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

The signing of the Ricky Hatton-Floyd Mayweather Jr fight could be seen as a full vindication of Ricky's decision to leave Frank Warren and go it alone. There is no doubt that Frank played a major part in Ricky's development and had a case for resenting being cast aside just when he had taken Ricky to the point where all things became possible (the win over Tszyu). Promoters get a bad press, sometimes unfairly, sometimes deservedly, but no young fighter will make it to the top without the support of a promoter willing to spend money to build his career and to give him home advantage in critical fights. For those early years the promoter will probably be trading at a loss on individual cases, risking that against the profits to be made when the fighter develops into a big draw. Most boxers will spend their whole career fighting for the same promoter, willingly extending their contracts. This can be from loyalty (it does exist) or from a realisation that unless he becomes a star-class fighter, there are probably no better deals out there for him. The problems start when the boxer becomes a fringe “world” figure and knows that he is a domestic “star”.  The employee becomes bigger than the company employing him, or at least thinks he is.  The other factor is that the original promoter obviously wants to promote the fighter and do that in his own domestic market where his base is. That can have the side effect of closing doors for the mega fights, inevitably in the USA on their major cable TV, where the big name fighters will have their own promoters/TV contracts. Both Prince Naseem Hamed and Ricky believed they had reached that point in their careers and took the decision to cut loose and/or look elsewhere. Very few fighters will reach the star potential level of Naseem or Ricky. Joe Calzaghe is almost there. I say almost because there are still reservations over him in the USA and he has chosen to stay, and Frank has delivered the Mikkel Kessler fight for him. A great match that must have cost a lot of money, as Mogens Palle rarely loses out on fights he wants, and would not want to have given any options on Kessler. It is a massive gamble for Frank as there is no guarantee that Amir Khan will succeed and there is no other fighter with the mass appeal of young Khan out there once Joe retires. A Calzaghe win is important for Warren, but it is also important for British boxing. Ricky could be criticised for leaving Frank when he did, but whilst a promoter may promote hundreds of fighters, a boxer has only one short career and has to maximise his earnings and his place in the Hall of Fame. Whether a boxer makes the transition from top amateur to successful professional can rest on a number of factors such as his ability to adjust to the pro style and how long he remains an amateur. So let me examine a few. On July 19 in Aosta, Italy, Brunet Zamora won the vacant Italian light-welterweight title with a points win over modest pro Alfredo Di Feto. Brunet has 13 wins and as an amateur, after defecting from the Cuban team, won a bronze medal in the European championships, was Italian national champion and won gold medals in such prestigious tournaments as the Ahmet Comert and Acropolis Cup. However, he has to have short shelf life as he did not turn pro until he was 30. On the following night in Miami heavyweight Malik Scott outpointed Sedreck Fields. Scott is 6'4” tall, weighs around 240lbs and has won 29 in a row. As an amateur he was 1999 PAL and USA champion, beat the current WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov and was alternate for the 2000 US Olympic squad. He turned pro in 2000 just after his 20th birthday so was still fresh and not too steeped in the amateur styles. Here we are seven years later and he is still fighting guys such as Fields and so far below the radar as to be almost invisible. Transition problems? A week later, in Corona, California the contrast was huge. On top you had hot light-welterweight Tim” Desert Storm” Bradley making it 21wins by decisioning Miguel Vazquez. After 10 years as an amateur during which he was US Under-19 champion and then had to settle for a succession of silver and bronzes as he failed to win any of the big titles and did not make the final Olympic trials in 2004, an also ran who is certainly making it as a pro. In the main support cruiserweight Eric "Danger" Fields kayoed Mexican Ramiro Reducindo in one round. Fields is 7-0 but did nothing as an amateur. Reducindo was a star of the national team and one of the most successful Mexican amateur of