World Boxing Round-up.

News and Results from the Last week in the Fight Game.

In 1240, a dam was built on the Amstel river in Holland thus creating the name Amsterdam. On Sunday 12, June in that beautiful city, Regilio Aaron scored his ninth win in ten fights (six early) with a six round win over previously unbeaten Mohammed El Farouni.

Aaron’s only loss was a first round blowout to Belgium puncher Jackson Osei Bonsu. Bonsu, known as “Sugar the Ball Brains” is just twenty-four, and last week improved to 19-1 (17). Aaron is a thirty-one-year-old middleweight who fought three times in 1996/97 before disappearing for sixty-five months and is now 6-1 in the last two years. London, England – Isle of Dogs heavyweight Micky Steeds moved up to 6-1 with a six round win over Mal Rice. The twenty-one-year-old has only lost to undefeated Welsh prospect, Scott Gammer. Meanwhile, London based Irishman Coleman Barrett scored his first stoppage to move up to 5-0. He is now the number one ranked cruiserweight from Ireland. He is also the only cruiserweight from Ireland. This is cause for a drink! Ashley Theophane beat Jus Wallie on points, to improve to 9-1, further down the card.

On Tuesday in St Petersburg, Florida, Nate “The Galaxy Warrior” Campbell’s dream of becoming a world champion now looks to be over although I am sure he is not going to see it that way. The exciting puncher, who didn’t turn professional until he was almost twenty-eight, was 23-0 (21) until he ran into Joel Casamayor two years ago but is 3-4-1 since then, including those two stoppage losses to Aussie, Robbie Peden (Marco Antonio Barrera’s next opponent in September). On Tuesday night in Florida he was out-hustled by unheralded Francisco Lorenzo (who fought a Hatton-like brawl) of the Dominican Republic. Lorenzo (both fighters are thirty-three and turned professional in 2000) wanted this fight more and threw over 1000 punches during the ten rounds, while Nate threw classier but more economical blows. The Dominican now gets another chance to crack the top ten after previous losses to Victoriano Sosa, Juan Diaz and Courtney Burton. On the under-card, Christy Martin managed fighter, Rowland Bryant advanced to 12-0 (8) with his fourth points win in a row, while David Estrada stopped Brian Chairy at middleweight.

Britain’s recent run of decent featherweights looks to have another addition to its ranks as Nicky Cook scored an emphatic second round kayo of British champion Dazzo Williams to add that belt to his European and Commonwealth titles. Williams has been involved in some great scraps over the last two years and, while not a puncher, was given a good chance of extending the twenty-five-year-old East Londoner. “Cookie” came out fast in round one and threw some beautiful and damaging body shots before finishing the fight with a left hook to the ribs after two minutes of round two. The champion of over one hundred countries is now 25-0 with fifteen by the early route and is being touted as an opponent for WBO champion Scott Harrison. He landed the first dig when he exclaimed, “It’s about time a good-looking featherweight held that WBO title.”

Bantamweight battler and former champion Johnny Armour returned after two years out only to lose to the French based Turk, Tuncay Kaya, who improved to 22-9-4 with the six round points win. Armour had some tremendous battles in the nineties but has now lost his last two and, at almost thirty-seven, it may be time to hang up the gloves.

Good News! The “Turkish Taffy” is now 5-0 (2) after beating Terry Anderson Jr. at the Millennium Hotel in London. The twenty-one-year-old, known in London as Jed Tiger Syger, is ex-flyweight champion Charlie Magri’s big hope for the future in the lightweight ranks. Underneath, Anthony Small also won his sixth straight fight with a repeat win at middleweight over Howard Clarke. Consider this. In 1999, Fernando Vargas defended his light middleweight title for the first time against a 26-10-2 Clarke. Six years and fifty-four fights later Howard is now 27-62-2 (1 no contest). I’m going out on a limb here but will assume that Howard has given up hope of another title shot! “Clakka” is a member of Nobby Nobbs’ “Losers Inc” gym based in the middle of England and these fine men help keep boxing alive in the UK. This week’s column is dedicated to you and your 90-368-17 record.

In Trinidad, super middleweight puncher Kirt Sinnette had to go the distance when beating Leon Gilkes to move to 8-0 (5) while Commonwealth Games heavyweight Silver Medalist, Kertson Manswell, toyed with debutant, Mickey Richards, for three rounds before the latter retired between stanzas. Sinnette is now 5-0 and is carrying the hopes of an entire island on his broad shoulders. Good luck, Kertson.

