Lucky '07

riz · Joined: 15 Dec 2005 Posts: 5371

Lucky 07
By Rizwaan Zahid

Just about twelve months ago I wrote an article looking forward to the year 2007 and the possible match ups that could happen. Most of them did and we have seen a great year of boxing filled with quality fights and the best fighting the best.

This is a review of lucky number ’07.

The heavyweight division was supposed to have somewhat of a breakthrough this year with the hope that a unification title fight would occur. Although that has not happened, the first scheduled unification fight since Holyfield fought Lewis, is occurring early next year when Wladimir Klitsckho will face off against Sultan Ibragimov for the IBF and WBO heavyweight titles.

Sultan became the WBO champion after his clinical and technical unanimous decision over Shannon Briggs. 2007 also saw the first loss for the “Russian Giant” Nicolai Valuev when Ruslan Chagaev outworked him over twelve rounds to capture the WBA title.

In the beginning of the year, Samuel Peter out boxed and at times embarrassed James Toney to be recognized as the #1 contender for Oleg Maskaev’s WBC title. However due to Maskaev’s injuries, that fight never took place, and instead Peter fought Jameel Mcline in a fight where he was knocked down three times, but still managed to keep his title with a unanimous decision.

Samuel Peter is slated to fight Maskaev in March of next year, and Ruslan Chagaev is scheduled to fight Matt Skelton. There is hope that the two winners will meet in an effort for another unification title match. Although 2007 did not provide us with a lot of progress towards a unified champ, 2008 may, especially since we already have one unification fight scheduled for next year.

2007 was a good year for the cruiserweights as they had a few good fights. David Haye beat Jean-Marc Mormeck to capture the WBA and WBC titles in an absolute war. Haye came off the mat to stop Mormeck in the seventh round. Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli won all three of his fights this year to set up a unification fight with Haye for the WBO WBC and WBA cruiserweight titles. Steve Cunningham also had a successful year. The Philadelphia native avenged his only loss and just days ago knocked out Marco Huck in the final round of the 12 round bout and he heads in to 2008 as the IBF Champion. It is very likely that we will have an undisputed Cruisweight champion by the end of 2008.

The light heavyweight division on the other hand is struggling. It seems that the only meaningful fights in the division are the same three or four fighters who seem to just be fighting each other. Hopkins is considered the best in the division, even though he seems to fight once a year. His lone fight this year was against Winky Wright in a snooze-fest which was ironically dubbed, “Coming to fight”, even though it seemed like there was more clinches than punches.

However, there are a couple of bright spots for the division. Chad Dawson emerged as a candidate to be the best in the division by remaining undefeated with three wins, and a key one against another undefeated fighter at the time, Tomasz Adamek. Also, the talented Rico Hoye was stopped by Adrian Diaconu in the third round of their fight. He is currently the #1 ranked contender for Dawson’s WBC title. Danny Green also moved up from super-middleweight to capture the WBA title in his first fight at 175 just weeks ago with a wide unanimous decision win over Stipe Drews. Zsolt Erdei also kept his undefeated record intact by going 3-0 during the year. The Hungarian is now 28-0.

Although it is Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins who seem to get the attention when it comes to the light heavyweight division, it is these fighters who could improve the light heavyweight division in 2008.

The super middleweight division definitely had its best year ever. The division has only been in existence since the 1980’s, nonetheless, the super fight between Mikkel Kessler and Joe Calzaghe ultimately showed what talent exists in this division. Both fighters had a tune-up match earlier in the year before meeting in Wales on the third of November. In a classy exciting performance Calzaghe showed once again why he is indeed the best even at the age of 35 by beating Kessler in front of over 50 000 fans. However, it is not as if Kessler did anything wrong, Calzaghe just did everything to perfection. Calzaghe took a comfortable decision to solidify his stance in the division, and many fans are hoping that he comes to America to fight Hopkins. However, this fight may not occur since Hopkins has stated that he is not willing to go to the United Kingdom, and it does not make a lot of sense for Calzaghe to travel since he is always attracting fans in tens of thousands.

However, another fighter emerged onto the scene this year. Lucian Bute captured the IBF title with a stoppage win over Alejandro Berrio in Montreal. With Anthony Mundine continuing to win fights, Sakio Bika winning the contender and having the always exciting Edison Miranda campaigning at 168, 2008 may provide another great year for the super-middleweight division.

