Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Sep 26th 2007

Welcome to the Global Boxing Council. There are some awful sanctioning bodies around but this lot are out to set a new record. Their cruiserweight title fight in Aachen on August 28 featured a fighter, Stefan Raaf, with a 3-1 record, facing a guy, Mehmet Altintas, with a 0-2-1 record. Raff won and is now their world champion. Eighteen days later in Magdeburg their featherweight and lightweight titles were contested. Azeri Rashad Ismaylov, 18-1 going in, outpointed Czech Josef Holub, 1-20 going in. Another Azeri, Azad Azizov, 10-2-1 going in, won the lightweight title on points over German Johannes Fabrizius who saw his record drop to 2-5 and one no contest. Azizov lost here to John Murray in three rounds in 2005. The good thing for the Global Boxing Council is that even they would struggle to get below the standard they have set. It takes something to make the IBA, WBF, WBU etc look good but these manage it easily. Comeback talk from Mexico has Hall of Famer Humberto “Chiquito” Gonzalez talking about returning and saying that his aim is a fight with either Ricardo Alvarez or fellow great Ricardo Lopez. Ten or twelve years ago these would have been great fights but not now. The Hall of Fame would not be amused as they usually like their inductees to stay retired . I read that Cristian Mijares was to defend his WBC super-flyweight against his No 10 rated contender Franck Gorjux. Since it looks a very poor match and as he is only rated No 11 bantamweight by the EBU I checked out his WBC rating progress. In May he was not in the top 40. In May he beat Fernando Guevara who had lost his last six fights in a row. In June Gorjux suddenly appeared at No 14 in the WBC ratings. Don't bother looking for an honest explanation. It is questionable whether Erik Morales will fight again, but he won't be idle. Already in to promoting boxing and with a very strong stable of fighters, Erik is now going to promote wrestling. Argentinian southpaw Cesar Cuenca extended his unbeaten run to 31, 30 wins and one no decision, with a points win over Juan Godoy in Caseros on September 1. The 26 year old light-welterweight from Chaco must be on the way to some sort of record as few fighters could have gone through 30 wins and only registered one stoppage. Former Ricky Hatton victims Carlos Vilches and Aldo Rios scored wins in other Argentinian action. Vilches, a loser on points to Ricky in 2004, retained his South American light-welterweight title with a second round stoppage of Chilean Juan Carlos Alderete in Santa Rosa on September 7, and his record is now 51-7-2 and one no contest and he has won his last eight. Rios, who bowed out after ten rounds against Ricky in 2003,retained the Argentinian lightweight title by out pointing Diego Alzugaray in Neuquen on September 14. Now 33, Rios has a 43-4 record with one no contest. A decent enough fighter Rios is an example of “only in boxing”. Because he is durable but limited he has had shots at the WBC,WBO and IBO lightweight titles and the WBU light-welterweight. In most sports only talent allows you a shot at the main prize, in boxing you have a much better chance of getting a title shot if you “safe” and not the best! Colombian boxing is undergoing a mild revival with WBO light-welterweight champion Ricardo Torres leading the way. However there are others coming through. One to watch is another light-welterweight Breidis Prescott. On the September 1 Barranquilla show Breidis made it 15 wins, 14 inside, by halting Jose Julio in nine rounds. The 6'1” Prescott twice came up against American hope Rock Allen in qualifiers which meant he missed the 2004 Olympics, but he looks to have talent. On the same show light-flyweight Cesar Canchila halted Mike Arango in four rounds and has a 24-1 record with 19 inside and 17 wins in a row. Plenty of talent on show in Tunica on September 1 as Anthony Peterson, DeAndry Abron and Daniel Judah scored points wins. Anthony, one of two twin brothers who famously lived homeless on the streets for a while, moved to 24-0 with a points win over trial horse Marteze Logan at light-welterweight. Peterson is a former National Golden Gloves champion, but lost to Victor Escobedo for a berth in the US Olympic team. Abron , a former National and Inter Services champion collected the vacant NABO light-heavyweight title with a twelve rounds victory over Shane Benfield. Abron is 14-1but left it late turning pro and is already 35. Benfield had a good looking 17-1 record but as it was put together in the Carolinas it was misleading. Southpaw Judah, returning after almost a year out following