ShoBox 30/12/2011 Preview

The headliners in Cabazon tonight

Tonight sees the last decent Boxing event of 2011, live on Showtime as two former Super 6 entrants return to the ring at the Morongo Casino Report & Spa in Cabazon, California.


The first sees one time P4P leader Jermain Taylor return at middleweight, this his first fight a 12th round KO defeat against Arthur Abraham in October 2009, this being the second time he had boxed well, but being stopped in the final round, previously by Carl Froch. He has lost four of his last five fights, but has been defeated just once as a middleweight in his career. The talent is there, but this really is a gimme on return as he faces Baltimore man Jessie Nicklow, who was stopped in four by the best name on his record, Fernando Guerrero, and has just eight stoppage wins in 27 pro fights.


Andre Dirrell is another on the comeback trail and like Taylor his last fight was v Abraham, becoming the first man to beat and stop the German, this in October of last year. He's not the most fan friendly fighter, his fight v Froch was a real dud, but he is a pretty slick boxer, and could have a style to give world #1 Andre Ward some real problems. On paper he has a harder fight than Taylor, against Darryl Cunningham, who has lost twice, but is on a 18 fight win streak. The problem could be he is 37 years old and with this being an all southpaw fight, it could be a bit messy.

Perez needs to impress

Two Irish based Cubans are on the bill as Prizefighter heavyweight champ Mike Perez faces the game and tough Friday Ahunanya, stopped just once in 35 fights by Lance Whittaker and at one time he has been a top 25 fight heavyweight. Perez really didnt impress in his last fight, and has lost a lot of hype since his Prizefighter success, so this is pretty big!


The other Cuban on the bill is Luis Garcia, a light heavyweight, who hasnt been in the ring for 13 months and faces a very dangerous fight against fellow unbeaten fighter Alexander Johnson, who had an excellent MD win in April over then 19-0 Farah Ennis. Garcia has the amateur pedigree, and also the better pro form, but ring rustyness could level it out, which makes this a very interesting contest.

Pedraza at the pre-week weigh in

There's one or two other decent prospects on the bill, including 8-0 (7 KO's) LA based Ukrainian Ivan Redkach, but the more interesting fighter is Puerto Rican Jose Pedraza 5-0 (4 KO's), a very talented 22 year old lightweight. I'm not a 100% sure who he's fighting, I've heard he's facing a Ghanaian kid, but so far no opponent is announced on Boxrec. Pedraza has looked very good so far in his short pro career, and last time out in El Paso stopped Ecuadorian John Wampash in four, something hot prospect Gary Russell Jr couldnt do in his second pro fight.


This bill is live on Premier Sports in the UK at 4am, it is a bit late, but I'm hoping to watch it, and will review the performances shown in the coming days.

2011 Fight of the Year

We've had Fighters of the Year and Trainer of the Year, but to cap it off now, I'm going to pick my 2011 Fight of the Year.

First of all some fights that I really enjoyed, but just didnt make the cut. Liam  Walsh v Paul Appleby was an absolute small hall classic and many people's British fight of the year, both guys showed so much guts and the fight had absolutely everything, however another British fight has beaten it.

Cotto v Margarito II had a great buildup and both guys went to war again, while in the same month Amir Khan v Lamont Peterson was a real rollercoaster, with Peterson winning a controversial bout on a split decision.

A fight that came really close for me was the February bout between Brandon Rios and Miguel Acosta, for Acosta's WBA lightweight title. Bam Bam is never in a bad fight and both guys delivered a great fight for the fans in Vegas here, with Rios winning the all out war in 10.

Mitchell v Murray was a great fight

However like at the British Boxing Board of Control award ceremony, my Fight of the Year is the July bout between Kevin Mitchell and John Murray. I and probably everyone in Boxing knew this was going to be a great fight. Both guys are true warriors and from the first bell both guys went to work in what was a real classic. Being a fan of both fighters, it was great to see such a great showing, and when you consider Murray hadnt even had a great camp, it was testament to both fighters for putting on such a good show at the Echo Arena. Mitchell showed a bit of everything in the fight, some guts, great conditioning, power and most importantly classy skills as he won in eight, with this his first bout since the devestating loss to Katsidis.

Well done to both fighters and I look forward to seeing them both back in action in 2012.

2011 Trainer of the Year

Honourable mentions here have to go to Oxnard's Robert Garcia, who has a brilliant gym in California, Andre Ward's trainer Virgil Hunter, and father/son combo Jimmy and Mark Tibbs have had a great year, shown in their work with British champ Colin Lynes.


However I've gone for a fellow Welshman here (no bias) and my 2011 trainer of the year is Newport's Tony Borg.


Earlier this month Lee Selby made a successful first defence of his British and Commonwealth titles, becoming the first man to stop the very tough John Simpson, doing so with a body shot in the 5th.

