A Closer Look at the Junior Welterweights.

Considered by many to be the most entertaining weight class in boxing for several years now, the junior welterweight division is currently in full bloom with long awaited pairings and title fights set to take place in the near future. We’ll take a look at ten of the division’s best in this article.

Kostya Tszyu, 31-1. The old master came roaring back to life in 2004, hammering the stuffing out of a boxer thought to be the most difficult opponent in the division, Sharmba Mitchell. Longtime IBF champion Tszyu proved many in the media wrong with the victory as skeptics predicted he wouldn’t be able to return to form after a twenty-two month layoff and rather severe training injuries. The Aussie-Russian will face a new challenge this coming June however, when he’ll meet the much younger Ricky Hatton. The fight takes place in the English whirlwind’s hometown of Manchester and at thirty-five, Tszyu will be giving away almost ten years to Hatton. Can Tszyu’s trusty right hand cannon erase any advantages that Hatton may posses before the WBU champion can use them or will we see a drawn out torrid affair that has Tszyu in a real dogfight for the first time since a close call against Oktay Urkal in 2001? Should Tszyu win, as will be expected by most, he may realize a long-standing ambition to move up to the welterweight class.

Floyd Mayweather, 33-0. On the move from the lower weight classes, you can bet former super feather and lightweight world champion Mayweather doesn’t like being belt-less. The American seems to favor the WBC variety and sure enough, he’s got that organization’s champion, Arturo Gatti, lined up in his sights. Mayweather jumped into the division with a rocky start last year, prevailing in a slugfest against former WBO champion DeMarcus Corley, and then this year he outclassed Miguel Cotto protege Henry Bruseles. Lately, the lightning reflexed Mayweather has been much more offensive minded, likely due to healthy hands and also to shake the tag some had labeled him with of being a boring defensive fighter. An upcoming fight against Gatti should be very intriguing to say the least. Gatti has long held the unofficial title of world’s most exciting fighter and you can bet Mayweather will seek to engage the WBC champion in a thrilling middle of the ring punch-up in order to try and take everything from the proud warrior.

Miguel Cotto, 22-0. The WBO champion won the belt at only twenty-three years of age, in his twenty-first fight, by hammering his amateur nemesis and previously unbeaten rival Kelson Pinto last September. Since then Cotto solidified his position by stopping former champion Randall Bailey in convincing fashion. Next up for the budding Puerto Rican star is a test against another former champion, DeMarcus Corley, later this month. Corley can be elusive and defensive at times, which could cause the patient Cotto difficulty and possibly make for a boring fight. Cotto is very precise with his punches and if he can engage his opponent, we could see something that Mayweather and former IBF champion Zab Judah couldn’t manage and that’s stopping Corley. Should Cotto defend the WBO, big money fights against the winner of Gatti – Mayweather and Tszyu – Hatton, or a unification fight with WBA champion Vivian Harris could be in the waiting.

Arturo Gatti, 39-6. Mr. Excitement has won his last three in thrilling fashion, including overcoming a broken hand to finish Gianluca Branco last year to take the WBC belt. Since then, tough title defenses on paper against former WBA lightweight champion Leonard Dorin and veteran Jesse James Leija turned out to be impressive knockout victories by Gatti. A hotly anticipated fight against Mayweather is on tap for June and it remains to be seen how Gatti will approach what will certainly be his toughest fight in a long career full of them. Will he remain true to recent form and try to use his vastly improved boxing skills against probably the games best boxer, or will he revert to classic smash-mouth form and look to land his lethal left hook on the naturally smaller man? A lot depends on how Mayweather fights. Corley had the quick-handed former lightweight champion hurt several times and he doesn’t have the power of Gatti, so we may see Little Floyd try to keep the Canadian native at the end of his punches, tattooing the slower man as he tries to engage. Mayweather does think he can beat Gatti at his own game of swapping punches however, and will likely stand and try to outbox the WBC champion at close quarters despite the dangers of doing so.

