I noticed him as well in the BoxRec t10. Been fighting his whole career in France, which isn't exactly a boxing hotbed, but maybe he's ready for a jump.
Glad to see him get some attention in General. :good http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174475 He's going to finish Ayala.
He is certainly one to keep an eye on. He's had a good amateur career. Broke my heart when he scraped by Andy Lee in the Olympics. He has yet to step up on the world stage but thus far he has beaten all his opponents in impressive fashion. Fast stong and has good footwork. He is young and I'm sure he will improve too. I think he needs to sort out a big fight for himself soon. I personally think he would take a comfortable points victory against Sylvester and possibly Sturm too. He needs to start fighting out of France and make a name for himself. Here is the best win of his career so far. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4whhcpBEn8[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAkCBUPm9NA[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da-WCF-7Gxg[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anme3fPMObM[/ame]
N'Jikam is extraordinarily naturally talented and a lot of fun to watch. Even though he had a solid amateur career, he was extremely raw when he went pro, so he's about at the level where he should be ready to step up soon. He still makes a lot of mistakes, and he'll never be the best boxer in the world, but he's good enough and exciting. hopefully he can cross over to the states eventually. I think he could make a lot of good matchups. The whole crop of upcoming middleweights is pretty good. Between N'Jikam, Korobov, Jacobs, Golovkin and Pirog, all of whom have the goods, plus a bunch of other decent prospects like Guerrero, Lemieux, Lane, etc., it could actually be a pretty stacked division in a few years.
Well worth the watch. He's quick on his feet and has good hand speed to match, a good jab, a right hand with laser-like precision, an excellent left-hook and bags of confidence. The only criticisms are that sometimes he can get a little too arrogant and get caught with shots he shouldn't be, and also he may get tagged moving backwards as he drops his hands when he does so. He's one of the premier talents around at MW at the moment though, hopefully he'll be fighting for a title very soon.
Well...if you count the vacant WBA International middleweight title, he's vying for it against Elvin Ayala on Saturday. It's technically his first scheduled 12-rounder, anyway. :yep
I think he gets a little over-rated in all honestly, and has a lot of technical issues that need to be ironed out before he really cracks the top level. That could just be down to his opposition being so over-matched that he can get away with playing around, I don't know - he's one of those fighters that needs a good, solid test before we'll know how good he really is.
So, how would he do against; Bonco McKart Fulgencio Zuniga David Lopez Enrique Ornales John Duddy ??????????
I think he beats any of them on pure talent. N'Jikam is a freakish athlete who's increasingly becoming a complete offensive fighter but still has huge defensive holes. He probably wars with Zuniga for about 3 or 4 rounds before pulling away. He might have some problems with Lopez (I'm not sure how he handles southpaws), but he's not that dissimilar in terms of style from Ossie Duran (but he's a lot more talented than Duran), and I thought Duran gave Lopez about all he could handle in the second half of their fight.
I made that particluar list because all those guys are well known quantities. McKart is old and shot, but he is still tough and smart. you can't make a bunch of rookie mistakes and beat him. Lopez is a good boxer who can fight off the back foot, or move forward aggressively. And, unless you can stick, move and box, or take him out quick, you need a good chin to handle Zuniga. As sparse as 160 is right now, if N'Jikam beat those 3 guys, he'd probably get an eliminator.
Honestly, boo, I'd like HNN's chances against all five. After a couple of Elvin Ayala/David Banks/Lajuan Simon types, he'll be ready for the next tier like Ornelas and Lopez...then eventually (hopefully sometime in 2011) he can square off with one of the other young firebrands like Guerrero - that could be quite the international superfight, if maneuvered towards and marketed right.
Good athlete but needs to settle down on the movement and focus on using his handspeed to create openings for himself.