The middleweight division was a big surprise this year. Few thought that Taylor would end up fighting Cory Spinks in a boring fight, and even fewer thought that Miranda would get destroyed in the ring especially after his win over Allen Green earlier in the year. Felix Sturm avenged his only defeat and had a draw against a little known Randy Griffin in an exciting contest. However if there was one fighter people did not know about, it was Kelly Pavlik. Many have heard of him and have seen his record but did not know what kind of impact he could have on the division.

After a devastating knockout win over Jose Luis Zertuche earlier in the year, Pavlik had a huge opportunity to fight Edison Miranda. Miranda was already looking forward to fighting Taylor and had been trash talking Taylor for some time. If he needed a wake-up call, Pavlik gave it. Pavlik battered Miranda for seven rounds before the referee finally halted the contest. As soon as the fight was done, Larry Merchant said the fight with Taylor and Pavlik has to happen. The composed and well mannered Pavlik simply said “Of course I want to fight the Champion.”

Ironically that was the underdog to Taylor’s fight against Cory Spinks. Taylor escaped with a close split decision and when asked by Larry Merchant if he wanted to fight Pavlik he said whichever fighter brought the most money.

The fight was made after some deliberation for the 29th of September in Atlantic City. No one knew who would win this fight. Picking one over the other was almost as big a gamble as playing the slots. Both promised to come forward and to knock each other out.

Both fighters started the way everyone anticipated and hoped as they started heaving bombs. In the second it was only Taylor throwing bombs as he landed many flush shots as Pavlik was unsteady on his feet, and after a few more clean left hooks and overhand rights Pavlik finally fell to the floor. Courageously, he got back up and withstanded many more flurries by the champion. He finished the round standing and Jim Lampley said it best, “What and assault, and what a survival”. That survival was a key factor in the fight. The forthcoming rounds saw Pavlik using a jab that many did not know he had. He kept backing Taylor up and then in the seventh two right hands sent Taylor into the corner. Pavlik has shown how great of a finisher he is in his fights against Miranda and Zertuche. After a few uppercuts and a couple of left hooks Steve Smoger stopped the fight declaring Pavlik the new champion.

A rematch has already been made for early next year, and we may be in for another dramatic war.

The super-middleweight division was relatively quiet this year. The major fight was of course between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather with a fight that broke all pay-per-view records for boxing as Mayweather won a close decision over the “Golden Boy”. However there were a couple other notable fights during the last twelve months. Vernon Forrest showed that he can still fight, and in his most impressive performance since wins over Sugar Shane Mosley, Forrest out boxed and outworked Carlos Baldomir over twelve rounds to capture the vacant WBC light middleweight title and then made his first defense with a 11th round TKO over Italian Michele Piccirillo. Travis Simms lost his first fight of his career and his title when Joachim Alcine outworked him over twelve rounds. The Haitian who now fights out of Canada knocked him down in the fourth round on way to a decision. Roman Karmazin was also back in the win column with a win over James Obede and a devastating knockout win over fellow power puncher Alejandro Garcia.

2008 could see the return of Ricardo Mayorga at 154. In his last fight he fought Vargas at a catch weight of 162 pounds. Mayorga knocked Vargas down twice to seal a decision victory. He may not have the skill to compete with the best at 154, but he definitely has the mind games and the entertainment to be a factor in the division.

The welterweight division is probably the most exciting and talented division at the moment. Paul Williams emerged as a start after his exciting win over Antonio Margarito where he threw over 100 punches a round for most rounds of the fight. Kermit Cintron extended his knockout win streak to five. He was scheduled to fight Williams early next year however a hand injury that he suffered in his last fight to a very game Jesse Feliciano put that fight on hold for now.

Joshua Clottey had a few good wins and hopes to get a title shot sometime next year. Miguel Cotto had an excellent year with a win over Oktay Urkal and then an impressive performance against Judah where he stopped him during the 11th round. He then fought Mosley in a candidate for fight of the year, where he won a close decision.

However Mayweather and Hatton’s fight had a lot of buzz around it and it showed during the fight. Hatton began by pressing Mayweather and even wobbled Mayweather in the first round of the fight. He continued to press Mayweather against the ropes and Hatton brought out the best in Mayweather. The best Mayweather was too much for Hatton though. Mayweather began to connect with numerous right hand leads and the lightning speed and counterpunching began to take a toll on Hatton where he began to rush in to quickly. Hatton attempted one more lunging punch where he was met with a Mayweather left hook then sent him down, and on the way down he hit the turn buckle which did not help his cause. He showed excellent determination by getting up but Mayweather resumed his assault and after a few more right hands and left hooks Hatton went down again and Cortez stopped the fight, giving Mayweather probably the biggest and best win of his career.

