Boxing Fulcrum

Super Middleweight needs new names

The Super Middleweight division is currently one of the weaker divisions in boxing due to a mix of people moving up and also a lot of the top fighters getting old. All of the champions are good but it seems like we won’t be getting them fighting each other anytime soon.

Outside of the top 10 theres not many names that look like they could be a big player against the top of the division. All of the champions are beatable especially fighters like Callum Smith who most thought lost his last fight. The problem the division has right now is a lot of the big names have retired or are getting old. George Groves and James Degale both retired recently as well as Chris Eubank Jr moving down a division. Gilberto Ramirez moved up as well as Jesse Hart and its left the landscape looking quite barren in terms of good title challengers.

David Lemieux moved up to 168 but looked bad in his first fight so its questionable what he brings to the table apart from a good name at this point in his career. Both Peter Quillin and Alfredo Angulo looked washed up in their fight and while Angulo won he wouldn’t have a chance against the champions especially at the age of 37. Quillin is on borrowed time at 36 and coming off a loss where he looked like a shell of himself. He won’t be able to make it to a title shot again and even if he did he gets beaten quickly.

Jose Uzcategui a former champion lost in an upset which leaves him out of the picture for the immediate future and possibly forever because he didn’t look good in that fight. John Ryder is coming off a loss and will need to make a comeback before getting another one so hes also out of contention for a title shot. Caleb Truax who is also a former champion is 36 and struggled last time out vs average competition so its very unlikely he gives any of the champs a good fight at this point. Martin Murray is heavily faded at this point and fellow Brit Rocky Fielding hasn’t looked motivated to box since losing to Canelo in three rounds. Both might be nothing more than gatekeepers at this point.

The current top contenders that deserve to challenge for a world title are Fedor Chudinov and Daniel Jacobs. Chudinov is on a really good run right now and has fought good names in George Groves and Felix Sturm. Jacobs is a two time middleweight champ and is one of the biggest names in the super middleweight division. Hes had massive fights and would give any of the champions a good fight.

Some of the prospects that could be good title challengers are Erik Bazinyan, Bektemir Melikuziev, Aidos Yerbossynuly, Vladimir Shishkin and Kevin Lele Sadjo. Bazinyan is being moved very slowly so its unlikely he fights for a title this year and hes also not a name that people know yet. Melikuziev is being moved quickly but won’t get a title shot until hes a mandatory because hes too risky to fight. He also doesn’t speak English and the fights wouldn’t be seen as interesting in America. Yerbossynuly is moving at a steady pace but isn’t ready yet and isn’t a big enough name to be taken as a voluntary. Shishkin is in my eyes a bit basic and i’m not sure he’ll get to contender level. Sadjo seems to punch very hard as hes currently got a 100% KO ratio but he hasn’t faced anyone of note yet and like all of these guys isn’t known to the general public.

Because of all the reasons I’ve outlined it means the Super Middleweight division doesn’t look good right now. If Canelo chooses to fight one of the champions it would help but theres a severe lack of worthy challengers right now. Its likely we don’t see unification’s this year which means old fighters who are decently well known like Angulo will get title shots when they don’t have a chance and the fights aren’t competitive. All divisions go through a transitionary period its just the Super Middleweight division doesn’t have a huge amount of young talent coming through quick enough to save the division from being full of mismatches this year at the top level.

Artem Dalakian the forgotten champ.

Artem Dalakian is a fly weight from Ukraine who currently holds a 20-0 record. He’s also the WBA world champion for that weight class yet no one talks about him. Often when someone isn’t talked about its because they are being avoided but I’d argue this isn’t the case here. While Dalakian is a good fighter hes not someone that people would avoid especially in the lower weight classes where to make money the best have to fight the best. The reason people don’t know him is because his title run has been horrible so far. Hes picked out people that don’t have any chance of winning and most importantly they aren’t contenders in his division.

Dalakian fights with his hands low most of the time and relies on speed to keep him out of trouble. Hes not that active of a fighter and is happy to wait for his opportunities. He can punch in combination but mostly throws one two’s and perhaps a body shot before going on the back foot countering again.

Dalakian’s best win was when he won the vacant title vs Brian Viloria a former champ who has consistently fought the best in his career. Dalakian put on a good performance vs the former champ who was admittedly perhaps past his best days. After winning the title you would have expected him to perhaps get signed to a promoter in the US but that didn’t happen so he went back to Ukraine.

