This Week in Boxing.

What’s up in the world of boxing this week? Lots of interesting match-ups and more than a few important world title fights! We kick off this latest installment of “This Week in Boxing” by traveling to England where in London tonight, former Commonwealth welterweight titlist Andrew “The Eagle” Murray returns after a three and a half year hiatus. After defeating Michael Covington and Larry Marks, Murray ran into a patch of bad luck. First, he lost a WBU title challenge to future IBF champion Michele Piccirillo, then a NABO light middleweight title fight to Fathi Missaoui before finally being stopped in three by Richard “The Secret” Williams in a failed Commonwealth light middleweight bid. The thirty-year-old native of Guyana, 27-7-1 (17), will make his return against the overmatched John Ryan, who has lost his last fourteen contests. Ryan last fought as a lightweight, losing to prospect Femi Fehintola over six in October.

For our next fight card, we head to the US where in Glen Burnie, Maryland former USBA Super Featherweight titlist and former world title challenger Lamont Pearson tries to get back on track against an opponent yet to be determined. Pearson, 20-3-1 (11), held the USBA belt in 200-2001 but was derailed by the very tough Orlando Salido. In 2002, Pearson traveled to Thailand to take on WBA kingpin Yodasanan Sor Nanthatchai in front of an audience of over 60,000 only to be stopped in the ninth round. In August of last year, Pearson attempted to regain his old USBA belt against Australian Robbie Peden but was forced to retire with a hand injury in the seventh and hasn’t seen action since. Also on the card will be a pair of undefeated prospects, lightweight Roman Martinez and welter Nick Casal.

Heading south, way, way south, it’s Santa Cruz Argentina where on Friday the old master Jorge Castro contends for the vacant WBA Fedelatin light heavyweight crown against Peter Venacio. The thirty-seven year old Castro has one of the most remarkable modern day records at 127-10-3 (88). Beginning in 1987, Castro didn’t lose a bout until his fortieth fight, winning the Argentine light middleweight crown in the process. He reeled off another fourteen victories before losing again in Argentina. Sixteen victories later and Castro finally got a chance to contend for a world title in 1991. Luck wasn’t with the Argentine as champion “Terrible” Terry Norris was in his prime and handily kept the WBC light middleweight belt. Castro went on to lose a unanimous decision to Roy Jones, Jr. before reeling of twenty-three more victories in Argentina. Finally, Castro won the WBA middleweight title, defeating Reggie Johnson in 1994 and defending it four times before losing to Shinji Takehara a year later.

Castro never again held a world title, although he did contend unsuccessfully two more times, losing to Juan Carlos Gomez for the WBC cruiserweight title in 2000 and failing to life the IBF cruiserweight crown from Vassiliy Jirov two years later. Currently the South American Cruiser king, Castro will meet forty-year-old Peter Venacio for the third time, having won both previous matches in 2001. Venacio, 40-8-1 (30), recently lost two WBO Latino title bouts to the promising Hugo Hernan Garay and has also come up short in a WBA championship battle against William Joppy while posting a win over former WBO and future IBF light middleweight champion Verno Phillips.

Next up we have a WBO world featherweight title match-up between champion Scott Harrison and challenger Victor Polo taking place in Glasgow, Scotland. For Harrison 23-2-1 (13), it’ll be his seventh title defense, stretched over two reigns. The champion will be looking to impressively handle the rangy Polo in hopes of securing much anticipated title unification bouts with Injin Chi and Juan Manuel Marquez. Standing in the way will be Victor Polo, a former three-time world title challenger from Colombia. Polo, 34-4-2 (24), has won all three of his domestic fights since dropping a close split decision in 2002 to WBO beltholder at the time, Julio Pablo Chacon. The thirty four year old challenger has had an impressive career, posting wins over William Abelyan, Angel Vasquez, David Toledo and Roque Cassiani while losing close world title fights to Chacon, Derrick Gainer and Manuel Medina. Also making appearances in Glasgow are British welterweight supremo David Barnes and Scottish prospects Gary Young and Willie Limond.

Moving right along, we head to Panama City, Panama where undefeated WBC Latino bantamweight titlist Ricardo “Maestrito” Cordoba takes on Dairo Julio in a scheduled ten round non-title affair. Cordoba, 23-0 (16), has blazed through all competition so far in his career, picking up a variety of regional belts at super bantam, bantam and super flyweight. Julio, from Columbia, will be trying to reverse the string of bad luck that has seen him drop three of his last four to moderate competition. Also on the card are undefeated prospects Marvin Conception and Ricardo Molina.

Heading back to the US, we find Atlantic City where undefeated Brooklyn light heavyweight Shaun George goes up a weight class to contend for the IBC Americas Cruiserweight title against journeyman Jermell Barnes. George 9-0-1 (5), is coming off a good victory over Daffir Smith in March of last year but may have his hands full, at least on paper. Barnes, 17-7 (4), may have lost four of his last five the level of talent he’s faced dwarfs that of George. The Rochester, NY man has competed at both heavyweight and cruiser, trading punches with Dale Brown, Robert Daniels, Michael Sprott, Felix Cora, Ramon Garbey, Gurcharan Singh and Sione Asipeli. Still on Friday, next up is Detroit where Rubin Williams, 25-1 (15), puts his IBU Intercontinental super middleweight belt at risk against Aaron Norwood 21-4-2 (10). Since suffering a first round knockout at the hands of hammer fisted Epifiano Mendoza two years ago, the twenty-eight year old Williams is riding a six-fight win streak. The thirty-seven year old Norwood is hoping to straighten out his recent form which saw get stopped by prospects Anuedi Santos and Jerson Ravelo.