With Hatton going up in weight the light-welterweight division was fairly quiet. Paulie Malignaggi emerged as one of the best with an exciting win over Lovemore N’dou. Junior Witter continued to entice Hatton into an all British fight; however that fight still does not seem to be on the horizon, at least for now.

Hatton says that he will return, and he wants to have a fight in the United Kingdom first to show his appreciation to his fans who came out to Vegas to support him.

It was another great year for the young lightweight Juan Diaz. After making Freitas quit on his stool, he landed a lot of leather on Julio Diaz and made him quit on his stool as well. At the age of 24, he is already becoming an all-star fighter. However there is hope that he will fight Australian Michael Katsidis. With two devastation performances this year, Katsidis has emerged as an attraction and a fight was actually slated for himself and Juan Diaz. However that fight is now called off and the Australian is now rumoured to be fighting Joel Casamayor.

The other Diaz, David Diaz, is now scheduled to be fighting Humberto Soto in March of next year. David edged out Erik Morales this year in what seemed to be Morales’s last fight.

The super featherweight division continues to succeed. Pacquiao did not have his best year however. He seemed to have been distracted a lot by his fans in the Philippines, and although he did win both of his fights this year, they were not as impressive as one might have hoped. However he hopes to change that when he fights Juan Manuel Marquez in a rematch from their draw over three years ago. Marquez was down three times in the first round but got up and managed to fight back on his own as well to salvage a draw.

Marquez beat Barrera this year and then followed up by a comfortable decision over Rocky Juarez. Floyd Mayweather Sr’s protégé Joan Guzman had a good year with a win over Humberto Soto and he hopes to land a big fight next year possibly against the winner of Pacquiao and Marquez. Edwin Valero continued to knock out opponents, and he hopes that he will be able to fight in America in the upcoming year. He may also fight the winner of Pacquiao and Marquez, and even Guzman. Either way with the talent that exists in that division, there are many possibilities for many big fights. Most of them should happen in 2008.

The featherweight division remains quiet as Chris John continues his dominance.

The super bantam weight division created a couple of big fights this year. Both involving Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez. Rafael stopped Israel in the first fight after Vasquez had trouble breathing. In the rematch, Vasquez turned the tide stopping Marquez and now a third fight is slated for next year as well. We may already have the fight of the year for 2008 even though we are still in 2007.

Daniel Ponce de Leon will continue his knockout power in 2008. He only had two knockouts out of his four fights, but his first round annihilation over Rey Bautista was very impressive. He may be able to fight the winner of Vasquez and Marquez.

Steve Molitor emerged as well by capture the IBF title with a knockout over Takalani Ndlovu and then a comfortable but hard fought decision over Fahsung 3K battery.

The flyweight division only had one big fight. Vic Darchinyan was upset by Nonito Donaire when he was knocked out with a counter left hand. Donaire hopes to continue his undefeated record in 2008.

We were lucky to have seen such excellent fights in 2007. Mayweather vs. Hatton, Mayweather vs. Oscar, Calzaghe vs. Kessler, Cotto vs. Mosley, and Taylor vs. Pavlik are just some of the huge fights of his year. It seems like the number seven is lucky.

Who knows, with the way boxing is going right now, the number eight may become lucky as well.

Enjoy the New Year everyone.

Martin · Posted: January 01 2008, 22:04 PM Post subject:

Nice re-cap on 2007' Riz :)

My only comment is - re: "The featherweight division remains quiet as Chris John continues his dominance." I believe 2007' may have witnessed the birth of boxing's next super star in the form of a 21yr old Venezuelan.

(Typo: Oscar-Floyd was at super-welter, not super-middle)

riz · Joined: 15 Dec 2005 Posts: 5371

Martin wrote: Nice re-cap on 2007' Riz :)

My only comment is - re: "The featherweight division remains quiet as Chris John continues his dominance." I believe 2007' may have witnessed the birth of boxing's next super star in the form of a 21yr old Venezuelan.

(Typo: Oscar-Floyd was at super-welter, not super-middle)

True I missed both.

About the typo.... as great as I am, even I'm not perfect :wink:

WelshDevilRob · Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 13405 Location: Cardiff, Wales

Great Read Riz.

Yes 2007 was a treat for boxing fans.