Action packed weekend in prospect
2010. Big fight action. London buses.
For most of the year’s first quarter, boxing fans have been left scratching about looking for a fix. This weekend, like an approaching fleet of Ken Livingstone’s bendy coaches, they can gorge themselves on a plethora of match-ups of differing quality and significance. To deliberately misquote Michael Caine from the film Zulu,
“Fight cards….fousands of ‘em”.
I previewed the biggest of Saturday’s bouts in depth on Wednesday, the latest in the Super Six saga involving Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham (a couple of clicks to the right of this post), so I’ll skim through what else is happening here. I’m not nearly erudite enough to give you a pick or even a preview in some cases but I’ll do what I can with what I do know and what I can dig up.
There’s a rather important fight taking place in Tokyo this weekend as Koki Kameda and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam meet to create a Ring Magazine recognised champion at flyweight. Kameda, fighting at home, is rated first at 112 lbs and has a record of 22-0 (14 KO’s). His opponent Pongsaklek is a tough Thai veteran with a far more extensive ledger of 74-3-1 (39 KO’s) and is rated just behind his younger foe (Kameda is 23, whilst Pongsaklek is 32).
Despite being the home fighter, I’d be surprised if the crowd’s participation managed to sway the judges Kameda’s way. I caught a world title card in Tokyo a few years back, headlined by Japan’s Nobuo Nashiro versus then WBA super flyweight kingpin Alexander Munoz. There was no booing of the Venezuelan Munoz in the way one is used to seeing the away fighter jeered and heckled, on the contrary, Munoz was afforded nothing but respect. The crowd mainly cheered in between rounds (remember the eerie silence which accompanied Buster Douglas’ historic win in Tokyo?). In saying this, reports of Japanese fighters receiving preferential decisions on home turf remains (doesn’t it everywhere though?).
Interestingly, despite already wearing a WBC trinket, Kameda seems to realise the value of the match-up.
“After I win my next fight, I will be a champion for the first time. I will get a knockout”.
Kameda is a brash and controversial character and caught trouble in 2007 after a ringside mic picked up on him passing advice to his younger brother Daiki, telling him to target his opponent’s eyes with his elbows (Daisuke Naito). Despite this, he’s a hot commodity in his homeland and has previously held a world title at light flyweight.
Pongsaklek too is a former title holder and was once a Ring Magazine pound for pound entrant (in 2006). He has the quickest knockout in divisional history to his credit, whacking out the aforementioned Naito in 34 seconds back in 2002. The Thai also racked up an unbeaten streak of 55 bouts between ’96 and ’07 and was labelled a borderline hall of famer by Dougie Fischer recently.
It would appear to be the classic old lion versus young confrontation, the veteran against the upstart. It should be a compelling contest.
Over in Vegas, Joan Guzman rematches Ali Funeka for the IBF lightweight title. The first bout between the pair ended in a draw, a decision universally decried as being poor. South African Funeka appeared to dominate proceedings after Guzman suffered a busted snout as well as a cut (from a clash of heads) in the contest’s first quarter and was mightily aggrieved at the decision.
I reviewed this fight recently and leading up to the rematch, I had a strong hunch that Guzman (29-0-1, 17 KO’s) could improve enough to upset the strongly fancied Funeka (30-2-3, 25 KO’s). I thought he started well last time out, right up until he started to bleed yet, in his defence, a broken nose can be a difficult handicap to overcome. Tremendous champions like Genaro Hernandez (against Oscar De la Hoya) and Israel Vazquez (against Rafael Marquez) have been forced to quit in contests from the same injury (the same fighters who have displayed such valour at other points in their careers).
Guzman has trained in Manchester, England for this fight under the stewardship of Ricky Hatton’s former chief second, Ricky Beard. I’m not quite sure what to make of this link up, unimpressed as I was with Hatton’s performances of late and Beard’s input between rounds in the Pacquiao fight. The word filtering out of camp seemed to indicate that Guzman had managed to whip himself into rude shape, although, he looked in decent nick and no more in pictures published this week from his final work out.
Funeka is such an awkward man to fight, at 6’ 1” and with a 72 inch reach, he’s freakishly long for a lightweight. I’m always reminded a little of the bad guy from Bruce Lee’s film Game of Death, the giant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when I see Funeka in action. Guzman will need to show some of Lee’s speed and power if he is to negotiate his way past his own colossal jabber (see what I did there?) in order to move up a level in world boxing’s pagoda. To do it, he’ll need to fight each round in the same manner he did the first three of their last contest.
I’m confident that Funeka will put in the exact same shift he did in November, steady jabbing, hard right hands, round after round. I have an inkling that of the pair, Guzman is the guy who can improve, enough for him to take a late stoppage or well earned points verdict this time around.
On the same card, light welterweight danger man, Marcos Maidana (27-1, 26 KO’s) faces the unbeaten Dominican Republic fighter, Victor Cayo (24-0, 16 KO’s) in an intriguing battle. As decent a boxer as Cayo appears, I have a fancy Maidana will score a dramatic knockout in this fight, bolstered by the fact he boasts the talismanic Miguel Diaz in his corner (I instantly increase a guy’s chances when I see Diaz around).
At home this evening in Dagenham, Matthew Hatton faces Italian veteran Gianluca Branco for the vacant European welterweight title. Hatton can’t complain he doesn’t catch enough career breaks yet he’ll need to win this one to ensure higher profile bouts down the road. One would assume it will be a distance fight with the younger man likely to be that tad more active in a bout I’m unlikely to seek out.
Top of the bill on the Essex card is a British light middleweight title bout between champion Anthony Small (the artist formerly known as SugarRayClayJonesJr….I kid you not) and the Isle of Dogs’ Sam Webb. Webb (rated 6th by Boxing Monthly) defeated Small (rated 3rd) twice as an amateur and I give him a very good shot at repeating the trick in the pros.
Rising featherweight star ‘Genius’ Joe Murray steps up a level against former European featherweight title challenger Yuri Voronin over eight rounds. Murray should make it seven wins in a row here however, he’ll be doing well to stop the tough little Ukrainian.
Superstar in waiting Yuriorkis Gamboa stops off in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday to complete a bit of business. He faces the unbeaten South American, Jonathan Victor Barrios who is undefeated in 29 contests. Unknown and unbeaten scrappers from that neck of the wood usually set the alarm bells ringing but I’m confident Gamboa will scotch any chances of an upset and notch his 18th win and 16th stoppage.
The once great Erik Morales embarks upon what appears to be an ill advised comeback campaign in Monterrey, Mexico on Saturday. The guy he’s selected, Nicaraguan Jose Alfaro is not a bad fighter and despite having been hand picked for Morales to roll over, will be looking to emulate men such as Terry Norris and Alfonso Gomez in closing out the career of an over-the-hill star fighter. It’s hard not to hope Morales realises pretty early on, that the fat lady has sang her song already, so he can bow out gracefully and be rescued from further harm and humiliation down the track.
‘The Canadian Kid’, Steve Molitor takes on former stoppage victim Taklani Ndlovu in Rama, Ontario for the vacant IBF super bantamweight title. Molitor is rated fourth at the weight by Ring magazine and should be able to repeat his previous performance against Ndlovu (Molitor stopped him in nine) to rebound from the crushing loss he suffered at the hands of Celestino Caballero (who looks bound for featherweight to chase down bouts with Juanma Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa).
