Boxing 9/5/15

Big Ears

Right I'm pretty much sick of all the negativity associated with last weekends fight.

So to look at something more positive where better to start that this weekend's boxing line ups.

Friday-America.
Amir Mansour vs Joey Dawejko

Glen Tapia vs Michael Soro
Sean Monaghan vs Cleiton Conceicao

Saturday-Germany:
Felix Sturm vs Fedor Chudinov
Jack Culcay vs Maurice Weber

Japan:
Hozumi Hasegawa vs Horatio Garcia

England:
Bradley Skeete vs Brunet Zamora
Frank Buglioni vs Lee Markham
Mitchell Smith vs Christian Palma

Sam Eggington vs Joseph Lamptey
Anthony Joshua vs Raphael Zumbano Love
Matthew Macklin vs Ferenc Albert
Luke Campbell vs TBA, Callum Smith vs journeyman, Gamal Yafai vs TBA

United States:
Saul Alvarez vs James Kirkland
Frankie Gomez vs Humberto Soto
Joshua Clottey vs Jorge Silva
Jospeh Diaz vs Giovanni Delgado


Omar Figueroa vs Ricky Burns
Jamie McDonnell vs Tomoki Kameda
Austin Trout vs Anthony Mundine

I've highlighted my picks for the best fights of the weekend. Mansour and Dawejko aren't guys who will be ever good enough to win a title (Mansour is too old anyway), but they are guys who are good enough to get into and contest title eliminators. Both can be very good to watch, and both will come to fight. The end to Mansour's last fight is definitely worth a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_NyqeNLheQ

He's back !, the return of the fantastic Hozumi Hasegawa. Hasegawa has been a real favourite of mine since the first time he beat Sahaprom. An extremely talented fighter who's just been a little let down by his punch resistance over the years. He's in against a Young Undefeated Mexican in Horacio Garcia with a very good looking record (29 fights, 29 wins, 21 ko's), and he's a pretty decent fighter tbh. He's very heavy handed, has a high workrate, good footwork and decent speed. Where Garcia is let down is his lack of head movement, and if Hasegawa has much left he'll move it for him !The winner will emerge as a contender at Super-Bantamweight, and if Hasegawa does lose here it will likely be the end for him.


Frank Buglioni, he mightn't be great but he really does bring excitement. There has been improvement in the 'Wise Guy' under Paschal Collins, quite a lot actually. But his defense is still very suspect and Markham should be able to find the target here enough to ,make it a very entertaining bout. Buglioni's advantage is size and power here should see him emerge on top.

Canelo Alvarez vs James Kirkland. Kirkland is a bit of a poor man's Nigel Benn with a more suspect chin. Being Blasted out by Nobuhiro Ishida is never a good sign, but Kirkland has managed to win 5 straight since (broken up by some time inside). Meanwhile Canelo Alvarez has emerged from being a prospect to one of the biggest stars in the sport.
The styles should gel well here and it should be a war while it lasts. Canelo will likely have way too much for Kirkland, but Kirkland's power and Canelo's aggressive approach will always mean there's a chance for things to go wrong.

Jamie McDonnell vs Tomoki Kameda......now call me insane, but this is an outside tip from me to be the fight of the year. Happening the same night as Canelo vs Kirkland people may think that seems crazy. But I'm anticipating a 12 round closely fought war between 2 guys who throw a lot of punches, and have heart in abundance.

It's a shame about the quality of the 2 big English cards. I like watching Eggington fight and always keep a close eye on Macklin, but that card is just a series of terrible mismatches. Warren's card isn't exactly a cracker, and the fighter quality is lower, but the match ups are more competitive.
Overall though it's a hell of a weekends boxing, and I doubt anyone who stays up for the fights on Saturday will feel too disappointed.

HigginsJ

Are the Burns & McDonnell fights on the Canelo card?

Big Ears

HigginsJ wrote: »

Are the Burns & McDonnell fights on the Canelo card?

No they're not, any breaks between the paragraphs indicate it's a different card, so Figueroa vs Burns, McDonnell vs Kameda and Mundine vs Trout are on the one card, while Alvarez vs Kirkland, Gomez vs Soto, Clottey vs Silva and Diaz vs Delgado are on another.


