McDonnell set for 2013 World Title tilt

"Teremoto" is set to move up to super bantamweight

It's been announced this week that current IBF bantamweight champion Leo "Teremoto" Santa Cruz is set to step up to super bantamweight after his title defence in Los Angeles next week. The busy Mexican clashes with fellow unbeaten countryman Alberto Guevara as chief support to Amir Khan's bout with Carlos Molina next weekend, meaning the title will be vacated in the near future.

Santa Cruz has made two voluntary defences already, and was set to fight his mandatory next year, that being Doncaster's in form Jamie McDonnell. Luckily for both fighters, but McDonnell especially, it seems that Leo's future lies in the bigger weight classes and probably a huge clash with Abner Mares could happen this time next year. When the title will be made vacant McDonnell will land himself fight for the belt and will take on an opponent in the top 15 of the IBF's rankings.

McDonnell after winning his eliminator

The challenger is expected to be someone who has participated in a recent IBF title fight or holds one of their multi continental belts, therefore it's expected that McDonnell will have home advantage and be a pretty strong favourite.

One opponent could be Vusi Malinga, the South African who went the 12 round distance with Santa Cruz when contesting for the vacant title in June, and was supposed to fight Jamie in a title eliminator in October. 30 year old Frenchman Mohamed Boulgehcha held the IBF International title in April 2011 and having won his most recent fight, which was a six rounder, in the weird world of Boxing, he can be classed as a contender. 

A rematch with the awkward Haskins would be very interesting

A potentially dangerous opponent for McDonnell could be unbeaten, big hitting Mexican Julio Ceja (22-0, 20 KO's) who is the current IBF Latino champion, and is ranked #14 in the world, one place above him the Doncaster bantamweight. That looks to be the most dangerous likely opponent out there, while a fight with European champion Lee Haskins of Bristol, would be very interesting, as Haskins was the last person to beat the 26 year old, claiming a 77-76 decision on the referee's scorecard in March 2008.

Hopefully McDonnell will get his long awaited title tilt next year, his recent performances have been excellent. He's done it the right way by winning British, Commonwealth and European titles, and the good news is that if this world title fight comes off, the chances of it being televised on Sky Sports is very likely, this after his last fight with Darwin Zamora was shown on the channel.

Be patient with DeGale

DeGale had to work hard in his last fight

James DeGale has his second taste of Channel 5 TV exposure this weekend, as he challenges tough Colombian Fulgencio Zuniga for the vacant WBC Silver Super Middleweight title at the Bonus Arena in Hull. This comes after a promising, if a little inconsistent, debut on the channel from the 2008 Olympic Gold Medallist, where he successfully defended his European title against France's Hadillah Mohoumadi with a unanimous decision.

DeGale has set himself up for a fall in his rather short pro career, he talked the talked against George Groves, but failed to walk the walk, in what was a very close fight. This comes after being booed on his pro debut, but I sense there could be a change in public perception towards DeGale after his move to Mick Hennessy's promotional stable. Before his last fight a feature with James was aired, and there wasn't as much of the brash, and somewhat full of hot air talk, that we've seen from him in the past. He looked confident and fresh, looking very much forward to a new start in his career after leaving Frank Warren.

Bute destroyed Zuniga in their March 2009

I don't think Warren can be blamed in James' career, he was disappointed when the renowned promoter signed rival Groves, but even after that defeat, DeGale was handed a European title shot against Poland's Piotr Wilczewski, coming through some difficult periods to narrowly claim a majority decision.

The point of this piece is with this fight coming up now, I think people shouldn't put too much pressure on James. We know what he did as an amateur, but the pro's is a completely different game and he's already achieved a lot. He won the British title in his 9th pro fight, travelling to Liverpool to face home favourite Paul Smith, and has had three European title fights already. The southpaw holds a very lofty 13th placed ranking in the world with Boxrec, which I believe he deserves as he's come through some difficult tests, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, I believe DeGale is way off a world title shot. He's boxed just 75 pro rounds, and could do with at least two or three further 12 round contests.

N'Diaye lies in wait for DeGale

This bout with Zuniga could provide him with further experience, as he's taking on a very experienced opponent. The Colombian has a record of 25-6-1 (22 KO's) and the only two guys to have stopped him are a 26-0 Kelly Pavlik and 23-0 Lucian Bute. In his most recent bout he went the 12 round distance with the unbeaten in 21 fights South African Thomas Oostuhizen, who had been linked to a fight with Carl Froch earlier in the year, and showed his resilience in that bout. DeGale has had just 14 fights and I hope fans/pundits respect what's in front of him here, this will be a hard fight and it would be a great experience for James if he gets the full 12 rounds. Saying this if he is able to stop Zuniga, it has to go down as a massive statement.