This is where it all started to go wrong for him as instead of fighting a top contender he fought Sirichai Thaiyen a fighter from Thailand that hadn’t done much since being stopped in 2014 by Juan Carlos Reveco. As his first defense this wasn’t the worse as at least the challenger had fought at the top level before even if it was in a losing effort. Thaiyen didn’t win a round and was stopped in the 8th but for a first defense it wasn’t the worse opponent as in modern boxing every champions first defense is normally an easy fight. While I disagree with this being a common thing I’m not going to disparage Dalakian for this defense.

WBC Flyweight champ Julio Cesar Martinez

What I can Critisize is his second defense versus Gregorio Lebron. Lebrons’ claim to fame is losing two fights for the interim title to a fighter from Thailand in Thailand. Whether he was robbed is up to opinion but what isn’t up to opinion is that he hadn’t faced any top competition since those two fights and that by the time he fought Dalakian he was 36. If your 36 and a heavyweight you can compete at the highest level but for a flyweight its very hard to compete at the top once you get to that sort of age. Certain fighters like Moruti Mthalane can do it but they are special fighters and not at all common. Lebron was dispatched in four rounds by Dalakian who did what he was supposed to do against an over matched opponent.

Now after two bad defenses you would have thought that Dalakian would step up and fight a contender but you would be wrong. He fought Sarawut Thawornkham who had beaten three opponents with winning records before getting this title shot. He eventually stopped him in the tenth round when against this level of opponent it shouldn’t take that long. At this point it starts to get embarrassing not just for Dalakain who is clearly picking opponents that should be no where near a world title but also the WBA for allowing him to do this. Similarly in his latest defense he fought Josber Perez who had only beaten three people with a positive record before getting the title shot. To make matters worse Perez’s last fight was versus a 0-1 fighter and the fight before that Perez lost. The fact that Perez was picked as an opponent here shows Dalakians level of ambition in boxing at this point. To pick a fighter who had beaten a 0-1 fighter after being beat themselves is terrible and Perez isn’t a fighter who you might pick to fight even if they lost recently because their known and have accomplished a lot in the sport. Perez in four years proved nothing as a pro but was gifted a title shot while the man that beat him got a shot at the interim world title on the same day.

Its sad really because Dalakian is talented enough to compete in great unifications versus the other champions in his division like Moruti Mthalane and Julio Cesar Martinez but seems content making defenses vs sub par competition in Ukraine. I also think that as hes competing versus challengers not on his level that hes degrading and its only a matter of time before some unlikely fighter beats him. Hopefully this year he shows more ambition and stops holding the WBA Flyweight world title hostage but i’m not holding my breath. Hes a forgotten champion in boxing and unfortunately he has no one but himself to blame.

Ryan Garcia vs Francisco Fonseca and the weeks boxing.

I’m a day late but luckily no big shows happened on Thursday apart from one in Japan where Ryoji Fukunaga upset Froilan Saludar to get the biggest win of his career. Theres not a huge amount of cards on this week but theres still some boxing to get excited about.

The first card i’m curious about takes place tonight in California, USA where Ryan Garcia looks to establish himself as a headline act against the tough Francisco Fonseca. Ryan Garcia if he keeps on winning could be one of the new stars of the sport but its yet to be seen if he can compete against the top names to really earn that super star status. Fonseca is a step in the right direction as hes fought both Gervonta Davis and Tevin Farmer as well as having a good performance against Alex Dilmaghani where many thought he deserved better than a draw. Fonseca is moving up a division so it’ll be interesting to see how he deals with the added weight. I think the major factor in this fight is going to be the difference in speed between the two. Garcia has fast hands while Fonseca is more of a plodding workhorse where he might not be fast but he won’t stop throwing and he’ll get to you eventually. Fonseca is tough but I think the ref will step in somewhere in the second half of the fight after Fonseca takes too much punishment.

On the under card Jorge Linares fights Carlos Morales over 12 rounds where if he wins its expected him and Garcia will fight next. I don’t think stalling this match up was a great idea as while Linares is a good fighter hes also a bit washed up and his chin has never been great. Morales always comes to fight and if he can connect flush with Linares he can win this fight. If he doesn’t its likely he gets out boxed and we see Linares and Garcia face off in the summer which would be a great fight and a good test to tell if Garcia is ready for the top yet.

Also on the under card rising welterweight prospect Alexis Rocha fights Brad Solomon in a good step up fight. Solomon was last seen fighting Vergil Ortiz Jr where he was stopped in five rounds by what some see as the best prospect in the welter weight division. I think Rocha will impress here but Solomon should be able to get to the second half of the fight and enjoy some success. Bektemir Melikuziev fights in his 5th pro outing vs over matched Oscar Cortes. Bektemir was supposed to fight a good opponent in Marco Antonio Periban but he was unfortunately hospitalised yesterday. I hope he recovers from whatever’s affecting him and perhaps retires at this point in his career. Cortes doesn’t have much of a chance in this fight considering how good Bektemir is and I expect it to end within two rounds.