Also if Soto still has a bit left his fight vs Frankie Gomez could be a good one. I'd be pretty sure of Gomez coming through it, but it could be a hard fought affair.

walshb

I hope Burns gets KTFO! He's brutal!

HigginsJ

walshb wrote: »

I hope Burns gets KTFO! He's brutal!

He is an absolute shell of the fighter he was, that Beltran fight has destroyed him.

Big Ears

HigginsJ wrote: »

He is an absolute shell of the fighter he was, that Beltran fight has destroyed him.

He looked shot vs Gonzalez, but somehow managed to grind out the win and get Gonzalez to quit.

I like Burns tbh, people turned against him because of a few dodgy decisions in his favour. But to steal a phrase from John Fashanu, 'He's got the balls of a mountain goat !'

He showed amazing heart and determination to beat Rocky Martinez as a massive underdog. After a few easy defences he went up to Lightweight and out boxed and at times out fought a still decent Katsidis. He showed his class easily out boxing a solid boxer in Paulus Moses. He looked sensational in blowing away Kevin Mitchell in 4 rounds, and from there it's been pretty much downhill.
He 8 months he went from looking the best in his career to looking like ****, and he hasn't looked good since.

But I for one would be delighted for Burns to role back the years. It's easy to forget, but this wasn't meant to be a guy who became a World champion, this was a guy who could with the way he was managed could have easily fallen short at British level.
Thrown in against a highly ranked British champion (Graham Earl) in only his 10th fight, and boxing away from home. They didn't go easy on him after that either, boxing guys that were nearly closer to being gatekeepers than journeymen immediately after, and then he's thrown in against Alex Arthur.
He started great, but lost to a very good and prime version of Arthur.

So they give him a couple of tune ups, and then throw him in with the very big punching Carl Johanneson, this at a time when Burns biggest deficit was highlighted as his lack of punching power, and not taking bodyshots that well. Too much too soon, and after getting dropped a few times, he loses a wide points decision despite boxing well again.
So he's fed a rake of journeymen, no decent fighters and then he's put in a tough fight with Osumanu Akaba (fresh from taking Tshifiwa Munyai's unbeaten record) for the Commonwealth. He comes through and they put him in with a very tough opponent in Yakabu Amidu (came close to beating Ali Funeka shortly before), and he destroys Amidu easily, in impressive fashion.
After a couple of more defenses they put him in with Martinez, and after massively upsetting the applecart there, I think we remember the rest.

Most guys thrown into fights as an underdog, or into 50/50 fights the way Burns was would have ended up as a journeyman. But he persevered, known as tremendous grafter in the gym, dedicated his life to the game, stayed working one day a week in a local sports shop (while a World champion) to stay grounded. Whatever you think of how good he is now, Ricky Burns is one of the guys who really, really earned it the hard way, and for that he deserves every bit of respect.

Joeseph Balls

Looking forward to Canelos fight. Enjoy watching him box. The whole Irish 'connection' too :P

Talib Fiasco

Sturm/Chudinov could be a very interesting fight as well. And next week we have GGG and Roman Gonzalez among others! May 2nd will be well and truly forgotten by then!

Diddley Squat

Mundine's out I heard ........ Trout's looking for a replacement

megadodge

Just watched Luke Campbell there.
Quite impressive finish against what looked a decent enough opponent who gave him a problem or two before the finish. The longer it went the more Campbell began to get into it. The right hook to the head (after one to the body) to set up the finish was a beauty.

That_Guy

2 rounds of pretty laboured work from him and then bam, a flurry of punches out of nowhere. Was a really nice finish.

Johner

Callum Smith stops a man who went the distance with Lee and is quite durable.

megadodge

Callum Smith needs better opposition than that.
I suppose he did what he needed, but it's time to up the ante.

That_Guy

I'm surprised the ref didn't stop that fight sooner. Fedetovs was out on his feet initially.

Johner

megadodge wrote: »

Callum Smith needs better opposition than that.
I suppose he did what he needed, but it's time to up the ante.

Probably will now after the hand injury, I'd say he would have liked a few more rounds though.

megadodge

Johner wrote: »

Probably will now after the hand injury, I'd say he would have liked a few more rounds though.

Yeah, you're right, he had a decent reputation for durability, so after the layoff they probably expected him to go a few rounds at least.

