Jorge Arce vs. Simphiwe Nongqayi II - Anybody Have Any Interest?

It's a bit of a slow weekend this week, with only a couple of decent fights here and there that'll catch your interest(Sykes-Buckland, Walsh-Appleby, Martinez-Guerrero II) before next Saturday's cacophany of very intriguing contests. One that seems to have slipped under the radar to an extent - in that, I haven't even seen anyone mention it here - is the rematch between the two men in the title.

Their first fight was a rather entertaining encounter, one in which the South African Nongqayi came out with the victory in by virtue of sticking to the outside and pumping the jab, letting right hands flow off of it, before being more than happy to engage and counter on the inside whenever El Travieso launched a reckless, and often fruitless, attack. Blocking shots inside and outside with your cranium while getting out-moved and missing is not the best method in which to obtain title glory, and that proved to be the case as Simp took the fight by relatively wide margins on the judges cards, picking up the IBF belt at super-flyweight as a result.

The case of the Golden Master is a very strange one, for the simple fact that nobody actually knows his age for certain. He looks around about 40, and in all likelihood he probably is, but some, mainly people trying to further his career(one being trainer Nick Durandt), will tell you he's about minus 15 years 40. It's a pretty common thing amongst African footballers, perhaps it's also the case with their pugilists too, though no other extreme case comes to mind(aside from Sonny Liston, though unless his nationality was lied about he's not exactly a relevant example).

Anyways, magnificent hairstyle aside, Nongqayi the fighter doesn't bring anything spectacular to the squared circle. Decent in most areas, though standout in none, he's a solid operator at world level. Hands kept high, jab always popping out and a right hand often following it, he possesses some above average lateral movement and an impressive right uppercut on the inside, he is pretty body-neglectant though when he throws, and can be predictable when forced to go on the offensive and take the lead.

After beating the ''legendary(some would say)'' Mexican he endured a rocky run of form, being made take the lead and drawing with the frustratingly amateurish(stylewise) Malik Bouziane before losing to the swarming Topo Rosas(who in turn lost the title to Cristian Mijares) in July of last year. He's been inactive since then and is now stepping up two divisions after this fightless period, which seems to be a perilous decision for his career.

In all probability he probably just caught Arce at the correct time, during the bizarre period where it appeared as though he was shot, ranging from being absolutely pasted by Vic Darchinyan, losing to Nongqayi, beating some not so great opposition, concluding in a fight against the seemingly equally shot Lorenzo Parra where many feel he was fortunate to come out with a split draw.

If he got Travieso at the right occasion last time, he's got his timing all wrong in 2011, during what appears to be the Los Mochis native's Indian summer at 122lbs, where he shocked pretty much everybody in the boxing world by dragging the young and promising Wilfredo Vazquez Jr kicking and screaming into a war of attrition on the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley card, where the cocky Puerto Rican upstart was naive enough to obey to the wishes of his elder and engage throughout, enabling Arce to turn back the clock, jumping in and out with left hooks and using his superior smarts to stop Jr in the eleventh in one of the premier fights of 2011.

He won't have things quite so favourably for him when faced with his old rival, who certainly won't follow in similar suit to Vazquez. He was never really at Jorge's level in truth, and it's down to how well he can carry this added weight whether or not he can stay in the fight for the full 12. My guess is that he won't, and that if Rosas can stop him at 115lbs, the renaissance version of El Travieso will be able to finish the job in the mid-to-late rounds with some more refined aggression than we saw the first time around.

How does everyone else see it?



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTKMtjsdKCM[/ame]

 

Arce in 4.

I'll be back later with more, no time now.