The final notable fight on this card is Blair Cobbs vs Samuel Kotey Neequaye. Blair Cobbs is very entertaining and while hes not the best fighter hes must see TV and we should enjoy watching him for however long his career is. I don’t expect him to win a world title but hes a good character and the sport needs more like him.

The next card i’m interested in takes place in Philadelphia where multiple prospects fight each other in good 50/50 fights. I haven’t watched any of them before but ShowBox the people broadcasting the event always put on entertaining cards so its worth checking out if you can. Thomas Mattice takes on Isaac Cruz Gonzalez in a fight between once beaten prospects. Montana Love and Jerrico Walton face off where somes 0 has to go unless of course theres a draw. Raeese Aleem takes on Adam Lopez in whats a good crossroads fight. if Lopez loses he probably retires and if Aleem loses then it’ll be hard for him to reach the top of the sport. The final 50/50 is between Derrick Coleman Jr and Joseph Jackson where neither has been really tested in their career so it’ll be interesting to see how they do under pressure.

The final fight i’m interested in this weekend is Caleb Plant vs Vincent Feigenbutz for Plants IBF Super middleweight title. Plant is making his second defense of his title and this is one hes expected to win in front of his hometown fans. Feigenbutz is only 24 but has already amassed a record of 31-2. None of its been against someone as good as Plant however and we’ve seen him lose to people worse than Plant. I expect Feigenbutz to come forward and have a little success before Plant boxes his way to a late stoppage or points victory.

As always I hope that you enjoy this weeks boxing and that all the fighters get home safely. I’ll be back for my preview next Thursday where I look towards one of the biggest fights of the year in Wilder vs Fury 2.

Callum Smith turns down Canelo but its all a bit confusing.

News broke today that Callum Smith turned down an offer from Golden Boy to fight the biggest star in boxing Canelo Alvarez. Oscar De La Hoya told ESPN that Smith had turned down three times his previous biggest pay day and had a little rant about how fighters don’t care about legacy anymore. Hes not wrong on that part as I think most top level boxers favourite saying is “if the moneys right” and have stopped trying to fight the best.

The interesting part about this whole situation is that after Oscar outed Callum Smith for turning down an offer Joe Gallagher the trainer of Smith said they hadn’t turned it down. Now the question is who’s lying right?. Would Smith really turn down a massive offer for a fight that he’d been calling for in favour of a tune up or a smaller unification with Saunders, it doesn’t seem likely. But also why would Oscar lie about it when Smith isn’t a big name and hasn’t accused Canelo of ducking him. All strange stuff but it gets even more confusing when Eddie Hearn (Smiths promoter) confirmed they turned an offer down for a Canelo fight. This makes it much more interesting because either Joe is lying about turning down a career high pay day for his fighter or he didn’t know an offer had even been made which wouldn’t be a great look for whoever’s negotiating that fight.

Now we can speculate why Smith turned down the fight but the reality is if he got offered anywhere from 5 to 10 million you take that money as fast as possible. Its the biggest fight he can get and its not like theres not other fighters that will happily take that deal. Now I presume like most people that its been declined because of some sort of rehydration clause which Smith presumably knows he wouldn’t be able to make. I’ve seen lots of people defending Smith saying that this isn’t fair and that Canelo is trying to gain an advantage. I can’t tell you how stupid this line of thought is, how is Canelo trying to make Smith fight at a reasonable weight on fight night a bad thing?. If anything it just shows how much of a weight bully Smith is and it blows my mind when people get mad at rehydration clauses to make a fighter not go over 10lbs of the weight class. If you can’t get down to that on fight day then your not a fighter in that weight class and you need to move up. People defending Smith and saying hes at a disadvantage because of a rehydration clause are stupid because without the clause Canelo is at a huge disadvantage considering hes not fighting a super middleweight hes fighting a cruiserweight and its disgusting that fighters get away with it all the time.

The best thing about all this talk of a rehydration clause from fans is that we don’t even know if its a thing yet and the reporter who Oscar talked said he didn’t think they’d got to that stage yet. Which perhaps makes my rant a little premature but its more directed at the fans who are currently crying online that fighters might have to actually fight in their weight class

That turned into more of a rant than I wanted it to be but its incredibly frustrating too see fighters offered a massive pay day and decline it. Especially if it is the rehydration clause which is the issue and that perhaps highlights a problem with the sport and not the individual fighters. Callum Smith is a good fighter but hes massively overrated and I do think him coming into the ring with a massive size advantage over his opponents has helped him significantly. I mean if you look at light heavyweight you wouldn’t pick him to beat any of those guys and even they aren’t as big as he is.

