This Week in Boxing.

Hello again fight fans and thank you for joining us here at SaddoBoxing.com once again for our weekly rundown of the coming week’s action in the world of boxing. Without further ado, we shall begin our preview by looking at Tuesday’s action, which sees Antonio Cermeno

vs. Jose Zerpa. Cermeno, the Venezuelan hitman and former WBA super bantamweight and featherweight champion is now thirty-six years of age and campaigning as a super featherweight. Back on the trail of a major championship, it should be noted that the hard-hitting Cermeno has only ever lost decisions in his career, five to be exact, against forty-four wins, thirty of which came via knockout. Incidentally, one of those stoppages occurred while in against Zerpa himself. Currently sporting a professional record of zero victories against eleven defeats, Zerpa may have to pull the old Floyd Patterson trick on Tuesday night and make his way out of the Gimnasio Don Jose Beracasa, in a disguise. On Thursday, we journey over to San Jose, California to catch the latest installment of the Diego Morales story as he squares off against Alberto Ontiveros. Having recently won a WBC super bantamweight title eliminator, and perhaps buoyed by the resurgence of older brother Erik, Diego Morales is enjoying life as a professional fighter and it seems likely that he will celebrate another win against Ontiveros, a fighter with ten losses, including four of his last five outings. While Erik Morales’ legacy is sealed, perhaps at just twenty-five years of age, Diego can begin an exciting era of his own.

Friday brings us to the Northern Quest Casino in Wahsington, USA for the fight card headlined by an interesting super middleweight clash between Nigerian Kingsley Ikeke and America’s Antwun Echols. With only one loss to his credit, Ikeke is supremely confident of achieving a world championship in the future and a win over the hard-punching Echols secures him the IBF number two spot for a shot at the world title. Echols knows the thrill of challenging for a world title, and all the more significantly, the deep disappointment of having failed in his attempt. Bernard Hopkins and Anthony Mundine denied Echols a chance of world-title glory, however, perhaps now, in what must be his last chance, Echols can rediscover the form that laid out twenty-seven opponents in thirty-one victories. On the under-card, American super middleweight contenders Andre and Anthony Dirrell have victories to achieve in order to continue their fledgling professional careers.

Meanwhile, in Panama, Beibis Mendoza battles Roberto Vasquez for the vacant WBA light flyweight. After an epic four-fight saga that saw the WBA title go back and forth between Mendoza and Nicaraguan Rosendo Alvarez, Mendoza finds himself in the fortunate position of having lost his last fight to Alvarez, but able to perhaps regain the title after the WBA stripped Alvarez after failing to make weight in their last meeting. For his part, Vasquez has only one defeat, a debatable point’s loss in his debut that did not prevent him from stringing together eighteen wins with fifteen stoppages. Enjoying home advantage may make a difference for Vasquez as he seeks a world title in his first outing of 2005.

Friday’s final fight comes to us by way of Johnny Tapia’s New Mexico as he attempts to avenge a decision loss to Frankie Archuleta. At thirty-eight years of age, Tapia is drawing to the end of his illustrious ring career, one that saw him capture recognized world championships in three weight classes. However, having been troubled by a fighter such as Archuleta, with nothing like Tapia’s experience or pedigree, it is assumed that we shall witness Tapia’s farewell to boxing very soon; and if Archuleta can produce a repeat performance such as that which bamboozled “Mi Vida Loca” the last time, Tapia’s exit may come more swiftly than we realized.

We arrive at Saturday, always the week’s main fight day in unfamiliar surroundings for our world-title action. Tokyo, Japan hosts the action for us as WBA minimumweight champion Yutaka Niida lays his title on the line against Jae Won Kim. A revenge mission accomplished over former champion Noel Arambulet landed Niida that title, and he now sets out to prove himself as one of the most dangerous propositions in the minimumweight ranks. Jae Won Kim stands in the way of that goal for now. Despite having won more fights than Niida, the Korean Kim knows nothing of the class opposition adorning the champion’s record and that may prove to be the difference in the end. That very evening, Veeraphol Sahaprom and Hozumi Hasegawa do battle for the WBC bantamweight title. Once again it is the champion, this time Sahaprom of Thailand that holds the experience factor and it will take a monumental performance from the home fighter Hasegawa to dethrone the seasoned champion.

And finally, we return to Europe, where in Poland, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk enjoys the home advantage as he seeks to land the vacant European cruiserweight title against Germany’s Rudiger May. May needs a result to continue his positive return since defeat to England’s Johnny Nelson last year. Of course, having already captured the European crown, May wants to recover it in order to launch himself at a world title shot in the thriving cruiserweight scene. However, Wlodarczyk, only once beaten throughout his career has other ideas. Which one of the fighters will hold prime position for a future world-title shot? We’ll know on Sunday morning one way or the other.

That’s all for now, please join us next week for the ultimate in-depth boxing weekly preview only in “This Week in Boxing,” and only at SaddoBoxing.com

Jim Cawkwell can be reached at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk