###September 30th / October 1st Look-Ahead###

Alright guy's, following on from the thread I made about the fights on September 10th, I'm thinking we could make this kind of thread a regular occurance on particularly stacked weekends. There's a lot of fights to get through, so no need to read all of it(though I am rather brief on each fight, it's merely the quantity of fights that makes the post appear bigger), just contribute on whatever fight(s) tickles your proverbial fancy. Nothing incisive from me in the OP, mostly just trying to be informative.

Anyway let's take a shufty............


(DISCLAIMER, I'M NOT GOING INTO LIAM WALSH VS PAUL APPLEBY OR GAVIN REES VS DERRY MATTHEWS AS MANDANDA HAS PRETTY MUCH COVERED THOSE FIGHTS COMPLETELY WITH BOTH OF HIS EXCELLENT THREADS)


Friday:

Ajose Olusegun Vs Ali Chebah

Light Welterweight

Tale Of The Tape
Record: 29(14)-0 / 35(28)-1
Height: 5' 9 / 5' 9½''
Reach: 71'' / ?
Age: 31 / 25

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A fight that's been on and off more than Titus Bramble's sense of proportion, it seems as though these two will finally get it on, in California, oddly, seeing as one is a Nigerian based in London, the other a French-Algerian who only recently relocated to Canada. Either way it's about time this WBC title elimator happened.

It's been a frustrating period of inactivity for both while waiting for this, Chebah having not fought since November of last year, Olusegun being slightly less rusty with an appearance in a 6 rounder in February in a marking time fight.

Former Olympian Ajose fights out of a southpaw stance and is awkward if nothing else, quick hands, decent array of punches and a winding left to the solar plexus(which Colin Lynes found out to his detriment) are the main facets to his game, which he'll be looking to impose against his much younger foe. He's a young 31, not having to endure many difficult fights thus far, though whether or not his lack of fighting will counter act that is the main question.

Chebah was being brought up carefully in France and was highly touted for a time, until he was left embarrassed when stopped by his best opponent to that point, Reyes Sanchez, in seven rounds. In his comeback he's fought opponents with records that are nice to look at on the surface, but with little-to-no substance, thus making it hard to gauge whether or not Ali has refined himself in any way, particularly with his frustrating style, full of jittery movement of hand and foot, designed to outwork the other man and engulf him in a shower of punches.

Chebah's plan will probably be what it always is, which is to maintain some distance and make use of his height and pumping out a high quantity of straight punches, the key for Olusegun is whether he can evade those often inaccurate shots by a great enough margin to convince the judges that the Frenchman actually is missing(which they often seem to have a problem with), while at the same time making him pay for it, taking advantage of Ali's often stationary head and unprotected body with counter shots.

It throws up an intriguing, albeit aesthetically disgusting due to styles, fight.


Saturday:


Steve Cunningham Vs Yoan Pablo Hernandez

Cruiserweight

Tale Of The Tape
Record: 24(12)-2 / 24(13)-1
Height: 6'3 / 6'4
Reach: 82'' / ?
Age: 35 / 26

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Possibly the most interesting fight that can be made in one of the sports more uninspiring divisions, it places the man who's been number one pre-Adamek and post-Adamek in ''USS'' Cunningham against probably the best of the younger contenders in the Germany-based Cuban Hernandez in Cunningham's second defence in his second stint as IBF champion.

Best of the bunch at the weight, Cunningham has some impressive names on his record, beating a series of champions and contenders in Marco Huck, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Troy Ross, Guillermo Jones and Wayne Braithwaite. His two losses are both debateable, a split loss to Wlodarczyk in their first fight, and another split defeat in a fight of the year contender to Tomasz Adamek, where Steve won more rounds, but was dropped in the process, losing an agonisingly close battle for cruiserweight supremecy. He's rebuilt extremely well however, establishing himself as the best again after the departure of Adamek.

In Hernandez he's faced with possibly his most dangerous fight since the night he lost his title. Due to a myriad of factors, mainly the disparity between the two in age, and the refinement the Cuban has made. Looking very promising in his early career, he learned his lesson against common opponent Braithwaite in what was supposed to be his coming out party. After having great success against Wayne in the first, Yoan got over-eager and, shockingly, gassed himself out in the third after having been battering the ''Big Truck'' from Guyana, getting caught big himself and being blown away. He's re-applied himself since however, and after re-building with solid performances against the likes of Zack Page and Enad Licina, his chance at proving himself as 'world' title material came against Frenchman Steve Herelius for the WBA Interim title. Displaying a greater degree of patience, YPH moved and covered up well against his fellow southpaw, letting his hands go when he only felt it neccessary, he dominated every round until the seventh, where he unloaded an immense, perfectly-timed left hand to drop Herelius, before finishing off a tottering ''Centurion'' with his follow-up assault.

