Prospect Watch - Weekend Starting 17/2/12

What a huge weekend of Boxing in prospect, big fights all over the place, and with so many high class fights, it means there's plenty of good talent on the undercards.

Buitrago is a big star in his homeland

Bit of a left field one to start as we head to Nicaragua on Friday night, where the very exciting minimuweight Carlos Buitrago (21-0, 14 KO's) goes for the interim WBO Latino title. He has had a lot of fights already, but they start them early over in Nicaragua, this kid is 20 years old, however his debut was in June 2008. He is starting to become a bigger star, but has been taken the distance in his last two fights, suggesting he's getting harder matches. Ranked #19 in the world already, he's definitely one of the more exciting guys coming through in the lighter weights, but faces a step up in class here. Facing him will 32 year old Colombian Gabriel Mendoza (14-0-2, 12 KO's), who's a real unknown having never gone outside of his homeland, but on paper he looks a serious puncher. He's not beaten much in his career and in his hardest test against then 12-4 Jorle Estrada, he only just nicked a split decision, so you'd think he's not got the skills to match "Chocorroncito".

Diaz is very exciting

Friday night in Cicero, Illinois, there's a guy who I'm really excited about making his second appearance of the year already in super featherweight Joel Diaz (7-0, 6 KO's). His last fight on the 20th of January was one of the best fights I've seen this year, screened live on ShoBox as he got through fellow undefeated fighter Guy Robb in seven rounds. The Palmdale 19 year old showed fantastic heart to bring himself off the floor in the second, to then put Robb down twice in the third, and to bully him for the rest of the fight. He reminds me a lot of Brandon Rios, which is a massive compliment I believe, in that he does ship punishment, but he's a really strong kid. He is inexperienced, but a really dangerous fighter. So far no opponent has been confirmed, but I have heard he's very much expected on the bill, although you wouldn't expect as good as opponent as Robb last time out.

Dulorme has been training with Marcos Maidana

ShoBox is usually a good place to check out some decent prospects coming through and this Friday night in Santa Ynez, California is no different. Headlining is the exciting Puerto Rican welterweight Thomas Dulorme (13-0, 10 KO's) as he chases the vacant NABF title. This kid came to my notice when he fought "Chop Chop" Chorley in June last year and for such an inexperienced kid, he dealt with Chorley very well, putting him down in the 3rd. He has since followed it up with another comfortable points win over a tough Venezuelan called Charlie Jose Navarro, who had gone the distance with Vyacheslav Senchenko for the WBA title, and also with the tough Argentine Sebastian Andres Lujan. To be ranked #38 in the world after just 13 fights is very impressive, but to do so in one of the best divisions in Boxing says even more.  On Friday his opponent is Californian Aris Ambriz (16-2-1, 8 KO's) who's never gone past eight rounds, and was stopped in four by the very talented Canadian Pier Olivier Cote in May, which is a real benchmark performance.


Also on this bill is a local fighter called Roman Morales (8-0, 5 KO's), who's a regular to this Chumash Casino, with half of his pro fights coming at this venue. So far in his career he hasn't really been with many quality opponents, but what he's done, he's done well, boxing nicely to comfortable points wins against some of the tougher guys he's fought. I see him as the type of fighter who will take time to mature, but the raw skills are there. He faces a really tough kid here in Jonathan Alcantara (5-6-2, 1 KO), who's never been stopped as a pro and been in with the likes of Efrain Esquvias, Jesse Magdaleno and Jonathan Arrellano. He comes into this fight on the back of his first career stoppage win, which was on the 12th of January, and certainly he looks like a guy that will test Morales.

Alvarez is a massive puncher

Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Adonis Stevenson headlines in an IBF title eliminator, and chief support is provided a really good light heavyweight called Eleider Alvarez (7-0, 5 KO's). He's a 27 year old Colombian, who's been based in Canada all of his career, but like so many guys turning pro quite late, he already looks set for some big fights. In his last fight he absolutely destroyed a Dominican fighter called Emiliano Cayetano, who probably doesn't have the greatest chin, but it took seven rounds for Karo Murat to get rid of him, Alvarez stunned him in a round. This guy is extremely strong and has showed some tremendous power so far in his pro career. Here he's fighting for the vacant WBC Latino title and faces a very experienced guy in Otis Griffin (23-9-2, 9 KO's). Griffin can certainly be knocked out, but he has gone the distance with the likes of Yusaf Mack (SD loss) and also Jeff Lacy, which was also a close fight. For me a hungry guy like Alvarez will give him big problems, but usually he's put in with guys who've had over 20 fights, not seven, interesting to see how this one goes!