Dragon Boxing Trainer of the year 2011, Tony Borg.

In Selby and British super feather champ Gary Buckland, they have two fighters who have come on leaps and bounds this year, and looked very good in winning British belts.


Below these two, they have some awesome amateurs at the gym with Fred Evans, who has qualified for the Olympics, and the hotly tipped Joe Cordina and Sean McGoldrick, who recently won Gold at the Olympic test event in London. These along with Lee's brother Andrew, who is an awesome amateur fighter and sometimes trains at the gym, shows that there's real depth to this gym.


Borg has clearly improved technique of the fighters and also brought a great conditioning program. He has been around for quite some time, but finally he seems to be getting some credit for the great work he does in South Wales.

Fighters of 2011

That time of year to recap on 2011, plenty of good fights and those will come later in the week, but who have been my top five fighters of 2011? These are in no particular order.


1. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez

Saunders is a fighter to watch

Yes he had an easy world title fight against light punching welterweight Matthew Hatton, but has gone on to stop quality challengers Ryan Rhodes, Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron. What I've really liked about this guy is he's been very active and expect his ever increasing stock to rise further in 2012.


2. Anthony Crolla


I'm a big fan of the current British lightweight champion, who has come on in leaps and bounds under Joe Gallagher. Won the title with a dominant performance over John Watson, finishing with a wonderful shot, and recently made a successful first defence, again on away territory against Willie Limond, who he outboxed easily over 12. The rumour mill suggests a big fight with Ricky Burns in March beckons for "Million Dollar".


3. Kell Brook

A huge all British world title fight with Burns awaits Crolla

Another fighter who's remained active and just this past weekend made his US debut on the Ward v Froch undercard. Very mature fighter and definitely needs to be stepped up to world level having beaten former world title challengers Lovemore N'Dou and Rafal Jackiewicz this year, he's the only guy to have stopped the very tough Pole.


4. Billy Joe Saunders


Big fan of this guy, he's such a fantastic fighter in my opinion and has come on well in the last few months of the year, picking up his first title, which was the Southern Area belt in his first full 10 rounder against Gary Boulden. Is in the right camp with Jimmy and Mark Tibbs, and needs some title fights in early 2012 to move on.


5. Andre Ward


Hard not to put this guy in after his very easy win over Carl Froch at the weekend. Froch never gives anyone a comfortable fight, but Ward was quite simply better than him in all areas. He made the very straining Super 6 look like a cake walk and some mega fights will be lined up in 2012.

Super 6 Final should be a classic

Which fighter will hold the belts at the end?

No surprise to see Andre Ward as a big favourite with the bookies, considering he's not lost in years and is a very skilled fighter.

Styles make fights though and I think this is going to be a completely different challenge for Ward.

At the start of this Super 6 tournament he looked very good in beating what was an old looking Kessler. The form of that has been boosted by Kessler winning a world title since and also beating Froch (contentious decision), but for me something was wrong with the Dane that night.

This guy is a very slick and exceptionally fast fighter, but his last three fights has seen him fight no more than decent operators, who became punch bags. Allan Green and Sakio Bika werent even in the competition to start off with, and those are a good couple of levels below Froch, while Arthur Abraham in his last fight, was a shot fighter at this level after Froch demolished him in front of his own crowd on his own show.

What makes Froch such a lively underdog in this fight is that he's such a great away fighters, only one of his last five fights have been in the UK. The judges scored his last fight with Glen Johnson a MD, but many press people had it clear for Froch and he was always the stronger guy in the ring. This guy is a warrior, we know what he's going to bring, loads of pressure, big punches, but he's also as technically sound as Ward.

I'll have to be honest, I would find it hard to go against Froch here because I'm such a massive fan of him as a person and fighter, but having evaluated the fight, I think he stands a great chance. He's a better fighter than he was going into the Kessler fight, there's not so much pressure on him, and looking at how he boxed v Abraham, he is a supremely confident fighter at the moment. 

Of Ward's 24 wins as a pro, he's won 13 of them early, but look at it early and he's won just two by KO, showing he's not really a big puncher, and the guys he has stopped have been at a very low level. When you think that Froch has stopped the likes of Jermain Taylor and Brian Magee, you can see what kind of level he's at. I think he brings the more natural power and if I was in the Ward camp I'd be worried about that as fast hands can only do so much.

I think this could very well be decided in the last three or four rounds, both guys tend to come on strong, and in their last fights, both guys has impressive finishes. Froch's power stays with him to the end however and that could be absolute key in this contest. It wont be easy for the Nottingham man and going over to the US is not easy, but he's done it before and there's no reason why he cant do it again.

Five things to watch at York Hall on Wednesday night

Great to have a midweek bill on Box Nation (Sky 456) this week, headlined by British champ Lee Selby, defending his belt against Scotland's John Simpson.