all time. He was Mexican national champion for almost ten years in a row, won a gold and two silvers in the Central American championships and a gold in the Pan American Games. He turned pro in 2005 at the age of 26 but is now 8-2 having been kayoed in his last two fights. No age problem but over ten years at the top as an amateur is taking it's toll. On the same night, in Albuquerque Austin Trout made it 11 wins as he halted Nelson Estupian in two rounds. The Bob Spagnolo managed middleweight is 21 and seems to have both timed his move to the pros and adjusted his style well. Austin was US amateur champion in 2004 but lost out to Vanes Martirosyan in the Olympic trials. In another bout on the Albuquerque show Ray Sanchez III kaoyed Travis Hartman in one round. The 24-year-old southpaw welterweight has 20 wins in 21 fights and was part of the Kronk Western team, but I don't know if he still is. Why do they do it? I see that on July 21 in Richmond BC, Canada, Egerton Marcus returned to action with a points win over Carl Cartwright. The former IBF light-heavyweight title challenger - he lost on points to Henry Maske in 1995 - is now 42 and had been inactive since losing to Razor Ruddock for the Canadian heavyweight title in 2001. What a pity to see the former Olympic silver medallist back. Some of Italy's better fighters were in action on a couple of nights. In San Paolo Civitate on July 17 former EBU title challenger Lorenzo Di Giacomo outpointed Zoran Plavsic and EU featherweight champion Domenico Urbano halted Nikolai Michailov in three. Lorenzo is 35-3-1 and has a good chance of another shot at the EBU title having lost to now deposed champion Amin Asikainen in January. Urbano is 21-2-1 with his losses being to EBU champion Antonio Servidei and world rated Spend Abazi and he is rated No 3 by the EBU. One night later in Padua super-featherweight prospect Devis Boschiero halted veteran loser Kikor Kirkorov in six. Devis, a former 3-time national champion as an amateur has 18 wins. Kirkor, a former world amateur champion, is 39 and should find another occupation. In another bout on the San Paolo show Libyan-born Serb Dejan Ribac halted Antonio Di Feto (brother of Alfred) in ten rounds for the vacant WBC Mediterranean super-middleweight title. “Clay” has 16 wins. Anyone want to fight for the vacant Loch Ness heavyweight title, should be a monster show? I bet you did not know that they had heavyweights in Costa Rica. Well on July 30 in San Jose, Carl Davis Drummond made it 21 wins by decisioning the previously named Sedreck Fields. I don't know if Drummond can fight, but Fields can sure lose. August 1 in Augusta former WBO super-featherweight title challenger Antonio Davis won the vacant NABO title and ruined the unbeaten run of Leon Bobo with a fifth round retirement victory. In the supports another former amateur standout, Raytona “Stingray” Whitfield, is 18-0 after halting a sliding Jair Jimenez in two for the NABO flyweight title and former National Golden Gloves champion heavyweight Charlie Ellis made it four wins by kayoing Leo Hayes. Now 32, Ellis is lucky to be here as he was once shot five times and the gunned jammed as he was about to have the full half-dozen delivered. On August 2 in Houston, Chris Henry continued his progress with a sixth-round stoppage of Derrick James. This was for the NABF and NABA light-heavyweight titles as Henry, who once weighed 200lbs, moved to 21 wins. Canadian heavyweight David Cadieux bounced back from his latest banana skin(a points loss to Josue Blocus) with an easy first round kayo of Wade Lewis. The 6'6” former Commonwealth silver medallist (lost to David Dolan) is 17-2 with one no contest. On the same show southpaw light-heavyweight Adonis “Superman” Stevenson is 9-0 after decisioning Marlon Hayes. Adonis can't be that “super” as he almost drowned on a beach in Brazil when competing in the Pan American trials. Ghanaian lightweight Ray Narh must be getting close to a big fight. On August 4 in Erie he kayoed the former WBO super-flyweight title challenger Luis Bolano in one round. Narh has 21 wins in 22 fights, 18 inside the distance. Poor Bolano has lost 7 in a row now after being 41-1 at one time. In another fight featuring an African, this one in Accra, Ghana, on August 4 Emmanuel Lartei Lartey (do you think they were not sure of how to spell it so played it safe?) outpointed South African Kaiser Mabuza for the vacant African Boxing Union light-welterweight title. Lartey is 8-1 and lost to Darren Barker in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

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