Oscar Rivas (8-0, 5 KO's). Competed in the 2008 Olympics, where he beat Kubrat Pulev, before losing to the Gold medallist Cammarelle of Italy, who also beat David Price. This kid turned pro at the right time, he had a decent Olympics, but he was also young when he came to Canada and he's got a long time left in the game. In his last fight he stopped Matthew Greer in three rounds and has actually stopped his last four opponents, which have been steps up in class. He faces 6ft4 Croatian Ivica Perkovic (15-12, 11 KO's) this weekend and he looks a good few levels better than him, with all of Perkovic's wins coming in Croatia and any time he has travelled to step up in class, he's struggled.

Galahad has a real test in Booth

Channel 5 are back with their first Boxing bill of 2012 and for a change it's not Tyson Fury headlining, it's Sheffield fighter Kid Galahad (10-0, 4 KO's) just a few miles away in Rotherham. He faces Jason Booth (36-8, 15 KO's) for the vacant WBC International super bantamweight, in what looks a really interesting fight. I remember Galahad making his debut when Hennessy had a deal with ITV, but for a couple of years he went really quiet. However towards the end of last year, he started to become a bit busier and he seemed to really improve. A typical Ingle fighter, his power seems to have really come on of late, and he claimed a really good win over James Ancliff in four rounds last time out. He looks talented, but this is a massive step up in class, albeit against what looks like a shot "2 Smooth" Booth. One of my favourite fighters on the UK scene, he's suffered his first two stoppage losses in his last two fights, one in Spain against Kiko Martinez and the other in Bolton v Scott Quigg. However a year ago he beat Jamie Arthur to defend his British and Commonwealth titles, and this is guy is a very determined fighter, as shown by his battle with alcoholism a few years back. A lot of people will say Booth has taken this for the money, which will have been very good, but he is a warrior and it wont be an easy night for Galahad, another good fight to get some casual fans into Boxing.

Eubank Jr has his second pro fight

The other main attraction on this bill is Chris Eubank Jr (1-0, 1 KO) who doesnt really need an introduction with that name. He had a decent test in his first fight against a tough Lithuanian called Kirilas Psonko, showing some flash Boxing and proving way too good in four rounds. Looking at that performance, he doesn't look like the biggest puncher in the world, but the ability is most definitely there. This weekend he has a really difficult contest against Jason Ball (5-5-1, 4 KO's), who lives in Doncaster and won the Central Area title in his last fight by beating Ste Harkin. It was a fight screened live on Box Nation and I was very impressed with Ball, who came on really strong to win in seven. He's improved a lot since Liam Cameron stopped him in a round in April last year, and although that title win was at light middleweight, most of his fights have been at middleweight.


Finishing off my mini preview of the Channel 5 bill is another novice in Nottingham's Leigh Wood (2-0, 0 KO's), who fights in the featherweight division. I don't know a great deal about this lad, but he featured on the Fury v Pajkic undercard and boxed very well to a 40-36 points win over Scotland's Ryan McNicol, who's only ever been stopped once in 19 pro fights. This weekend he has another tricky opponent in Mansfield based Latvian Pavels Senkovs (2-40-4, 2 KO's), stopped just twice in 46 fights, and has mixed at a very decent level. He's in form as well as he drew with Jon Kays in December last year and went the distance with the talented Terry Flannigan a couple of weeks later. 

Nielsen is a top middleweight coming through

In Denmark on Saturday night, Brian Magee defends his interim WBA title against home favourite Rudy Markussen, and on the undercard is a real star of the future in my opinion in Patrick Nielsen (12-0, 6 KO's). The middleweight is only 20 years old and is starting to be matched harder in his career, which is needed to bring these prospects on. In his last fight he won the IBF Youth title by comfortably outpointing tough German Michael Schubov, he was comfortable and to go the 10 round distance with a hard man like Schubov, who's never been stopped, will have been a great learning curve. This weekend he faces Hungarian Joszef Matlocsi (30-17-1, 20 KO's), stopped just four times in his career, and has gone the 12 round distance on a good few occasions, but I also remember Paul Smith absolutely blowing him away in a round last year. He went the 12 round distance with 27-1 Italian Emanuelle Della Rosa in November, and that shows he can be a really hard man to face.


That concludes this weekend's Prospect Watch, Klitschko v Chisora preview to follow!