Unlike the previous bout, this should be a fight that's pleasing on the eyes. Cunningham will be presented with a man who's taller than him, which he is not accustomed to, albeit he is the rangier, and thus will still try to apply his usual style of sticking to the outside and letting his one-two go. How Hernandez will combat this is the main talking point, while refined, he can still get carelessand let his punches become ragged, predictable, and too frequently. No doubt Steve will try to implement this, but how he deals with a southpaw who will be able to find his often exposed left hand side of the body will be something he's never had to take into account before, at least not to this magnitude. Will he allow himself to be outworked early, in the hope that he will comeon strong down the stretch? Or will he try to limit the challenger's offense from the off and maintain a slow pace that will suit him?

 

Part 2.


Sebastian Sylvester Vs Grzegorz Proska

Middleweight

Tale Of The Tape
Record: 34(16)-4-1 / 25(18)-0
Height: 5'7½'' / 5'8
Reach: ? / ?
Age: 31 / 26

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A good crossroads fight for the EBU Title this, which sees the man who recently lost his 'world' title to Australian Daniel Geale, Sebastian Sylvester, coming up against the undefeated, untested Pole in Proska. Sylvester appears to be slipping, but is desperate to re-establish himself in the title picture, while Proska is aiming for heights he has not yet reached in what has been a frustrating career for him thus far.

''Hurrikan'' Sylvester is almost your stereotypical German fighter, high guard, wastes very little punches, and was a bit fortunate to get where he did. If weak at world level, he has been a force at European however, beating a relatively decent amount of EBU-level fighters in Amin Asikainen(which was a loss he avenged), a past best Javier Capetillo and Morrade Hakkar. After being comprehensively out-pointed in his initial attempt at world title glory, to rival Felix Sturm, he was gifted a rather fortuitous shot at the vacant IBF title against an unknown and not very good Italian, which he of course won. This commenced an insignificant reign, comfortably beating not so good opposition such as Billy Lyell and Mahir Oral, while badly struggling with ok fighters in Giovani Lorenzo(split) and Roman Karmazin(draw). He was outworked and outmanuvered without giving Geale too much to worry about, despite what a horrific 118-110 scorecard in his favour may tell you.

Proska has not benefitted from the opportunities his opponent has had, and hasn't made much progress at all in the pro's. In a six year career he's yet to make the kind of splash that he was expected to, with his opportunities being limited in Britain, where he is based, consistently fighting sub-par opposition, whom he perpetually dominated, time after time. Earlier on this year there was finally an improvement, albeit only a marginal one, as he with an obscene amount of lead left hands he disected the Spaniard Pablo Navascues in Spain. Getting some long sought after TV exposure, we saw his insanely awkward style at work, with his unconventional, bouncing around footwork used as his defense mechanism, as he carries his arms extremely low, bringing his technique-lacking shots(mostly jabs and overhand lefts) from all kinds of angles to confuse and offset the home fighter's rhythm, knocking his man out brutally with his free hand while tied up in a clinch.

It throws up a bit of a head-scratcher, with Sylvester no doubt being the stalker and Proska the stalked. The key to beating Sylvester thus far has been to keep the jab in his face, but does Proska utilise it enough? Probably not, the main query will be whether or not that lead left hand and awkward style will do enough for him, as even still he can still outwork perennial slow starter and solitary-punch thrower Sylvester, who will mostly follow without making any sustained effort to force the initiative, staying compact and thrusting out the occasional jab. Jab aside though, Proska has the kind of style that'll cause the more experienced man fits for the duration.


Gabriel Campillo Vs Karo Murat

Light Heavyweight

Tale Of The Tape
Record: 21(8)-3 / 24(14)-1
Height: 6'2 / 5'10½''
Reach: ? / 70''
Age: 32 / 28

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A rematch of a contest that first took place three years ago, both fighters paths have altered greatly since. First time around it was the weight below at super middleweight for the EBU belt(this time it's an IBF eliminator), where the Iraq born Germany based Murat was one who carried a lot of hype on his shoulders, and Campillo was a completely unknown quantity. Murat emerged victorious that night, coming out with a disputed majority decision, however, three years in advance Campillo has really found himself as a fighter and Murat has regressed if anything.

