Next for Dunne

They never did fight as amateurs. Dunne didn't make it in 2000 and would have been a 57 kg fighter, Rigo won his first gold at 54 kgin Sydney

Daroxtar wrote: »

If vasqeuz is making his comeback in september and bernard has been calling him out then this is the fight to go for. Vasquez will be rusty and dunne has sparred plenty with him before so if he has one shot at greatness then this is it.

Bernard would need everything to go right for him but a long layoff from vasquez might just have taken enough of the edge off him for dunne to stand a chance. Plus, bernard does genunely seem to think he's in with a shout and when a fighter truely believes the other guy wont beat him it can give that extra few percent thats needed.

I say go for it bernard, strike while the iron is hot. You never know...

I think its a question of whether Dunne would even last one round with Vasquez. He is a monster and would knock Dunne out fast ring rustiness or not.

john47832 wrote: »

A great claim with absolutely no substance to it

How has it no substance to it? It's a view that can only be proved if it happens and it wouldn't be at all surprising if it did happen, going on statistics and what we have seen from both men. Kiko did it and Dunne's chin
is quite fragile. Now, Vasquez can bang and is aggresive and if he lands clean, he can follow up.

Daroxtar wrote: »

If vasqeuz is making his comeback in september and bernard has been calling him out then this is the fight to go for. Vasquez will be rusty and dunne has sparred plenty with him before so if he has one shot at greatness then this is it.

Bernard would need everything to go right for him but a long layoff from vasquez might just have taken enough of the edge off him for dunne to stand a chance. Plus, bernard does genunely seem to think he's in with a shout and when a fighter truely believes the other guy wont beat him it can give that extra few percent thats needed.

I say go for it bernard, strike while the iron is hot. You never know...

Hey if Vasquez wants to comeback at Featherweight I think Dunne and his team should encourage him and wish him all the best, because that along with Caballero reportedly moving up to Featherweight to fight Yuriorkis Gamboa spells opportunity for Dunne. Juan Manuel Lopez has said he'll be sticking around at Super-Bantamweight for a year or two yet, that's the only negative there.

if you're interested in the belts that would leave Dunne as WBA champion(with Hernandez or Kratingdaenggym as interim), Nishioka as WBC champion, Lopez as WBO as champions.

The IBF has Steve Molitor fighting Heriberto Ruiz in an eliminator next, with Caballero defending his title v Jeffrey Mathebula tomorrow(2 months before that bout). Should Caballero announce his intentions to move up after the fight, that eliminator could become for the vacant title.
If not the winner of that eliminator would face the highest ranked challenger, which currently would be Mathebula, however if he loses I doubt it'd be him. After him is Gonzalez, but he's going down the WBC route, so that leaves Rendall Munroe next. Kiko Martinez amazingly is #7 in the IBF ratings as a matter of interest. Of course if Mathebula wins tomorrow this all becomes redundant.

Now Nishioka or Molitor would be very tough bouts for Dunne but they are winnable, and if Lopez was to move up aswell, it would leave Dunne with the potential opportunity to become the true Super-Bantamweight champion of the World.

Anyway here's how things stand for the top guns at Super-Bantamweight:

Israel Vasquez-The Super-Bantamweight Champion of the World looks to return in the Autumn, and seemingly now up at Featherweight.

Celestino Caballero-defends his WBA and IBF titles v Jeffrey Mathebula tomorrow. This may be his last fight at Super-Bantamweight as he looks to challenge Featherweight sensation Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Rafael Marquez-fights a WBC eliminator v Jose Francisco Mendoza, a 37 year old Colombian.

Jhonny Gonzalez/Toshiaki Nishioka- face in Mexico in a defence of Nishioka's WBC title.

Steve Molitor/Heriberto Ruiz-face in an IBF eliminator

Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym- faces Rafael Hernandez for the vacant interim WBA title

Rendall Munroe-faces Isaac Nettey for the vacant Commonwealth title

Juan Manuel Lopez-will struggle to find meaningful challengers, he looks an absolute machine, and I doubt most of the other big boys will be too eager to face him.

Bernard Dunne-planning a defence of his WBA title, the opponent could be anyone at this stage

Daniel Ponce De Leon-has scored two wins in his comeback since losing in a round to Lopez, hard to know which route he'll go.

Antonio Escalante-looking very impressive at the moment, gunning through the divisions 2nd/3rd tier guys at the moment, he just might be in against Lopez soon.