Hennessy is expected to keep the man from Harlesden very busy and a mandatory defence of his European title is pencilled in at Bluewater in Kent for the 26th of January, against the hard hitting African born Italian Mohuamed N'Diaye in what could be a real treat for Boxing fans in the UK.

Thursday night thriller awaits in Vegas

A huge weekend of Boxing lies ahead for fight fans in Las Vegas, with promoter Bob Arum putting on shows on Thursday, Friday and of course Saturday. Friday sees welterweight contender Jessie Vargas return to the ring, and then on Saturday the action heads to the MGM Grand for that massive 4th fight between Pacquiao and Marquez. The action starts on Thursday however at the Mirage Hotel & Casino, with a fantastic looking lightweight headliner between Raymundo Beltran and Ji-Hoon Kim.

Beltran in his upset win over Lundy

This bout - for the NABF lightweight title - is live on ESPN2 in the USA and features two guys who are not the biggest names in the division, but are always picked for fights on the regular Friday night bills on the channel or their rival ShoBox, the main reason being they always give fans exciting fights. This fight has a lot riding on it now though, with both guys in winning form, and in the top 20 of the divisional rankings.

Beltran spiralled up the rankings with a fantastic majority decision win over Hank Lundy in his last bout, coming through some rough patches early on, to outwork the Philly man down the stretch. A lot of people knew Beltran would give Lundy a hard night's work, but it was a major upset to see him win. Kim also comes into this on the back of an upset victory, having like Beltran, outworked his last opponent, the unbeaten Russian Alisher Rahimov, for a unanimous decision over 10 rounds.

Kim (left) beat the unbeaten Rahimov last time out

This bout has the makings of a serious Fight Of The Year candidate, there might not be a lot of Boxing on show, these are two guys with great engines, they love to throw punches, and defence is very likely to go out of the window after the midway point. Dragon Boxing likes Beltran in this fight, Kim is probably the more limited of the two, and Raymundo will match him for work rate and energy.

The undercard sees some quality prospects on show, the most notable being Jose Benavidez, who fights out of the Wildcard and is unbeaten in 17 fights. He's a welterweight prospect with some wonderful skills, but comes into this fight having been shaken up in the final round of his last bout with 17-7-1 Mexican Pavel Miranda. Thursday night he's scheduled to take on the less dangerous Jesus Selig, who's a Mexican based in Arizona, and the choice of opponent suggests Top Rank are still being cautious with Jose.

Unbeaten Benavidez with the legendary Freddie Roach

A title fight on the undercard sees Jesse Magdaleno face Jonathan Arrellano for the WBO NABO youth super bantamweight belt, which means absolutely nothing to me, but will earn the winner a high ranking with the WBO and put them in the world title contention far sooner than they should be. Jesse is regarded as the most talented of the Magdaleno brothers, and has been incredibly impressive in his short pro career. Jesse is most definitely one to watch, but California's Arrellano has never been stopped and gave unbeaten prospect Roman Morales a tough night in his last bout. You want to see young fighters like Magdaleno progress in their career and this is a fight that should tell us more about him.

Take note of 12-0 Magdaleno

"The Russian Mexican" Evgeny Gradovich makes an appearance on this bill, with the world #38 Featherweight clashing with light hitting New Mexican Willie Villanueva, who was stopped in a round by a then 11-0 Gary Russell Jr in September 2010. This seems like nothing less than a keep busy fight for the exciting Gradovich, who judged by his nickname always comes to fight, and has been involved in a fair few entertaining bouts since turning pro in March 2010.

Verdejo (right) makes his pro debut

Finally the card sees the debut of 2012 Olympian Felix Verdejo, who represented Puerto Rico. Verdejo has signed with Top Rank and is set to campaign at 130lbs as a pro, four months since he reached the quarter finals of the lightweight division tournament, losing to the eventual Gold medallist, Ukraine's exceptionally good Vasyl Lomachenko, who won his second consecutive Olympic Gold. His performances as an amateur have been good and just being 19 years old, he has a lot of time to learn his craft. After what happened with Miguel Cotto at the weekend and also Thomas Dulorme a couple of months ago, Puerto Ricans are searching for the next big thing, could it be Verdejo?