After being knocked out by Vlacheslav Uzelkov and outpointed by Murat, Campillo was brought in as an 'opponent' for then WBA champion Hugo Garay, and was expected to be a soft touch for the Argentinian. #CLICHE TIME# The Spaniard tore up the script however, displaying the skills we'd grow accustomed to in his future outings, the fluid movement with his feet and the flowing combinations he unleashed on the bewildered, possibly complacent champion, not anticipating the southpaw in front of him to be outboxing him to the extent he was. A late, desperate flurry didn't suffice, as Hugo was displaced from his throne by the unheralded Campillo. Now seen as a weak champion as well as a European level operator at best, ''The Handsome Man'' was drafted in to give Kazakh prospect Beibut Shumenov a ''world'' title in only his ninth fight. Once again though, Campillo didn't conform to what was expected of him, beating Shumenov by a majority decision that was called ''controversial'' by some, but it's a fight that's hard to locate, so I couldn't tell you really. What I can tell you is that he was flat out robbed in the rematch, easily handling Shumenov, even rocking him on an occasion or two as he outboxed, outfought and outlanded his inexperienced adversary. Ludicrously though, Shumenov was awarded the win and the title, throwing Campillo into ''who needs him'' territory.

Murat was highly touted at super-middle, being compared to stablemate Arthur Abraham by those who followed him. Looking rather promising at 168lbs, beating Campillo and knocking out others in European title fights, he surprisingly began the ascent to light heavy, where he looked very under-sized, and underwhelming in his outings as a direct result. His punch output severely dwindled, and he was put in with Nathan Cleverly at precisely the wrong time. The much smaller man, he couldn't get anything going, having his high guard pounded in with regularity against the superior Welshman while being unable to respond, he was battered throughout and stopped on his feet in ten.

You can only anticipate the fight to transpire in similar fashion to their first encounter, only more so in Campillo's favour on this occasion. Campillo's grown into the weight much better, and will attempt to once again utilise his far superior lateral movement and jab to keep Karo at range, before planting his feet and letting his decent arsenal of blows fly, before reeling away again. What aided Murat first time around was that he was able to be somewhat busy, he's never been an active fighter but he threw more than your average Abraham or Sylvester, that has evaporated upon his rise in weight and you can only expect Campillo to leave zero room for controversy this time around, and hopefully securing another shot at world glory which he fully deserves.


Part 3 will be a while, only working on it now.

 

Part 3.

Juan Manuel Lopez Vs Mike Oliver

Featherweight

Tale Of The Tape
Record: 30(27)-1 / 25(8)-2
Height: 5'5½'' / 5'5
Reach: 69'' / 68''
Age: 28 / 31

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One of three Puerto Rican's on this Top Rank card undergoing the rebuilding process, one of the two men at the dawn of his(and the biggest name of the trio), Juanma Lopez, looks to regain the from that went spiralling downwards due to his upset defeat to Mexican hardman Orlando Salido in April, where after his usual rapid start he was quickly found out and broken down with the overhand right, which saw him being stopped on his feet in eight after being dropped HEAVY in the fifth.

It was surprising, no doubt, but what was still inescapable was the feeling of inevitability. Lopez was allowing himself to get carried away in fights, not sticking to his boxing like he should, and relying on his mind-numbing power at the weight. When he boxed it allowed his power to flourish to a much greater degree, he broke Steve Luevano down by not getting reckless, and he was comfortabl when he used his skills against Rogers Mtagwa, Rafa Marquez and Salido, but in all of those fights he allowed himself to get careless, nearly getting stopped by Mtagwa, and needing the bell to save him, getting rocked a couple of times by the far smaller Marquez despite having it his own way when he stuck behind his jab, and finally the stoppage defeat to Salido. It may well be the wake up call Juanma needed, as he now knows he can no longer get away with simply trying to walk through the man while having to endure a shaky moment here and there. This would be a good gauge to measure if he's grown some patience, as he's not exactly in deep with Oliver.