two losses in three fights, outpointed Charles Davis at cruiserweight and his record is now 22-2-3. On the same night in Tacoma it was talent time again as Mickey Bey and Eric Fields both moved to eight wins. Lightweight Mickey, who is trained by Floyd Mayweather Senior, was a multi-title winner as an amateur but a controversial figure. On one occasion in 2003 he was released from jail only two days before beating Pat Hyland in an International match. Mickey kayoed Jose Magallon in six rounds at lightweight. Cruiserweight Fields, a 25 year old from Oklahoma, outpointed Victor Barragan. Few amateur have been as successful as Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa and the former Olympic and World champion seems a sure bet as a pro. On September 2 in Berlin he made it four wins as he halted Thomas Hengstberger in one round at super-bantamweight. In the main event Slovenian Denis Simic won the vacant German International light-heavyweight title by decisioning Kavin Gebhard. Denis has 19 wins in a row. Tongan heavyweight Bowie(Bo) Tupou returned after eleven months on the sidelines and halted John Clark on an injury in four rounds. The 6'2”, 18 stone Tupou whose departure from Australia upset his management down there, has ten wins, eight inside. On the same show another of those Colombian hopefuls, bantamweight Yonnhy Perez, moved to 13 wins by forcing Antonio Diaz to retire after two rounds, however Yonnhy may be another who has left it late to turn pro. A good match for the EBU EE light-middleweight title in Kiev on September 13 saw Ivan Gontsa retain with a draw against Roman Dzuman. Moldovian Gontsa is 16-1-2 after losing his first fight and drawing his second. Dzuman lost to Jawaid Khaliq for the IBO welterweight title here in 2002 and is 23-4-1. He has fought for IBO,WBF, EBA, Ukrainian, Global Boxing Union and Czech International titles. The show saw all of the local favourites score wins. Vyacheslav Uzelkov kayoed the unbeaten Spanish light-heavyweight champion Gabriel Campillo for the vacant WBA Intercontinental title, Sergey Fedchenko halted Georgian Beka Sadjaia in two at light-welterweight, welterweight Valery Brazhnik beat another Georgian Koba Karakshadze on cuts in four, cruiserweight Vitaly Rusal also halted Valery Makeev in four and finally Yuri Barashian, the official challenger for the EBU light-heavyweight title, stopped Tagir Rzaev in six. Uzelkov and Fedchenko are both 17-0, Brazhnik is 15-0, Rusal is 16-0 and Barashian is 24-2 with 18 wins in a row. An impressive if untested array. Another good match-up saw two of Japan's best featherweights clash for the OPBF title in Tokyo on September 15. Unbeaten WBA No 2 Hiroyuki Enoki kept his title with a points win over his top challenger Makyo Sugita. Enoki, fighting one day after his 28th birthday is 27-0 including a previous successful defence against Nedal Hussein. Sugita , who had won 12 in a row going in, drops to a decent 24-2-2. Enoki is a cert to get a shot at Chris John soon. Thirty-six year old southpaw Corey Johnson had to bow to youth in a battle of southpaws as he lost a decision to Lujan Simon for the vacant USBA middleweight title in Dickson City on September 13. Johnson was here back in 1999 when he beat Mark Ramsey and he also lost to Konstantin Tszyu for the IBF light-welterweight title in 1996.Simon, twice a silver medallist in the National Golden Gloves, is 17-0-2 as a pro with one no contest, but just seems to lack something. I am not too sure how an Australian can challenge for the WBA Pan African middleweight title, but then not much makes sense these days. Anyway Olympian and a Commonwealth Championships gold medallist Jamie Pittman can claim the title after out pointing South African Thomas Mashego in Sydney on September 14. Jamie is one of the top prospects Down Under and has 15 wins.

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Pan-African, etc Sep 27th 2007, 04:52:45 by oliverfennell Pittman joins Irish-Kiwi Shane Cameron as an antipodean "African" champion. Cameron beat an Aussie-Croat for the belt. I suppose it makes sense if you think of Africa as the cradle of life and therefore everybody has African roots if you go back far enough... But how about Russia's Valuev fighting for a North American belt on Saturday (in Germany)? Or Aboriginal Australian Mundine having held a Latin belt? Russian Timor Ibragimov once holding a Caribbean title? South African Andre Thysse fighting for the Pacific and Asian title? Canadian Ian McKillop and his Australasian belt? etc etc etc Perhaps I should set up a Polar Championship and have and Indonesian fight a Ugandan for the inaugural belt....