York Hall is the venue and it should be a good bill, here are five things to watch if you're watching it at home or going down to Bethnal Green.


1. Can the main event live up to it's billing?


People in the trade are buzzing about this one, it's a proper 50/50 fight, and the kind of fight everyone who loves boxing will relish. Selby looked great last time out v Stephen Smith, a guy who's twice outpointed John Simpson. The Scot is a warrior though, experienced at championship level, does 12 rounds standing on his head, and actually is a bigger puncher than his record suggests. People will remember that it was this time last year that he beat Martin Lindsay in Belfast to win this title.


2. Will Steve O'Meara impress again?


Steve O'Meara looked outstanding in knocking out the unbeaten Ryan Toms in a round last time out, and big surprise considering he had just two KO's going into that one. He's only lost to late Prizefighter winner Brett Flournoy and unbeaten Liverpool man Joe Selkirk (both on points) and is a Southern area champ in an open light middleweight division. He faces Nathan Wiese, a light puncher, who drew with Toms last time out.


3. Can Billy Joe Saunders end 2011 on a high?


Billy Joe Saunders has been very active in the last few months, and having gone 10 rounds for the first time last time out, expect him to show his improvement on this bill. He's one of my favourite fighters on the UK scene and although no opponent has been named so far, this is all about the performance, we need to see something that sets it up nicely for 2012.


4. Can unbeaten prospect Georgie Michael Carman bounce back?


Carman was being heralded as a fighter to look out for a few months back, but really disappointed last time on TV at Wembley, claiming a very lucky draw against Tom Bowen. Considering Bowen was then blown out in a round against a guy with a record of 0-0-1, it has made Carman's showing look even more disappointing. At York Hall he faces the very hard to look good against, Robin Deakin, but he needs a big performance.


5. Is Michael Maguire a fighter to keep our eye on?


6-0 (2 KO's) super bantamweight Michael Maguire from Peterborough was with Hayemaker and had some good performances, but he's been out of the ring since January 2010 and it's hard to know what to expect. He's not been given an easy fight to return, facing Najah Ali, stopped only by Michael Walsh, and with a 10 round points win over Don Broadhurst.

The Scots are making a wee bit of noise

Burns is a two weight world champ

Spearheaded by current WBO interim lightweight champion Ricky Burns and his trainer Billy Nelson, Scottish Boxing is buzzing at the moment, with plenty of good prospects coming through, and also some big fights on the horizon.


Burns has had a magnificent year and has become a two weight world champion, improving so much in the last two years, which kicked off with that incredible points win over then #1 super featherweight, Roman "Rocky" Martinez. The way he out-boxed Katsidis was superb, and showed everyone, including myself, that he is a genuine world level operator. A big all British clash with Kevin Mitchell, or even John Murray beckons, but their could also be a couple of all Scottish clashes for him.


Lee McAllister has had his last three fights at 140lbs and challenges for the European light welterweight title in February 2012, but he could easily drop down a division. While Burns another potential opponent for Burns could be the returning Scott Harrison, back from his jail sentence in Spain, and set to return at this weight, having like Burns been a world champion at super feather.

Harrison is coming back in 2012

This week John Simpson challenges Lee Selby for the British featherweight title, I fight I really fancy him winning, especially as he's had more time at Nelson's gym for this one. Another Nelson fighter was excellent in his most recent fight, Paul Appleby played his part in probably one of the British fights of the year against the unbeaten Liam Walsh, which he lost on points. Appleby is still young and with more work and focused camps, he is a danger in the super featherweight division.


It's hard to forget Kenny Anderson because he's not based north of border anymore after some gangland problems, but this guy is an absolute warrior, shown in his fight with George Groves and just needs the breaks to get a title opportunity. He's in action this week as well.

Simmons is one of several prospects impressing in Scotland

The depth of talent goes right down to the prospects coming through, Stephen Simmons is an excellent, former amateur star at cruiserweight, who is 3-0 (1 KO) and has shown great power and an impressive skillset in his three outings. The flyweight division is probably not the most well known in Britain, but a 19 year old called Iain Butcher is coming through, he's 2-0 (0 KO's), and has boxed nicely in both pro appearances. A fighter I've featured before on my blog is super feather Michael Roberts, who's 6-0 (0 KO's), like Butcher has nice skills, but might lack some power, and the same can be said about another fighter in the division, Glasgow man Jon Slowey, who's 7-0 with no early wins. Finally there's a highly regarded light welterweight coming through called Sammy Hill (2-0, 0 KO's), who has boxed incredibly well in his two pro outings.