Oliver Lontchi-continuing the defences of his NABA title and recovering from the slip up draw to Eduardo Garcia, his camp will be looking for an eliminator or a title shot soon.

Ricardo Cordoba-will be looking to make a comeback from his defeat to Dunne, but probably won't fight for a few months.

walshb wrote: »

I say take him out because I didn't see anything special in the guy before Dunne or with Dunne. The man who impressed me was Dunne. Not Cordoba.
And I happen to think that Ricardo will not be beating the likes of
JMM or Vasquez anytime soon!

I never once said prior to the fight that I thought Ricardo was a great fighter.
He never impressed me or showed me that he was the worlds champion.

Look, if we keep going back to his ONE win over Cab, then that's like saying that Alex Higgins is still a threat in snooker because he won the world title in 1982.

BTW, after that effort in the 5th, he had pretty much nothing left.
Seriously, I at least expect my world champions to be able to last
12 rds and Dunne himself said that Ricardo was more beaten due to
exhaustion.

Eh jermain Taylor.......former Middleweight champion of the World has seemingly the same problem and he's certainly still a threat to almost anyone(bar Kessler imo) at Super-Middleweight.

Cordoba has gone 12 rounds 6 times(7 if you include a stoppage he gained in the 12th of one fight), and he was stopped in the 11th of a gruelling fight, while suffering from dehydration, where he took a huge number of clean shots to the chin.

IMO he'd beat more than one fighter on that list, and has shown his ability in beating Celestino Caballero, Jose Arboleda and Luis Perez. The draws with Sidorenko and a Split loss to Kratingdaenggym further show his ability and that he's a true World Class fighter.

He won't have to fight Vasquez anytime soon if Vasquez moves up to Featherweight and you're right I can't see him beating Lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez anytime soon


I presume you meant either Juan Manuel Lopez, who no one at Super-Bantamweight would probably beat anyway so he's no worse off than any of the other top fighters in that regard.

Or(and it's less likely that this is who you're talking about) Rafael Marquez who hasn't fought in over a year and could be ruined after his 3 wars with Vasquez and being 34 years old.

Cordoba was and still is a World Class fighter for me.

walshb wrote: »

Yes, I meant Lopez, JML, not JMM.

Well, to me, Cordoba wasn't all that and I wasn't impressed with him.
You mention a draw vs. the midget, Sidorenko and a win
over Perez? Perez is quite quite average!
And Cordoba struggled in that one!

You could take out Munroe too and Molitor and some others.
I don't see many as being worthy of world champ, but if it's
all about making up numbers, throw them in!

Munroe's not in any of those guys class, however he's highly ranked by all of those sanctioning bodies because he holds the European belt, and will probably get a 'World title shot' before too long, not to mention some British boxing fans are delusional enough to believe he's World Class and his little 'rivalry' with Dunne and holding the European title means I threw him in there. But he's nowhere near the standard of anyone else there.

Molitor on the otherhand is a very good fighter, stylistically he was awfully suited to fight Caballero and as such was destroyed. He's still a quality slick southpaw who could give so many top fighters in the division nightmares and beat a lot of them. He's a World class fighter and if he's not up to it Heriberto Ruiz will take care of him anyway, so one of those two men(Molitor or Ruiz) would be leaving a list like that soon anyway.

T-K-O wrote: »

Take the top three from any division and they are pure ****e.

Marquez
Vazquez
Pone
Lopez
Cab
followed by Molitor Dunne Gonzalez its as strong a division as they come in my book.

Agreed, I just can't seem to get excited about very many fighters today.

walshb wrote: »

You know, take out JML and Cab and Vasquez and we have a pretty
poor division of you ask me. I would love to see those three in the mix at 126 lbs with Chris John and Gamboa.

I think Gamboa beats all three!

Big, what's your pick for Molitor-Ruiz. I go with KO win for Ruiz!

You take out the top 3 fighters in every division and you'll probably find Super-Bantamweight is the strongest in the World(which it is now for me anyway), and has the most depth.

Without those 3 you still have Rafael Marquez, Jhonny Gonzalez, Daniel Ponce De Leon and the other 9 fighters I named in that list.

I can see Molitor being too slick for Ruiz and beating him by competitive decision(116-112 sort of stuff), Ruiz is a very good fighter but Molitor won't be like Bautista and allow him to fight the fight he wants.