More boxing in busy Florida saw former lightweight champion Javier Jauregui comfortably out-pointed by Puerto Rican, Ricky Quiles, in an eliminator for the Mexican’s old IBF title. Quiles now lives in south Florida and his hometown crowd watched a wonderful performance of boxing skills to out-maneuver the stalking opponent. “Showtime,” 38-6-3 (8), deserves a title shot and his trainer, Michael Moorer, will be getting him ready for a bout with new champion, Leavander Johnson (see below). After twenty-one straight kayos against terrible opposition, Colombian biffer, Edison Miranda went the distance for the second straight time to move to 23-0 (21) while dealing a twelve round battering of decent Nicaraguan Jose Varela.

More known for its potatoes than its boxing, Idaho showcased forty-year-old ex-cruiserweight champion “King” Arthur Williams, who won the NABF cincture by stopping Ali Supreme in three. Possible future opponent, Shawn Hawk “swooped” down on Ken Schomber in just seventy-six seconds to record his eighth straight win. That “swooped” line was a joke. “Hawk,” “swooped”, anyone? ANYONE???

Henry “Sugar Poo” Buchanan ruined his chance to be awarded my “Nickname of the Week” accolade when forced to withdraw from the Maryland bill on Thursday due to legal issues. Word is that six policemen came looking for the 10-0 (10) super middleweight in connection with William Joppy’s 2003 assault case involving a repo-mans’ broken jaw (Joppy was subsequently cleared of the charges). Stay tuned for further news on that situation. Meanwhile, back in the pugilistic world, Ishmail “The Arsenal” Alvin won for the thirteenth time when referee Gary Camponeschi disqualified Elias Cruz for excessive holding in the third. Light welterweight puncher Nick Casal recorded his eleventh knockout in a row and has not yet completed seventeen rounds in that run. The nineteen-year-old phenom fights for the WBC Youth Interim Title (what?) next weekend in California and brings yet more electricity to boxing’s deepest and most exciting division. Chazz “Mensa with Muscles” Witherspoon, cousin of Tim, is now 6-0 (4) with a points win over decent trial-horse Marion Wilson. Soon to be forty-three, Wilson has only been stopped once in his forty losses, against a who’s who of the heavyweight division, and that was on cuts! Tough hombre.

Fort Worth, Texas, saw super bantamweight Jhonny Gonzalez beat fellow Mexican Adolfo Landeros to continue his good run. After losing his first two professional fights, Gonzalez has only lost to Ricardo Vargas this century and now sits at 29-4 (25) with a world title in his grasp. “The Nard’s” nephew, Demetrius Hopkins, won every round but one against Roberto Valenzuela to remain undefeated at 19-0-1 (6). The welterweight, trained by Bouie Fisher and managed by his illustrious uncle is moving carefully up the rankings in a good learning curve. Jose Hernandez, Abner Mares, Brian Vera and Alexis Camacho all remained unbeaten on the under-card.

Three years ago, and with a record of 5-2-1, Raul Alberto Gutierrez Sanchez retired from boxing but the lure of the ring proved too much, and in Argentina on Friday, the thirty-three-year-old returned with a four round win over Jose “El Puma” Carrizo. Isn’t it nice when a comeback is successful? The same bill saw another return when Miguel Antonio
Chamorro came back after forty-three months out to get TKO’d in four and move to 1-9. Obviously retiring at 1-8 did not prove anything to the stubborn thirty-two-year-old. Isn’t it sad when a comeback is unsuccessful?

In October 2004, Danish welterweight, Thomas “Lionheart” Damgaard was due to fight WBA champion Jose Antonio Rivera but pulled due to the death of his father. The match was rescheduled for April 2 this year but Damgaard pulled out again and Rivera went on to lose his title to late sub, New Yorker Luis Collazo. Thomas fights for the EBU welterweight title in September against Oktay Urkal and warmed up for his challenge on an under-card in Denmark, with an eight round decision against Stephen Chungu to inflate his record to 37-0. Top of the bill saw Reda Zam Zam win his seventeenth fight to remain unbeaten in the light middleweight division, while super middleweight, Rudy Markussen continued to rebuild from his IBF loss to Sven Ottke with a first round shellacking of former champion Hacine Cherifi. Markussen has a punch like Thor’s hammer and a bout with Team Palle stable-mate Mikkel Kessler would be Denmark’s biggest ever! The Copenhagen rivals are a combined 66-1 (45), but I doubt that Team Palle would want to jeopardize their two piggy banks with this tantalizing tussle.

