The World This Week by Oliver Fennell Jan 9th 2008

Oliver Fennell sums up the international action of interest. Results with relevance to British boxing are in bold. December 20 – Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA The veteran beat the prospect when Ghana's Joshua Clottey outpointed previously undefeated Shamone Alvarez at welterweight. Clottey, who was once based in the UK (where he defeated, among others, Karl Taylor, Mark Ramsey, Cameron Raeside and Dennis Berry), triumphed on a unanimous decision and earns the right to an IBF title shot. On the undercard, giant heavyweight Tye Fields bombed out Chris Koval in the first round of a mismatch. December 21 – Nonthaburi, Thailand Highly-ranked Sirimongkol Singwancha picked up the vacant PABA light-welterweight belt with a 12-round decision over Arnel Porras of the Philippines. Singwancha scored an excellent win over American Michael Clark in a lightweight world title eliminator in 2005, but never got his shot, despite going undefeated since. Now he is operating in a higher division, he has to rebuild his ranking, but the WBA-affiliated PABA belt will give him some leverage. December 21 – Brno, Czech Republic There was a double disappointment for British visitors as cruiserweight Nick Okoth and middleweight Anthony Young were both outpointed. Okoth lost to Roman Kracik, while Young bowed to Tomas Kugler. Both had made a previous trip to the Czech Republic two months ago, when Okoth spoiled the script by scoring a shock stoppage over Ladislav Kutil. December 22 – Milan, Italy There was a mild upset for the European super-featherweight title in a match between boxers well-known in Britain. Sergey Gulyakovich, a loser to Alex Arthur in 2006, bested Leva Kirakosyan on points for the belt. Armenian Kirakosyan twice beat Carl Johanneson, and lost to Michael Gomez. In other European title action, home boxer Andrea Sarritxu retained his flyweight crown with a seventh-round stoppage over Spaniard Lahcene Zemmouri. And at cruiserweight, Giacobbe Fragomeni – who came close to upsetting David Haye 15 months ago – came through a tough one on points against Rachid El-Haddak, retaining his EU strap. December 23, Halle, Germany Herbie Hide's German cruiserweight adventure continued and he finally picked up a win of note, stopping the previously undefeated Russian Mikhail Nasyrov for the vacant WBC International title. Hide declared his intention to gun for world belts following this impressive performance. On the same bill, heavyweight phenom Odlanier Solis went to 6-0 with an eight-round decision over 7'2” giant Julius Long, seen in London in 2002 getting knocked out by Audley Harrison. December 25, Seoul, South Korea Tragedy struck our sport as former WBC light-flyweight champion Yo-Sam Choi suffered a blood clot on the brain as a result of his fight with Heri Amol of Indonesia. Choi died eight days later, on January 2, when he pronounced clinically brain-dead and his life support systems were switched off. Unusually for a ring tragedy, the victim won the fight. Choi was knocked down in the dying seconds of the 12-round contest but regained his feet and went on to claim a unanimous decision. It was a successful defence of the WBO Intercontinental flyweight title. While of little comfort to those who are mourning him, it is fitting that this brave warrior kept his championship even in death. I'm sure I speak for everybody at BBN in saying our thoughts are with the family and friends of 35-year-old Choi, who compiled a 32-5 (19) record and won three titles. December 25, Phang Nga, Thailand Two Thai title aspirants kept busy with points decision wins over Filipino opposition. Pramuansak Posuwan retained the WBO Asia Pacific honour with a decision over Eric Barcelona, while Somsak Sitchatchawal, the former WBA super-bantamweight holder, posted an eight-round decision over Jack Asis. December 28, Richmond, Canada One-time hot heavyweight prospect Dominic Guinn looks done after dropping a lacklustre 10-round decision to journeyman Robert Hawkins. Guinn was once good enough to beat the likes of Michael Grant and our own Audley Harrison, but his desire seems to have evaporated. December 29, Bielefeld, Germany It was strange to see major championship action in the western world between Christmas and New Year, but IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham proved the festivities were no distraction, as he stopped German challenger Marco Huck in the 12th and final round. Cunningham is proving to be one of the sport's best “road warriors” of the day, with this away win coming after back-to-back trips to Poland, where he went 1-1 with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. In the co-main event, Jose Alfaro widely outpointed Prawet Singwancha for the vacant WBA lightweight title. What was especially unusual about this fight was that it pitched a Nicaraguan against a Thai in Germany… oh, and not to mention the bogus title distinction. Juan Diaz should be the WBA holder, but he was upgraded to “super” champion for unifying belts. Alfaro is therefore an “ordinary” champion – an oxymoron if ever there was one. On the undercard, cruiserweight prospect Yoan Pablo Hernandez underlined how far Mohamed Azzaoui is from world class by knocking him out in little over two minutes. Last time out, Azzaoui was seen failing a world title challenge to Enzo Maccarinelli. We all cried “mismatch”, and the New Zealander went over from a glancing blow. Hernandez gave us further proof of our criticisms. Finally, ex-WBC light-heavyweight holder Tomasz Adamek kept busy with an eight-round workout against journeyman Josip Jalusic, winning every round. December 31, Masaka, Uganda Justin Juuko, considered by some to be the most shot fighter they had ever seen when losing to Michael Gomez in 2004, continued his unlikely comeback in his home nation, forcing a six-round retirement over Dennis Njiku of Tanzania. Juuko is now 3-0 since returning last April. Let's hope, for his own sake, he doesn't get fed to someone like Commonwealth super-featherweight ruler Kevin Mitchell. January 4, Los Angeles, California, USA Former Olympian and world champ Brian Viloria registered an eight-round decision over Jose Garcia Bernal. It was the Hawaiian's first victory since February 2006, since when he'd gone 0-2-0-1, all in world title contests considered upsets. Viloria will now look to regain a share of the light-flyweight throne and fulfil some more of his undoubted potential. January 4, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA “Light-punching” Zahir Raheem scored a surprise one-round KO over 1 Ricardo Dominguez at lightweight. Perhaps Raheem was countering accusations he couldn't punch and wasn't marketable. Certainly a 2005 victory over Erik Morales didn't advance his career much. On the same card, Allan Green moved up the super-middleweight pecking order significantly by outscoring former world title challenger Rubin Williams. January 5, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA IBF light-welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi failed to convince on struggling to a decision over challenger Herman Ngoudjo. Although the scores were unanimous, there was a feeling in some quarters Ngoudjo was hard done-by. Whatever, Malignaggi certainly won't have caused potential rivals Ricky Hatton and Junior Witter any sleepless nights. Somebody who has caused a British fighter sleepless nights is ageless light-heavyweight Glen Johnson, who has gone 1-1-1 with Clinton Woods in a gruelling trilogy. A fourth battle was looming over Woods, who now holds the IBF belt for which Johnson was once again mandatory challenger, but the Sheffield man might be grateful for the news Johnson is going to meet WBC counterpart Chad Dawson instead. That fight goes ahead on April 12 and Johnson sharpened his tools with an eighth-round stoppage of Hugo Pineda here. Another warm-up bout saw Australia's Lovemore Ndou stop Rafael Ortiz at light-welterweight. Ndou, a former IBF 10st ruler who dropped his title to Malignaggi, now has a contracted rematch to look forward to.

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