Remaining in America, we head out on the West Coast where Teddy Reid hopes to mount a comeback against a spoiler, Eduarto Sanchez, in Spokane, Washington. At stake is the interim NABF light middleweight crown and a ladder up into the upper echelon of the division. Reid, 22-6 (16) is a former USBA light welterweight and NABF welterweight belt-holder who has seen his share of peaks and valleys. While posting wins over Eamonn Magee, Joe Hutchinson, Emmanuel Augustus, Terrance Cauthen, Juan Carlos Rubio and Germaine Sanders, the thirty-three year old from Baltimore has come up short against the likes of Ben Tackie, Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis, Jose Antonio Rivera, Golden Johnson and most recently the undefeated sensation Kermit Cintron for the interim WBO welterweight crown. After leading an unassuming career Sanchez, 12-3-2 (8), burst onto the scene by stopping highly regarded prospect and Shane Mosley protege Jose Celaya last June. To prove it was no fluke, Sanchez came in on seven hours notice to handily decision former NABF light middleweight belt-holder JC Candelo two months later. In other action, undefeated Valdemir Pereira defends his WBA Fedelatin featherweight crown against Whyber Garcia.

Still on the West Coast of the States, we head south to sunny California where in Oxnard, hometwon hero Jose Aguiniga, 25-0 (12), continues his march towards a super bantamweight world title shot as he meets journeyman Phillip Payne over ten scheduled rounds. Aguiniga is coming off a convincing four-fight win streak last year, decisioning Alex “Ali” Baba, Cristobal Cruz (in a squeeker), Gerardo Espinoza and Alberto Ontiveros in 2004. Payne, 15-12-1 (7), hasn’t had the best luck lately but has shared the ring with a lot of good fighters and did pull off an upset to forced a stoppage of unbeaten prospect Al Seeger to win the NABA belt in May of last year. Rolando Reyes and Austreberto Juarez are also scheduled to appear.

On to Saturday, our port of call is Osaka, Japan. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam puts his WBC flyweight title and an incredible forty-five fight win streak on the line against Japanese tough guy Noriyuki Komatsu, 19-1-5 (8). The Thai champion 54-2 (29) hasn’t lost since 1996. Wonjongkam won the WBC strap in March of 2001 by stopping Malcolm Tunacao in one round and has since defended it ten times. Should he be successful against Komatsu, a high profile Las Vegas battle against longtime WBC super flyweight titlist and all around Mexican terror Jorge Arce awaits.

Next up, Puerto Rico, where three lighter weight matches take place in Bayamon. Nelson Dieppa, 21-1-2 (12) looks to make his fourth defense of the WBO light flyweight title, meeting former WBO minimumweight kingpin Alex Sanchez, 31-4-1 (21). Former WBA flyweight champion Eric “Little Hands of Steel” Morel, 34-1 (18), seeks to continue his comeback, defending his NABO super flyweight crown against Reynaldo Lopez. Going up to the lightweight class we have Miguel Cotto’s unbeaten older brother Jose, 24-0 (16), stepping in with Richard Carillo for the vacant NABO trinket.

Still on Saturday we have colliding weather systems as WBC light welterweight champion Arturo “Thunder” Gatti faces ageless wonder Jesse James Leija, the “Texas Tornado”, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The resurgent Gatti, 38-6 (29), hopes to continue his recent run of success since turning his once thought to be dead career around after losing to Oscar De La Hoya in 2001. Gatti was most recently seen stopping former WBA lightweight titlist Leonard Dorin with a tremendous body shot, but will have his work cut out for him. At thirty-eight years old, former WBC super featherweight title holder Jesse James Leija, 47-6-2 (19), is riding high after shocking undefeated prospect Francisco Bojado this past July. Another big matchup on the bill is the IBF light middleweight tear up scheduled between champion Kassim Ouma, 20-1-1 (13) and challenger , the former Commonwealth welterweight king Kofi Jantuah, 28-1 (18), of Ghana.

Back in Las Vegas, Elena “Baby Doll” Reid, 15-1-5 (4), meets veteran Lakeysha Williams in an important Women’s super flyweight contest, while in Washington state junior welterweight Martin O’Malley seeks to regain contender status after losing a high profile lightweight bout against current WBA lightweight titlist Juan Diaz. O’Malley, 21-3-1 (14), meets Rafael Ortiz.

Finally, we get to Sunday, where in Seoul, South Korea Injin Chi puts his WBC featherweight title up against his Australian challenger, WBC Youth titlist Tommy Browne, 17-2-1 (7). Chi, 29-2-1 (18), got his belt the hard way, dropping a controversial decision to “El Terrible” Erik Morales in 2001 before fighting former European super bantamweight champion Michael Brodie to a draw two years later. In the rematch this past April, Chi dominated the Englishman to finally take the vacant title.

That’s it for “This Week in Boxing” but we’ll be back next week for more great fights around the globe!

Curtis McCormick can be reached at thomaspointrd@aol.com