Weekend Preview: Urango v Alexander, Sykes v Morris
2010’s schedule hots up this weekend as we embark upon a run of action involving some of the sport’s brightest lights. Saturday sees a unification fight (remember them?) in the light welterweight division, whilst elsewhere the exciting banger Vic Darchinyan struts his stuff and there’s a decent scrap domestically for the British super featherweight title.
Tomorrow evening in Huddersfield, former ‘Prospect Watch’ subject Gary Sykes takes on Andy Morris for the vacant 130 lb Lonsdale strap (former holder Kevin Mitchell relinquished the strap last year prior to invading lightweight). ‘Wythenshawe Warrior’ Morris 18-2 (6), is currently rated third domestically by Boxing News whilst Dewsbury man Sykes 14-0 (4), rates seventh.
This is a tough fight for both lads, one which sees Sykes thrown into his first twelve rounder after averaging only five rounds a bout from his outings to date. Sykes does hold a good decision win over Anthony Crolla from last year (over ten) although he struggled last time out against the rather ordinary Dean Mills.
Reports from today’s weigh in, indicate that Sykes had to sweat off excess poundage after scaling 10 oz over the division limit, much to Morris’ delight.
“That’s what it takes to be a champion Gary” sneered Morris, who holds a very handy looking win over a certain Rendall Munroe from 2006. Both men are 26 and will be hoping that they can carve out a fruitful title reign should they be the one left with their hands raised tomorrow evening. Against my better logic, I’m going to tip Sykes to pull out a hard fought decision, one which should send his travelling army of fans home happy (and rescue my ‘Prospect Watch’ feature along the way).
Light welterweight is a division without a leader right now, with current Ring champ Manny Pacquiao having left it’s ranks to toil one division north and unlikely to return. That’s most unlike 140 lbs, which has had a universally recognised champ at it’s helm for the best part of a decade. Pacquiao ripped the lineal championship away from long time kingpin Ricky Hatton last year, after the Manchester battler had succeeded the great Kostya Tszyu back in 2005. Quite how Devon Alexander and Juan Urango managed to lay claim to being divisional ‘champs’ would take days to explain, would probably cause me great angst and to be honest, is rather a pointless task. The fact that ‘The Ring’ ratings panel rank Alexander as the fourth best 140 pounder and Urango sixth (that’s including the errant Pacquiao) is all you really need to know.
Don King promoted Alexander 19-0 (12), broke through into world class last time out after dissecting the extremely awkward and hard swatting Bradford man Junior Witter in California (although he’d also shut out the quality DeMarcus Corley in 2008). Witter retired with a busted left hand after eight rounds however he’d been discouraged mightily by the speed and counter punching ability the Missouri man had displayed up to that point. Alexander is fast, sharp and agile and strikes quickly from long range with cobra-like reflexes (he reminds me slightly of former Joe Calzaghe victim, Charles ‘The Hatchet’ Brewer in terms of style).
His opponent Urango 22-2 (17), is a tough night’s work for anyone. Most British fans will remember the top heavy Colombian as being a former Ricky Hatton opponent (Hatton pulled out a workmanlike decision win over Urango in January 2007 after a fight which saw Hatton boxing sharply early before unravelling somewhat late on as Urango’s strength began to bear down on him). Urango is a bullish, tank of a man who will look to target Alexander’s ribcage in a bid to slow his speedy opponent down.
In Urango’s only other defeat, current welter contender Andre Berto followed the Hatton blueprint (one which featured much grappling and holding to stave off the relentless Colombian) to a unanimous decision win. I fancy Alexander can replicate the result with a little less hugging and a lot more movement which will allow him to stay in the mix alongside fellow young guns Timothy Bradley, Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana as they bid to replace the great Pacquiao. Alexander should make a chopping block of Urango, who will keep chugging forward inexorably, winning him Alexander’s respect but alas not nearly enough points to find favour with the judges.
As mentioned earlier, dynamite punching ‘Raging Bull’ Vic Darchinyan 33-2 (27), faces Mexican Rodrigo Geurrero 13-1 (9) at super flyweight on Saturday. Darchinyan should score another knockout here before going off in pursuit of Filipino phenom Nonito Donaire, who hung an ‘L’ on the Armenian Aussie back in 2007.
- Is the tagline for the Mayweather-Mosley blockbuster the worst of all time? “Who R U Picking?” smacks of middle aged suits trying to ‘connect’ with the kids with their cool spelling and a plea for interaction.
- I’ve caught myself thinking, “Go on, smack him one” twice in the past week (is this what prolonged exposure to the fistic arts does to you?) as firstly Wayne Bridge and John Terry and secondly Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather came face to face. I’m definitely becoming more vindictive as I get older………….
- So James Toney has gone over to UFC? Surely if he wanted to have himself a bit of grapple, he should have lobbied the WBA for a fight with their perennial heavyweight champ/challenger/interim champ/challenger John Ruiz?
- I finally canned the positive Mayweather piece which had been lingering (based on his anti-drugs stance) after he compared his bid to rid boxing of PEDs with the struggles of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Crass barely skims the surface………
- The sharks are swimming around Kelly Pavlik right now. Sergio Martinez, Felix Sturm, Paul Williams, Winky Wright………..his middleweight reign just got tough.
- The announcement of Chad Dawson versus Jean Pascal in August just made my week. Against the grain, I like Pascal to outwork Dawson in what could turn out to be a fantastic fight.