Fellow southpaw ''Machine Gun'' Oliver is decent to a point, he's certainly not at - or near - Lopez's level. In both of his losses he was stopped in three by Antonio Escalante and Reynaldo Sanchez respectively, and hasn't beaten anyone quite at their level(Seegar may be debateable). He's flashy with little to no substance, overstating the case with his left hand almost every time he throws it. His best wins are against Al Seegar and Gary Stark Jr, but it's abundantly clear that he's far too easy to hit.

It's likely that the flat-footed Oliver will conform to type and back himself onto the ropes and into corners, and get pounded by Lopez while he's there. Even with Juanma's leaky defense you can't expect Mike to land with any frequency, I suspect that Lopez will get back to winning ways whenever he decides to turn it up a notch, stopping Oliver in the early-mid rounds.

Jonathan Oquendo & Roman Martinez On The Card

Also hoping to get their careers back on track are the aforementioned Lopez's countrymen Oquendo and Martinez.

Returning after a year out following his loss to Ricky Burns, Martinez takes on Daniel Attah from Nigeria. It should be nothing more than a rust-shaker for the former title holder at super feather, as Attah has quickly fell into the cannon fodder category in recent times. Rumoured to be an option for Brandon Rios on the Cotto-Margarito undercard, he'll be looking to make a statement here(or maybe not if he knows what's good for him:yep).

Oquendo is further along than the other two, this being his 8th fight since his last defeat, to Lopez in 2008, where he was stopped in three rounds. He's up against Jose Luis Araiza next, who's on a stoppage-ridden losing streak lately. It's hard to see what they actually want to do with Oquendo, because he's done nothing since that loss. It seems as though Arum is hoping he'll build an aesthetically pleasing record(numbers wise) in order to pass him off as a legitimate threat to one of his 'prospects' as soon as they're ready to step up their level of opposition.


Sergio Martinez Vs Darren Barker

Middleweight

Tale Of The Tape
Record: 47(26)-1-2 / 23(14)-0
Height: 5''10 / 6'0½''
Reach: 76'' / ?
Age: 36 / 29

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Tiresome comparisons to Honeyghan-Curry are often brought up when a Brit ventures stateside in a fight where he is considered to be a massive underdog. They may just be a tad more relevant in this case, as he is the European champion taking on a consensus top pound for pound fighter. He's up against it anyways.

Martinez is a young 36(started at 20) and coming in on an impressive run of form where he's dismantled Kelly Pavlik and Sergei Dzinziruk, sparked out Paul Williams and had fate conspire against him against Williams the first time around(dropped questionable decision) and just about every being in the universe conspire against him when he fought Kermit Cintron, knocking out and outpointing him in one night, but only receiving a draw. Fast of hand and foot, and after oddly developing power he never had possessed, he looks unstoppable for the moment at 160lbs, and with his age, he wants to dispose of Barker quickly and move onto bigger and better things to cement his standing.

Whether Martinez is overrated or not(yes in my opinion) is a matter up for debate, but whatever way you see it, on the surface it still appears to be a near insurmountable task for the brave Londoner. His ambition is admirable, as are his cajones, and he has got more than a modicum of ability to go with him. A good reader of range, that will come in useful against the shorter Martinez, as will his rapier jab and his ability to hook off of it put together with his tendency to impose his size in the clinch, which he should be able to implement against the Argentinian.

Barker can smother attacks well, but what's worrying for him and his supporters is how open he can be to a left hand over the top, which could prove disasterous against a southpaw who has mastered it in Sergio. He'll look to impose his own style, and attempt to not be taken in by Martinez's hands down movement-based defense. It's hard to envisage him not doing it however, as Martinez has done it before against fighters more proven than Barker, and may well continue to do it to better fighters.

I'll have a 4th part later on, this is killing me right now.

 

I have to do:

Toshiaki Nishioka vs Rafael Marquez
Roman Gonzalez vs Gilberto Keb Bass
Jesus Soto-Karass vs Yoshihiro Kamegai
And Sammy Gutierrez's fight.

I'll be brief on the latter two, I'll do the normal length for the former two I suppose.

 

Sorry, you're right. I copy and pasted that from ishy's post on my other thread.

EDIT: So it's Gonzalez-Soto too.

And Lee-Vera of course.

 

Forget about it. It's not like anyone cares.

 

I'll add the rest if I get the chance Barries. Not sure if I will though unfortunately.