In Bonnie Scotland, Willie Limond won the Celtic super featherweight title by out-pointing Belfast’s Kevin O’Hara. In twenty-seven bouts, Limond has only lost to Alex Arthur. At the same weight, tall Ricky Burns won again to join Arthur, Limond and Craig Docherty in Scotland’s deepest division, and move to 12-0.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again” is a phrase that Leavander Johnson certainly took to heart as a child. After three failed attempts, the thirty-five-year-old finally won the lightweight title when he stopped thirty-nine-year-old Italian, Stefano Zoff in Milan to claim the vacant IBF bauble with a seventh round knockout. Next up is a mandatory defense against Ricky Quiles, who won in Florida the previous night. Former world champion Silvio Branco, also won while unbeaten middleweight prospect, Domenico Spada battered his fifteenth victim.

In the Philippines, Baby Lorona Jr. won the vacant WBE super featherweight title against debutant Darathai Sitoh when Sitoh dislocated his right elbow in the fourth. Lorona has engaged in sixty-one professional bouts, compared to Sitoh’s ZERO, and five of those have been against Bobby Pacquiao who also won on Friday, at the Table Mountain Casino in Friant, California, when he stopped Carlos Navarro in seven rounds. Pacquiao, older brother of Manny, went 3-1-1 in his series against Lorona and now holds something called the WBC Continental Americas super featherweight title, which is a good thing, right? More important is the scalp of Navarro who was once a decent prospect and destroyed the aforementioned Johnny Armour in a WBU fight in London back in 1998, but has been stopped in three of his last seven bouts.

In other fights across the U.S. on Friday, Los Angeles southpaw Steven Luevano remained on course for a shot at the featherweight title when he turned aggressor and finished off Genaro Trazancos with a straight left in the fifth, while Juan ”El Carnicero” Buendia got a good scalp when he body-punched Francisco Rincon to defeat in the third in Phoenix. In Miami, Gilberto Reyes won for the eighth straight time with a master class performance when out-pointing Michael Santos to claim the WBA Fedecentro welterweight title. Reyes is now 16-2, with both losses against good opposition, and the “Bolillo” conqueror (who was once 36-0 (34)) has now won three decisions this year.

When he beat Randall Bailey to win the WBO light welterweight title five years ago, Ener Julio was the proud owner of a 22-3 (17) record and all three losses were by close decision. Since then he has gone 2-5-3, with the victories both coming against 1-11 opposition and he lost again on Friday versus the Costa Rican “Volcano,” Lenin Arroyo. Lenin is unbeaten in his last 12 (after a 2-3-0-1 start), but Julio was his first fighter even resembling a decent test.

In the Cajun Capital of Lafayette, hometown boy, “Bad” Chad Broussard now has fifty wins in his fifty-four-fight career as he out-pointed Danny Reyes at middleweight, while Ali Muhammad lost on his professional debut. It was always going to be hard living up to that exalted epithet, wasn’t it?

Classy former light middleweight champion, Carl “The Squirrel” Daniels lost his third straight fight when he dropped a wide point’s decision to local hero Joe “KO Kid” Spina, at 168-pounds in Providence, Rhode Island. Other locals to win were Matt Godfrey, Jason Estrada, Eddie Soto and Connecticut’s Matt Remillard who all remained unbeaten prospects. I remember “The Squirrel’s” fights against Norris and Jackson and I hope he has saved enough nuts to enjoy his retirement!

During the Roman Imperial period, Emperor Vespasian had a magnificent amphitheater built in the ancient city of Pula, on the Adriatic coast. This classical monument entertained many battles between men and animals and, over 2000 years later, fighting returned to this beautiful resort when Felix Sturm and Stipe Drews brought world class boxing to Croatia. Sturm won for the twenty-fourth time against that disputed loss to Oscar de la Hoya when he out-pointed the tough Spaniard, Jorge Sendra, to give the Barcelona native his third loss in thirty-two fights (one draw). Sturm has now won four fights in nine months and is the WBA mandatory and wants Bernard Hopkins. The “Executioner” has bigger fish to fry (meaning more money to be made elsewhere) so expect Sturm to fight for the vacant title within the next twelve months. Meanwhile, Drews won his third fight after his miserable trip Down Under last August, to beat Argentinean, Omar Eduardo Gonzalez, and continue his climb back into the rankings. He has a long way to go though as his effort against Briggs in Oz was not one to have the promoters beating a path to his door. On the same bill, the “Pit Bull,” Ante Bilic, recorded his eleventh win and defended his WBC Youth light middleweight title with a second round stoppage and Russian 168-pound puncher Denis Inkin, moved to 24-0 (19). Klaus-Peter Kohl’s new boys all kept their 0’s on the show as Aleksy Kuziemski, Alexey Mazikin, Lion Mahir and Jan Zaveck all won as expected. Kohl has twenty-seven boxers from all over Europe (and some of the old Soviet states) who bring a combined 649-34-ten record to his promotions. Nobby Nobbs, he ain’t!