All of this makes for a very promising future for Scottish Boxing, it would be great to see Ricky Burns headlining a big bill at Hampden Park or somewhere in the next year or two, but we've seen some decent bills at places like Kelvin Hall and Ravenscraig Leisure Centre recently, and there's definitely a market for it in Scotland.


Being a Welshman I have to mention that like in Scotland with Nathan Cleverly heading the charge, Welsh Boxing is back on the up, and I think it's safe to say that the Celts are coming!

Fight predictions - Weekend starting 2/12/2011

Huge weekend of Boxing and I'm absolutely buzzing about all the action. I have been doing detailed previews of late, but with so much action and the fact I want to concentrate on the prospects a bit more, I'll just summarise the fights with a sentence or two.

Felix Sturm v Martin Murray

Sturm was very lucky to beat Macklin last time out, and Matt's style just didnt suit him at all. The pace v Murray will be slower and that will help the ex world amateur champ. Murray has a good defence and doesnt make any mistakes, but Sturm will have a bit more class. STURM UD

Chris Avalos v Jhonatan Romero

Good super bantamweight matchup on Showtime tonight and I like an upset here. Avalos is highly touted, but rushes a bit too much for me and can leave himself open, he's also the one with a loss to his name here. Romero is very fit, has a clever, boxing style, and has mixed at a decent level in 2011. ROMERO SD

Anthony Dirrell v Renan St Juste

The bill topper of the card mentioned above and a really intriguing super middleweight title eliminator. Dirrell is the brother of Super 6 dropout Andre, and is unbeaten in 23 fights, winning 20 early. This is going to be a great learning fight for him over a dangerous, if somewhat inconsistent St Juste. DIRRELL UD

Robert Helenius v Dereck Chisora

A lot of people will fancy the unbeaten Helenius on home turf, but I think Chisora has the potential to really upset the odds. He looks fit and focused on this fight, something he wasnt against Fury. Helenius has mixed at a good level, but hasnt fought anyone with the same hunger nor fight left in him as Del Boy. CHISORA WIN

Alexander Povetkin v Cedric Boswell

Povetkin had a lot of hype surrounding him as he entered the pro ranks, but that has left him and I can see why. He's not been too impressive of late and has had to work pretty hard to win his last two fights. Boswell has got some decent skills, he's on a good run of form, and in a weird kind of way, deserves his chance. I cant see him being good enough to win here though. POVETKIN UD

Prince Arron v Brian Rose

Arron makes the first defence of his British title and having won his last three by stoppage, I fancy another early win here. He's a tough guy to beat in this division because of his heigh and looked great in his last fight v Sam Webb. Rose has mixed at a pretty low level and has question marks hanging over his ability and chin. ARRON RD7

Vic Darchinyan v Anselmo Moreno

Darchinyan is talking about going into MMA after this fight, that doesnt speak much confidence to me. He's had a lot of hard fights and here faces a guy who looked really good last time out v Lorenzo Parra and isnt afraid of going outside of his comfort zone. The Ring Magazine has Moreno at #2 and 

Darchinyan at #5, that's enough for me. MORENO WIN

Mike Jones v Sebastian Lujan

Jones is a hotly tipped welterweight prospect, but when stepped up in class v Jesus Soto Karass, was a very controversial winner first time around, and only just nicked the second fight. He needs rounds and should get that against the in form and very tough Argentine Sebastian Lujan. Should be a good one and the decision might be controversial. JONES POINTS

Pawel Wolak v Delvin Rodgriguez

The first fight between these two was an absolute barnstormer and they go for  it once again at the Garden. Wolak was on a great run before the draw and I favour him slightly here. I dont think Rodriguez is good enough defensively to keep him off, and before the first fight, he really was struggling to get victories. WOLAK UD

Brandon Rios v John Murray

I dont like going against Joe Gallagher fighters, but I cant see Murray winning this one. The noises coming from the camp have been positive and Murray seems to have his head screwed on, but I am a massive fan of Rios and watched his last few fights. His power looked unbelievable last time out v Antillon, and on paper this is a step down in class. A lot of British people are underestimating Rios and will find out what he's all about on Saturday night. BAM BAM RD6

Abner Mares v Joseph Agbeko

Proper pick'em fight and another rematch for this weekend. Mares sneaked a win in August, but threw a lot of low blows, including one in the 11th that was ruled a knockdown. Agbeko is very tough and has improved a lot, but I dont think he's powerful enough to get Mares out of there, and I like the Mexican's skills. MARES POINTS

Miguel Cotto v Antonio Margarito

The rematch does take place and I cannot wait for it. I dont think Margarito had loaded wraps for the first fight, and because of that I fancy him once again in a division where he sits nicer. I've watched a few of Cotto's last fights and havent been impressed by him. He seems to have lost some power and speed, and going into this one, he is on his third trainer in four fights. Both are damaged goods, but Margarito's strength wins it. MARGARITO RD10