Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Jan 5th 2008

It appears that not everyone was happy to welcome Samuel Peter back home in Nigeria. Police had to intervene when the WBC's interim heavyweight champion's brother-in-law came after him with a pump-action-shotgun after a family argument. There's no place like home! Whilst on the subject of Africa despite the wonders of the Internet it remains very much the “dark continent” where boxing records are concerned. There are areas where results and reliable records are available but in much of the Continent accurate information is elusive. There is some boxing in the West Coast such as the Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso and also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the shows are very rarely reported. Main shows in Ghana are reported well, but results from the Boxing League there are never reported. Nigeria is coming out of a period of civil war in its boxing ranks and again although shows have been staged nothing leaks out in the way of results. The East Coast is better where Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya have regular shows with the results usually available and it is the same on the rare occasion when Zambia has a show. Namibia and South Africa are very well served and no problem. The big problem with this patchy situation is the difficulty of getting reliable records for fighters from these areas and verifying those you do get. You can't always rely on the local Boards or Commissions I have seen records authenticated by them which I know are “incorrect”. I recall one “authenticated” record for a fighter coming here which included a win for a fighter on a show which I actually attended and so knew that he did not fight on that show. The problem is specifically about additional fights. Proving a fight took place is easy-proving a fight did not take place is extremely difficult. If a record show 5 or 6 fights in Togo etc. you may be suspicious but proving anything is impossible and without accurate information the risk of a poor match is always there. Still on Africa oldie Justin Juuko just will not fade away. In his hometown of Masakha on December 31 Justin, weighing 9st 11 lbs, easily halted Tanzanian Deo Njiku in six rounds. There was some controversy as some boxers were still complaining that they had not been paid from Justin's last promotion and the Ugandan Commission had to give special permission for the show. After the fight Justin said his aim was a challenge to Joan Guzman for the WBO super-featherweight title-dream on. This time of the year always seems to bring it's deaths. I lost a fine old friend in boxing historian and Hall of Famer Hank Kaplan. It must be about 20 years ago since Hank invited me to write a column for Boxing Digest and gave me the freedom to write what I liked. We remained friends and Hank was one of the nicest men in the game. I will miss him. Another ring tragedy saw the former WBC light-flyweight champion Yosam Choi die after successfully defending his WBO Intercontinental flyweight title in Seoul on December 25. Yosam was floored at the end of the last round by his opponent Heri Amol, but beat the count to win on points. He then collapsed and died on January 2. He was 35 and had returned to action last year after retiring in 2004. The very nature of the sport means that we will always be haunted by tragedy and my sympathies go to Yosam's family. I understand that his family agreed to his organs being used and six people benefited from this. The WBC also donated $10,000 to his family as he was a former WBC champion even though the fight in which the tragedy occurred was for another sanctioning body's title. What do Floyd Mayweather Junior and Carl Daniels have in common? Well they both won amateur titles at 112lbs and both went on to win professional titles at 154lb, Carl was World Junior champion at 112 in 1987 and Floyd won the National Golden Gloves title in the flyweight division in 1993. Carl won the WBA light-middleweight title in June 1995 and Floyd won the WBC title in 2007. Now 37,Carl was a welterweight when he finally turned pro and in his last fight was a light-heavyweight. Mind you Georges Carpentier has them both beaten as he was French amateur champion at 126lbs and went on to win the world light-heavyweight title and the European heavyweight title and to floor Jack Dempsey in an unsuccessful shot at the heavyweight title. Plenty of young talent in action as 2007 closed out. In Dearborn, Michigan, on December 13 Vernon “Ice man” Paris halted Kevin Carmody in seven rounds. Twenty this month, Vern has 17 wins and a no contest with twelve opponents stopped and is a light-welterweight to watch. On the same night in New York middleweight Joe Greene also moved to 17 wins with a points victory over Pat Thompson. The 21 year old middleweight was a National Golden Gloves champion and a World Junior championships silver medallist. In other bouts two other prospects remained unbeaten as lanky lightweight Jorge Teron halted Adrian Navarette and Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillan halted 37 year old Troy Lowry in two. “The Truth” Teron is 19-0-1and super-middleweight Quillan is 16-0. A big fight down under saw top prospect Daniel Geale win the vacant IBO middleweight title with a points victory over previously unbeaten Daniel Dawson. The 26 year old Tasmanian has 18 wins and Dawson drops to 29-1, records which in theory should have meant a close fight, but Geale won by ten points on all three cards. Geale, a Commonwealth Games gold medal winner, could make a big impact this year. Still with the prospects light-heavyweight Tavoris Cloud made it 17 straight by halting Jacob Rodriguez in three rounds in Cicero on December 14. Twenty six this month, Tavoris has only been taken the distance once. Nicaraguan Roman Gonzalez is another fighter who looks to be a little man with a big punch. In Managua on December 14 the 20 year old kayoed Javier Tello in two rounds to make 16 inside the distance in a row. He is already rated No 1 by the WBA. Former WBA light-welterweight champion Diosbelys Hurtado made a surprise return from retirement as he scored a six rounds points win over Rafael Chiruta in Revilla de Camargo, Spain on December 15.The Cuban-born “Ring Dancer” defected at Miami Airport back in 1994. In 1997 he had Pernell Whitaker down twice before being kayoed in a challenge for the WBC welterweight title. The following year he had Konstantin Tszyu down twice but was stopped in the fifth round in a challenge for the interim WBC light-welterweight title. He finally came good in May 2002 when he kayoed Randall Bailey to win the WBA light-welterweight title. He reigned for only five months before losing to Vivian Harris and retired in 2004. Now 35 he has a 39-3-1 record, the draw being of the technical nature against Ricardo Mayorga back in 1999. With the top Japanese promoter Akihiko Honda behind him and with Mike McCallum having a hand in his training Japanese middleweight Koji Sato has the team to take him all the way. So far he has been doing his bit and on December 15 in Tokyo he kayoed Manabu Komatsu in three rounds to regain his OPBF title. Koji, who has just turned 27 claims a 133-3 record as an amateur( not true of course as I have five losses for him) and has eleven straight as a pro. In the same division Dominican Giovanni Lorenzo picked up some Christmas money with an easy first round kayo of Ulises Duarte in Santo Domingo on December 17. Giovanni, a straight-up pressure fighter has 26 wins and has won 13 of his last 14 inside the distance and is rated No 2 by the WBC. They say there are lies, dammed lies and statistics. Well Frenchman Alban Mothie made that look an accurate assessment. When a guy with 17 losses on his record goes in with a guy who has a 16-2-1 record the statistics indicate a victory for the latter. Mothie did not see it that way as he won the vacant French light-middleweight title with a points win over Damien Bertu in Frangy on December 18. Mothie had more experience as he also had 26 wins and three draws on his record. Christophe Canclaux, Hussein Bayram and Jimmy Colas are all rated ahead of Mothie in the EBU ratings which is another illustration of how unimportant national titles often are these days. Nice to see Belgium land an EBU title as they more often supply the losing contenders. In La Louviere on December 21 Carmelo Ballone won the vacant bantamweight title with an eighth round stoppage of previously unbeaten Romanian Eugen Sorin Tanasie. The 31 year old Ballone had lost in two previous attempts at the title and has a decent 20-2-1 record. Sorin drops to 14-1-1. There could be an opening here for another challenge by Ian Napa. Urbano Antillon and David Rodriguez improved their records with wins on a show in Las Cruces on December 21. Antillon, a lightweight from Mexico, made easy work of what could have been a tough test as he kayoed useful Adrian Valdez in one round but Rodriguez had to go the full eight rounds for his win over Marcus McGee. Antillon is ready for better opposition after 21 wins. Heavyweight Rodriguez has more impressive figures with his 27 wins, 25 inside the distance, but his opposition has been poor and at 30 he should have made more progress. It puts a “world” title in perspective when a champion challenges for a lesser title in his next fight. In Chester, West Virginia, on December 30, local hero Verquan Kimbrough collected the vacant USBA lightweight title with a hard fought win over Irishman Oisin Fagin. In his previous fight in August Kimbrough had won the vacant IBC “world” title which shows how much value Kimbrough puts on his “world” title. In a bad match on the same show heavyweight Brian Minto kayoed Byron Polley in one round. Brian has a 29-2 record with his losses being a split verdict against Tony Tubbs in 2004 and a close verdict to Luan Krasniqi last March.

Go back Comment on this article | Send to a friend | Print

Friend name: Friend email: Your name: Your email:   Privacy Statement

There are no comments. Click here to be the first who comment on this article.