17 wins in the paid ranks. Castaneda a former national champion and World Cup competitor claims seven wins. Prospects: Some to watch Karoly Balzsay: 27 year old Hungarian super-middleweight with 15 wins, eleven inside the distance. European Junior and Senior silver medallist, competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. 6'0” tall southpaw. Not really tested so far but is tough and can punch. Daiki Kameda: 18 year old flyweight from Japan. Eight wins in eight fights , five inside the distance and four in the first round. Brother of former undefeated light-flyweight champion Koki Kameda. Big left hooker who is a huge drawcard. Multi-talented as he sings(in the ring) and paints as well as boxing. Aggressive hard puncher. BJ Flores: Mexican-born cruiserweight. 28 years old. High school graduate. United States champion 2001 and 2002. 6'2” tall. 19 wins and one draw, 12 inside the distance. IBA champion. Slow but steady progress.

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