Callum Smith is very talented though. I'm enjoying watching his journey to the top (I hope).

the whole year inn

Anthony Joshua on tonight and what time the fight starts?

Johner

megadodge wrote: »

Yeah, you're right, he had a decent reputation for durability, so after the layoff they probably expected him to go a few rounds at least.

Callum Smith is very talented though. I'm enjoying watching his journey to the top (I hope).

Yeah, he looks to have all the tools to go to the top, a fight with Groves down the line really interests me.

Chrissybhoy

Johner wrote: »

Yeah, he looks to have all the tools to go to the top, a fight with Groves down the line really interests me.

I'd like to see that fight. Id back smith.

That_Guy

the whole year inn wrote: »

Anthony Joshua on tonight and what time the fight starts?

A little after 9 I'd say. Could be sooner depending on how Lamptey/Eggington goes.

Johner

Eggington should KO this lad.

Johner

Lamptey looks a weight class below. This won't last long.

That_Guy

Lamptey looks sloppy as foooook.

Reach advantage is causing him problems and he can't close the distance. Eggington's left hook finding a nice home.

That_Guy

Lamptey forgetting rule number 1 of combat sports.... Tuck your bloody chin in.

megadodge

Eggington's chin is very high (as has been mentioned by the commentators more than once). He's a decent talent, but I suspect at a higher level he's going to be punished for that.

That_Guy

Have Lamptey winning that third round but he looks tired.

Johner

Really poor quality stuff.

That_Guy

Pretty poor stuff. Lamptey's been sloppy but has made it into a slight contest but he's fading badly.

That_Guy

Eggington keeps throwing the left hook. Needs to set it up with the jab more. It's always one punch at a time from him.

Johner

Over! Eggington is very poor, Lamptey even worse.

That_Guy

Good stoppage.

Chrissybhoy

Don't think sam eggington will go much further. Fair enough he got the stoppage but didn't show anything against a bad fighter who was wild and sloppy in offence and poor in defence. Eggington had all the physical attributes over lampety and didn't make any use of them

Johner

Chrissybhoy wrote: »

Don't think sam eggington will go much further. Fair enough he got the stoppage but didn't show anything against a bad fighter who was wild and sloppy in offence and poor in defence. Eggington had all the physical attributes over lampety and didn't make any use of them

Agreed, Foot and Eggington is a good match up for the British title, would favour Foot in it but that's definitely as far as Eggington will go.

supersean1999

So far Has this been the worst match ups ever??

megadodge

pac_man wrote: »

Mcdonnell fight on now.

Jamie?

What channell?

HigginsJ

supersean1999 wrote: »

So far Has this been the worst match ups ever??

That should look like a fairly competitive fight in relation to what is coming next

HigginsJ

megadodge wrote: »

Jamie?

What channell?

Boxnation I think

Chrissybhoy

Markham v Buglioni starting now over on Boxnation it's going to be a tear up

Deiseboy01

pac_man wrote: »

Seriously,what's the point in this matchroom card?

Complete ****. No only are the b side fighters cannon fodder they are cannon fodder from a weight class or two below. Hearn conning the punters yet again.

Deiseboy01

Is the Burns fight being screened on Sky or Boxnation?

HigginsJ

McDonnell down in the 3rd. Kameda on top by the sounds of it.

HigginsJ

http://www.premierboxingchampions.com/kameda-vs-mcdonnell

This is the PBC site with live updates.

HigginsJ

pac_man wrote: »

I put a spoiler on that just for the people who don't want to know the result before watching it on sky.

Sorry about that

Deiseboy01

What happened with Machlin?

Talib Fiasco

Kameda/McDonnell is a good scrap but not really close at the same time

supersean1999

Deiseboy01 wrote: »

What happened with Machlin?

Where do we start

megadodge

supersean1999 wrote: »

Where do we start

???

That_Guy

The size of Joshua.

yabadabado

Deiseboy01 wrote: »

What happened with Machlin?

2nd round KO.bodyshot.

HigginsJ

That_Guy wrote: »

The size of Joshua.

I wonder what is the opinion on his "excessive" muscle? There seems to be concerns that he is going too far down that road.

That_Guy

Man that was perfect.