Vivian Harris, 25-1-1. WBA champion Harris is still in search for meaningful, title unifying fights over two years after winning the belt against Diobelys Hurtado. The tall Guyana born puncher has proven adept at getting past prime European competition including Oktay Urkal and Souleymane M’baye, but has been frustrated by a lack of fights against top American based opposition willing to share the ring with him. Harris has shown improvement under new trainer/manager Emmanuel Steward, evident in his eleventh round stoppage of Urkal in a rematch when he was lucky to escape Germany with a win during their first fight in May of last year. Harris has been in the press calling out everyone of note in the division and hopefully will secure a fight with one of the other titleholders in the near future, with the winner of Cotto – Corley likely being the best bet. Harris is talented and remains dangerous but needs to make the most out of any opportunities that come his way.

Ricky Hatton, 38-0. High-energy dynamo Hatton finally gets to prove his claim to true world-class standing when he takes on the much-feared IBF champion Tszyu this June. The twenty-six year old did something that no one else in the division had previously done in his last two fights, and that is stop Ray Oliveira and Mike Stewart. Kostya Tszyu is a whole different kettle of fish however from those two durable Americans, as Hatton will find out from the first bell. The Englishman has proved hittable in the past but has walked through the best right hands that respectable hitters Ben Tackie and Vince Phillips had to offer. Should Tszyu get those same opportunities, Hatton may not be so lucky. To have a prayer against the IBF champion, Hatton will have to force his rapid pace on the older man and wear Tszyu down with his accumulative combined body and head attack, all the while avoiding getting caught flush by those very heavy hands. Outside of Britain, Tszyu will be almost universally favored to win and extend his lengthy reign. Should Hatton prevail however, a huge money fight against Miguel Cotto would almost be a certainty.

Sharmba Mitchell, 55-4. Tszyu made the former WBA champion look old in one fight last November, no mean feat considering Mitchell had reeled off a string of eight impressive wins over respectable competition since he and Tszyu’s first meeting in 2001. In the rematch, Mitchell strangely neglected his impressive boxing skills and rather suicidally chose to basically stand in front of Tszyu and trade, getting stopped in the third round. There has been speculation that the American will return as a welterweight but after fifty-nine fights, he may be considering retirement. Mitchell is only thirty-four years old however and assuming his pre-Tszyu disaster skills are still intact, he could easily continue to compete in the upper levels of the lively light welterweight class if he chooses to do so.

DeMarcus Corley, 29-3-1. Since posting a career best win over Randall Bailey in 2003 to defend the WBO title, Corley has lost two out of his last three fights. True, those losses were of a competitive nature to some of the best fighters in the junior welterweight class, Mayweather and Judah, but his next opponent, Miguel Cotto is of the same caliber. Cotto has only really been troubled by the hard as nails Lovemore Ndou, who was able to laugh his way through the Puerto Rican’s best shots, and looms large over Corley if not the entire division. If the former WBO champion is to unseat the current one, he’ll have to rip off a career best performance and find a way to nullify Cotto’s lethal, quick and accurate left hooks. A loss would relegate Corley to gatekeeper status, while a win would put him right back in the mix with lots of high profile fights to follow.

Lovemore Ndou, 39-7-1. After years of banging on the door, the South African now living in Australia finally got the big he fights he was calling for in 2004. First, he gave Sharmba Mitchell absolute hell as a late replacement for Kostya Tszyu, banging many right hands off the head of the American in a losing effort for the IBF interim belt. He then gave Cotto a scare last May. Though Cotto clearly out-boxed Ndou in a title eliminator, the Puerto Rican’s vaunted punching power didn’t have much effect on the granite jawed African. Ndou turned pro at a much lighter weight in 1993 but has probably gotten stronger and more resilient the higher he’s climbed in classes. Even though he’s lost when stepping up to the division’s elite, Ndou remains a dangerous option for any of the top ten which could cause him difficulty in securing additional meaningful fights.

Oktay Urkal, 34-3. Urkal needs to regroup after losing a rematch in his adopted homeland of Germany last October against Vivian Harris. Failing to improve upon his performance in the first fight, which many felt he clearly won, Urkal was unable to keep pace with a more focused Harris and was stopped in the eleventh round. The Turkish born Urkal can likely regain another European title, but it remains to be seen whether or not he can still compete in the top ten of the sport’s most contentious division. Urkal came close to defeating Tszyu in 2001 but needs to find that form once again if he is to ever wear a world title belt around his waist.

Richard Eberline can be reached at richardeberline@fastmail.fm