Finnish prospect “Idi” Amin Asikainen moved to 14-0 (11) but has yet to fight anyone resembling a competitive foe and over in Japan, the national middleweight title changed hands when Satoru Suzuki lost in his first defense to Toshihiko Itagaki.

One of the nicer guys to grace the sport of boxing in the nineties, Otis Grant, continued his comeback in Montreal Saturday night and won his fifth points contest in eighteen months to bring his tally up to 37-2-1, after a tough, tactical, tussle with Charles “The Crusader” Adamu. Grant lost in ten rounds to Roy Jones Jr. in November 1998 and was then involved in a car crash, which left him in a coma – he was even read his last rites! “Magic” is also a teacher and has a foundation in Montreal helping the less privileged so he is a true champion regardless of his fighting status.

Back to the U.S., on the big fight under-card in Memphis, we saw a compatriot of the Greatest Ever Warrior,* win in his rebound bout when Lakva Sim stockpiled his seventeenth knockout in twenty wins when referee Allan Lovell rescued Shawn Simmons in the second round. Sim is a two-time WBA champion so you can be pretty sure he’ll get another shot at their belt soon if he keeps on beating this type of opposition. Ratifying that the hunted becomes the hunter, Donnell Wiggins won his second straight kayo with an easy win over hapless “Stormin” Norman Johnson. After a rocky eight months with knockout losses against Jeff Lacy, Rico Hoye and Yusef Mack, the twenty-five-year-old is regrouping, deservedly, against some lower level adversaries. Lightweight Anthony Peterson, scored another kayo to advance to 10-0 (7) in twenty-eight seconds while Memphis native Lamont Peterson, also won in the first to advance to 11-0. Aged just twenty and twenty-one, these Shelly Finkel managed fighters are names to watch. Also on the bill, Vinnie “Yo Vinnie” Maddalone continued his pointless progress while Anne Wolfe’s endless pursuit of Laila Ali moved her up to 20-1. Ali is pretty, but Ms. Wolfe scares the Dickens out of this writer. If you are reading this, I think you are very, very beautiful too, Anne. Olympic Gold Medalist, Andre Ward scored his first stoppage of the year to move to 4-0 (2). The lanky twenty-one-year-old is fighting at middleweight but I feel that his title shot will be better suited at the light heavyweight division in which he won the Gold Medal while fighting with a photo of his father in his shoe. Ward, a nice guy and an Oakland native, is part of the burgeoning stable run by James Prince, the ex-music mogul who is now the manager of twelve top class fighters, five of whom have been top five pound-for-pound within the last two years! Prince has proved his genius in the melody world but is now authenticating his cojones and wisdom by quietly signing some amazing boxers in the last few years. He and De La Hoya could well be the King and Arum of the next millennium or two. Ike Quartey returned to the U.S. after a sixty-two month absence and survived a ninth round knockdown to squeeze out a narrow win over veteran, Verno Phillips. “Bazooka” lost the first few rounds but his strength increased through the middle rounds until the sharp knockdown in the penultimate round caused panic in the African’s camp. I felt Bazooka was unlucky but the HBO team was all in the opinion that the Ghanaian had done enough.

For the third time in his career, Antonio Tarver can now say that he has beaten every fighter he has faced, as he handily defeated fellow Jones destroyer, Glen Johnson. I won’t dwell on this encounter as it is well covered elsewhere, but Tarver boxed very well although Johnson didn’t seem as driven as their previous bout. What’s next is anyone’s guess as boxing fans want to see the rubber match although the money points towards the vanquished Pensacola native. A word of advice to future Tarver opponents – If you beat him, don’t fight him again!

Fighter of the Week goes to Leavander Johnson for finally winning the Lightweight belt. The perseverance paid off.

Nickname of the Week should have gone to “Sugar Poo” but he messed up so I am giving it to Chazz ‘Mensa With Muscles’ Witherspoon, who is also the Prospect of the Week.

Boxing Man of the Week goes to Howard Clarke for his services to the game. We too often disregard the “professional losers” but these guys are the one who build our prospects. Let’s all take a moment to raise our glass and toast these very tough and hard working men.

*The Greatest Ever Warrior is Genghis Khan.

Jonny Townsend can be reached at taansend@yahoo.com