After sergio lost to margarito in 2000 he entered a no mans land of fighting on smallcards in argentina and madrid.his first step up fight came in 2003 when he took a fight as a late replacement in Manchester on the english side of the lewis/vitali ppv fight against Richard Williams for the ibo jrmiddleweight title. [yt]TgwbYUo4LNs[/yt] [yt]5i3Ouo1VAoE[/yt] [yt]whKeG5zqrng[/yt] [yt]hic2b6h7W0Y[/yt] [yt]3xtJXBx4wXY[/yt] [yt]RbwsdSz039s[/yt] [yt]_bapMNu2q4s[/yt] sergio was a underdog here and not really known that well, the commentators refer to him as a distinctly average southpaw.Williams dropped sergio in the 3rd and 11th but sergio won every round pretty much apart from them by using his jab, movement and timing.sergio looks far smaller then williams here and kept his hands up more then he does now.
4 months later sergio returned to britain to make his first defence of his ibo trinket against former forrest and mosley opponent adrian stone in front of his homefans in bristol.sergio fought very aggressive in a rough,tough fun fight in front of a very passionate crowd, his jab once again being a key weapon plus his left crosses through the middle.another thing i liked was everytime stone had some success mainly with single right hands sergio quickly responded with rapid combos of 4 or 6 punches.nicky piper said at the end that sergio was ready for the elite fighters in the class pity he had to wait 6 years to prove it [yt]vtWBOdFH5Ac[/yt] [yt]-sXQ8y3l084[/yt] [yt]16k982aeJq0[/yt] [yt]1xoQF1I-D9k[/yt]
In 2004 sergio fought a rematch against richard williams on the undercard of brian magee fight in the Kings Hall in Belfast.Sergio was stronger in the rematch and fought with more confidence.this one turned into a beating towards the end [yt]ADkg-FEBVzw[/yt] [yt]u91i_L_kk8Y[/yt] [yt]JnFziC9373I[/yt]
Great work, truely shows how he has continued to develop after losses and why he is now one of the best p4p in the world
Sergio/Stone fight has my favourite boxing commentary line Adam Smith:'Whatever happens next, he wont be invited back to this country' (Unfortunately for Williams, he was!)
It's a shame no British promoters want to sign foreign fighters. If you look at what relative nobodies at the time like Martinez and Katsidis did over here, then ended up becoming big names in America...... shame that we missed out.
I've been waiting for the Richard Williams fights to be uploaded to youtube for ages. Good man, TS...
I bet if Setanta was around then they would of been interested in showing his fights. I don't even think that a Brittish promoter tried to sign Bredis Prescott. Hennessey was the obvious guy to try and get him. Bredis Prescott the guy to wreck Amirs PPV debut fighting shortly afterwards on ITV against John Murray. It could of been huge.
lou dibella argues this is why you get bigger crowds at uk fights.tv companies in the states want the best fighters even if they are foreign which can make it hard to draw fans whereas foreign fighters rarely headline a card in the uk. can anyone think of any worldclass fighters that made their first splash in england clottely and kats
Shame poor old Richard got feed to Sergio. Unlike many other British fighters who were carefully matched he was chucked in un-knowingly (hope it was this) or knowingly with a class act even back then. Great thread. Watch these later.