Because of him turning down the offer I now hope that Billy Joe Saunders gets the call because like I stated before Smith does not deserve that fight right now. If Smith can beat John Ryder fairly and not shy away from every big fight offered to him then perhaps he’ll deserve it but right now hes a very average looking champion and not one whos looking to make a legacy.

When was the last Super Featherweight unification?

Super Featherweight is actually one of my favourite divisions right now because of all the good match ups that can be made. The division currently holds four champions who can all be in fantastic match ups with challengers or each other. Now I’d argue that the super feather weight division deserves a unification considering the last one was in 2005 between Marco Antonio Barrera and Robbie Pedan for the WBC and IBF titles. It’s been 15 years since the last unification but the question is why?

Its not down to just one reason but many as to why no super feathers have unified in so long. One reason is due to politics between different networks and that certainly was the case for a potential fight between Tevin Farmer and Gervonta Davis who had a war of words on twitter but never met in the ring. Both Networks said they made offers but clearly neither fighter accepted which ruined a great unification.

Another reason we haven’t got unification’s is because its a division stuck between two divisions which are much more well known. Often Once someone becomes a champ at super feather they move up a weight to lightweight instead of staying and unifying because often bigger fights are at that weight. It doesn’t help that fighters who perhaps outgrew featherweight move up and fight a champion because they made a name for themselves in the division below. This can lead to great fights such as when Joseph Diaz Jr (Jo Jo Diaz) fought and beat Tevin Farmer in a fun fight recently.

One of the last big reasons is that its likely the money isn’t there for unifications at the weight, fighters and promoters see that they can make money fighting big name challengers rather than unifying for less risk and bother. Also not much less money than would be in a unification because of the lack of demand from the public for the division.

Just because we haven’t had unifications doesn’t mean we haven’t had good fights I just think it would be great for the fighters to say they were the first to unify in 15 years. I’m a big fan of clearing out a division before moving up and hopefully we can get some great match ups in the future

Sebastian Formella and why you might know him soon.

Formella is a 32 year old welterweight from Germany thats currently 22-0. Hes also the current IBO world champion though as most know its not recognised as a real championship. He did however win it by beating a good fighter in Thulani Mbenge who many thought would fight for a real world title in the future. He then defended his IBO belt vs Roberto Arriaza in a workman like performance where he won but didn’t look great.

The reason i’m doing even a small piece on him is because I expect him to get a big fight in America within the next year against either Terence Crawford or a contender looking for a test. Normally a fighter like Formella wouldn’t be someone a P4P talent like Crawford would fight but hes running out of people to fight and this opens up opportunity’s for fighters like Formella.

If not Crawford you could see him against prospects like Vergil Ortiz Jr or perhaps as a supposed tune up for a contender like Danny Garcia. Whoever he fights I hope he gets an opportunity and doesn’t end up defending his IBO belt versus 50-100 ranked guys for the next few years and not mixing with the top welterweights. Its one of the best divisions for money and exposure to the casual audience so he should really start calling out the big american welterweights so he can try and craft himself a legacy and also a bigger bank account

I know people will say its unlikely he beats any of the top welterweights but not many expected him to beat Mbenge and I feel hes done enough to earn a shot at a top 10 guy or even Crawfords belt considering Top Rank have run out of opponents for him.

Jarrell Miller is back… for better or worse

We all know Miller because of the drugs tests he failed before the biggest fight of his career that was given to him when he hadn’t really beat anyone. After failing for so many substances you would have thought that promoters wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole but under a year later hes signed a multi fight deal with Top Rank.

I was a little stunned when I heard the news because surely its terrible PR for ESPN and I also thought they might have a bit more integrity than signing a blatant cheat so quickly after he failed his tests. I know hes one of three american heavyweights that can currently make a statement in the division and almost no one is out spoken as him but its still ridiculous that hes going to suffer no consequences for his actions. Hes been out of the ring for a year now and we don’t know how god he’ll be when he gets back but I still see him getting a few big fights in his career because he talks so much and hes an undefeated american heavyweight. I’d hope he wouldn’t be gifted another title shot after screwing up his first so badly but its boxing so cheating will be swept under the rug much like historically domestic abuse has been. I could write an entire article about how many stars in the boxing world were also abusers but never had any consequences to their career but thats for another time.

Now that Miller is making a come back I want him to be on VADA testing for every fight and I also want him to earn his spot back at the top.

Who would fight for the WBC featherweight title if Russell vacates

Russell has said in recent interviews that he wants the big fights and will move up to find them at this point in his career. This means the WBC title will likely be vacant soon and I wanted to talk about who will likely fight for it.

Jessie Magdaleno is number 2 in the WBC so he would likely fight for it and he also has the backing of top rank so won’t get bullied away from his spot. Magdaleno is a former champ in the division below and so would be trying to become a two division champ.

Next up in the rankings is Kid Galahad who had a good win this weekend over Claudio Marrero in an IBF eliminator but would still likely fight for the vacant WBC if he doesn’t get taken out the rankings.

Next up is Claudio Marrero who will move further down the rankings after losing so it won’t be him.

The last real potential guy is Lerato Dlamini who is a featherweight out of South Africa. He’s struggled with some domestic level guys but has a few good wins if not elite level. I think everyone else i’ve mentioned would beat him but he might get the shot if Galahad or Magdaleno pull out

Donte Dixon, one to watch for the future

Donte Dixon took on Eduardo Valverde today and while the fight was competitive he was able to force the stoppage in the 4th and final round. This was a bit of a statement as Valverde is a good fighter and hadn’t been stopped before. Dixon looks like he has good power, hand speed and shot selection and all these will improve even more as he fights more. He did get clipped a decent amount in this fight but thats what happens when you step up and fight someone coming to win. I’d like to give credit to the match makers and also Donte Dixon for taking a hard fight in only his 3rd bout it shows how much confidence they have in his ability.

He’s only 20 so we’ll likely see him spend a few years fighting 5 to 6 times a year to get experience before stepping up domestically and then on to European and world honors by the time he’s 24 if all goes to plan.

Defend or vacate

It’s normal to see boxers defend their world titles twice a year now which in my opinion is still not often enough but what shouldn’t be allowed is defending once a year. To start off with the two fights a year nonsense is annoying. It means we don’t get to see the top fighters very often and also that challengers have to wait years to get a shot because all the fights are so delayed. Fighters are ending their careers with around 35-40 fights now instead of the 60+ they used to and only special fighters get beyond 50 fights at the top level now. I think a large part of it is that the money at the top is good enough that these fighters don’t need to fight anymore than twice a year which is great for the boxers but bad for the fans and the sport. It also means that fighters almost always have ring rust and blow up in weight between fights which isn’t good long term for them. If it’s two good opponents I can stomach it but when for example Crawford fights Khan and Mean Machine in a year it disappoints me because I know if hes fighting that level of competition he can fight more than twice a year. Look at people like Tevin Farmer and Emanuel Navarrete who while fighting lesser competition make up for that by fighting every few months.

Moving on because I can deal with fighters defending their belts twice a year but if a fighter will only defend their belt once a year then they should be stripped. It’s disgraceful that a top professional only competes once a year while holding on to something that people work their whole lives towards. The sanctioning bodies really should put a rule in place to stop this hostage taking of world title belts. Gary Russell Jr is the easiest example as he’s been a champion since 2015 and is only making his 5th defence this Saturday. He has consistently fought once a year for 5 years and it’s not like hes unified or taken on the best contender in the division every year it’s mostly been tune ups for a world champion which shouldn’t be excused in boxing.

I doubt anything will change because these sanctioning bodies don’t like to put in rules which might make their champions actually work and they recycle the same fighters over and over again for no good reason other than it makes them money. It’s incredibly frustrating for me because I want the sport to do well but the people involved with it seemingly try and kill it off as much as possible. I’m being very negative here and I know we get lots of good fights and unification’s but for the very casual fan who only knows Joshua they don’t want to see a world champion fight twice a year vs people they are 1/100 to beat. No one wants to see that and when fighters barely defend their belts I question whether they should perhaps hang their gloves up if they can’t find the passion to go into the ring anymore at even the highest level. If you can’t get motivated to defend your title then its very hard as a fan to get behind you and It really frustrates me when I see fighters say they “couldn’t get up for this fight”. If its a world title fight its a big fight and your insulting everyone including your opponent if you effectively say you couldn’t be bothered to work hard.

It’s not just Gary Russel Jr that does this he’s just a good example another one would be Canelo not vacating his WBA middleweight belt when its very obvious he isn’t going to defend it in his next fight which means he wouldn’t have defended it in over a year but no ones talking about how the belt is just sitting there useless. Khalid Yafai and Jerwin Ancajas are both examples as well, Yafai hasn’t been all that active and hasn’t fought good competition and Ancajas has had a horrid title reign where people have stopped caring.

Hopefully Russell gets active now if he wins and if Tug wins then we can hope that he fights more than Russell though thats not a certainty considering he hasn’t fought in a year.