With Mandanda's recent thread where you pick prospects that you think will do well, I thought why not start a thread where you can write about fighters that may not be that well known, but you are keeping a close eye on. And it doesn't have to be just British fighters :good Maybe set it out like this? Name: Record: Overview: Last fight: Who you want him to fight next: Potential: Will be fun to bump this thread in 12-18 months time and see how the fighters got on compared to what you wrote :yep
An example: Name: John Watson Record: 13-0 (5 KO's) Overview: After a decent amateur career, he turned pro in 2007 and after impressing early on in his career, he signed a contract with Hayemaker promotions. They delivered him a British title eliminator against Martin Gethin at home. Although he won a close points decision, he was almost stopped in the final seconds of the fight. With the demise of Setanta, Hayemaker lost their TV contact and the majority of their fighters were left in limbo. After a lengthy time out of the ring, he signed with Maloney and has since seen his career take off again. He looked impressive in his points win over the underrated Ben Murphy and looks ready to take the next step up. He is currently trained by Dave Coldwell. Last fight: A stoppage victory over late replacement Ben Lawler in June. Watson controlled the fight from the start and the referee stopped the fight in the 5th with the out-gunned Lawler taking too much unnecessary punishment. Who you want him to fight next: A rematch with Gethin would be a good gauge as to see how much he has improved. Potential: British champion. With John Murray going onto European level and Kevin Mitchell being AWOL, the door is wide open for him right now.
Name: Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam Record: 24(17)-0 Overview: Compiled an amateur record of 77-4-3, qualifying for the Olympic Games for Cameroon in Athens in '04 and getting to the quarter-finals - beating Andy Lee on the way - before losing to eventual gold medalist and top-draw amateur Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov. Tuned pro later that year fighting out of France. He grew to attention after winning the Grand Tournoi with some top-class performances, but the problem is, the best name on his record is Gennady Martisosyan. He needs to fight outside France if he wants to attract better names. In terms of his ability for those who haven't seen him, the guy really does look to have everything. Tall and rangy, he bounces around and slips in and out of range with ease, trying to control things with a quick jab. He has an excellent left-hook (see his KO of Woulid Gourras) and a laser accurate right-hand. He can box and control things from the outside, counter-punch, he sets up his punches really well and his range control is good, as are his reflexes, meaning he isn't easy to hit. Criticisms of him. He isn't that good a finisher. There are times where he's had an opponent hurt and even down in the early or first round, and he's tried to jump on them and finish them and not set his punches properly and picked his spots. Also, sometimes he gets a little cocky, loses focus and gets caught with punches he shouldn't. He leans away from punches at times aswell which he won't get away with at the top level, and sometimes he lunges in a little with the lead right hand too often. Last fight: I didn't see it, but an 8th round KO over Omar Gabriel Weis, who took Hector Camacho Jr's '0' and went the distance with Zab Judah years ago, but by all accounts, is a journeyman with a good record. Reports that HNN fought in his normal, controlled manner, bouncing around, popping the jab from the outside and racking up the rounds, and ended it in round 8 with a body shot that Weis failed to rise from. Doesn't seem to have been really troubled at any stage and by all accounts, he was going through the motions and getting the rounds in. Who you want him to fight next: He is ranked highly by the WBA, he might aswell try and get a shot at Gennady Golovkin when he beats Milton Nunez for the interim title. However, it doesn't seem like Universum are too keen on that idea. So instead, he needs a guy like Giovanni Lorenzo/Lajuan Simon on his record so he can push up in the other rankings, mainly the IBF and he should target Sylvester. Potential: Definitely a potential world champion, and should be able to mix it with any at 160 that could emerge. He could be a potential boxing superstar in France, he not only has the ability but the sharp, confident persona to make headlines.
Name:carl frampton Record: As an amateur, Frampton fought out of the Milands Boxing Club in Tigers Bay, Belfast and won the Irish senior flyweight title in 2005 and added the 2009 Irish featherweight title beating David Oliver Joyce in the final.[2] He also claimed a silver medal at the 2007 European Union Amateur Boxing Championships in Dublin losing to France's Khedafi Djelkhir in the final. Frampton turned professional after his victory in the 2009 Irish featherweight finals. He move to the Holy Trinity Gym in Belfast and in June 2009, fought his first professional fight at the Olympia, Liverpool in England and beat Sandor Szinavel with a second round knockout on a card that included Grzegorz Proksa and Ajose Olusegan.[4] currently he is 6-0 3kos Last fight: win over tough journeyman ian bailey Who you want him to fight next: another tough journeyman Potential:world champion
Name: Manni Paceeow (I'm not sure of the spelling) Record: Fairly decent Overview: Well hes some asian boyo who after having some sucess at Flyweight got KTFO so moved up in weight and did alright. Beating second rate sort of contenders e.g Barrera, Hatton, Diaz etc... until settling at Welterweight. Recently achieved a monumental victory over some African guy who was supposed to be superb according to Jimmy. Some people think Pacwhatever can become quite famous Last fight: Who you want him to fight next: Definitly Ricky Hatton,Hatton was unlucky in the fight and was winning the second round by a country mile. Paceeoh is just an unskilled brawler with a big punch and caught Hatton with a lucky shot. Hatton batters him next time. A bout with Wladimir Klitschko could also be good. Potential: He could be quitegood but if ricky Hatton getshim he will be showed as overrated hype.
name: Ismail Sillakh record: 12-0 i think overview: 300 am bouts was amazing at world and euro level just never won a big one. shame very tall at the weight 6'2 or 6'3. nice technique and skills, and can punch but it will be his boxing that will get him anywhere. last fight: a good win over daniel judah. very solid very economic. glen johnson not being able to stop judah either. who should he fight next: an otis griffin type someone of a certain class who can be beaten but also have some distance in them. after a few lining contender fights a fight with rival uzelkov could be interesting potential: i think he is a 174 threat. might move up but he is a lanky dude might not pull it off so well up there. but 174 i think he could be the goods. also could be a spreading form the heavyweights downwards the eastern european dominance. yeah very good i think he will go far. (wow just checked he is in the top 30. didnt know he was getting that much attention )
Name: David Lemieux Record: 23-0 (22 KO's) Overview: 3 time Canadian amateur champion Lemieux has blitzed his way through the profesional ranks so far with a 96% knock out ratio. He turned pro at 18 and has been fairly active in those 3 years, already winning minior titles in 3 differweight wieght classes (154lbs, 160lbs and 168lbs). Everyone of his 23 fights have taken place in hios home town of Montreal so far. Trained by Russ Abner who works closley with other canadian stars Jean Pascal and Troy Ross. Last fight: An ultra impressive 1st round knock out of the former World title challanger Elvin Ayala who had previously only been stopped by Arthur Abraham in the 12 round. Its got fight fans around the world rageing about the knock out artist. Who you want him to fight next: His next fight will be on the undercard of Jean Pascal vs Chad Dawson, again in Monteal on August 14th. Would like to see him in with a former World Champion or title challanger. Marco Antinio Rubio, Lajuan Simon and Roman Karmizan all fall under that category and are in the world rankings. Any one of those 3 should take Lemieux a few rounds and give him something to tink about. Potential: He can go to the very top. He has the style to be a star and theres enough young fighters coming through in his weight class (Kirkland, Guererro, Pirog, Jacobs, Macklin, Barker, N'Jakim) to make big fights. He can sell tickets and his knock out power will get him TV intrest world wide. He could be a P4P fixture for years to come
Name: Felix Diaz Record: 6(4)-0 Overview: 2008 Olympic light welterweight gold medallist for Dominican Republic. Already boxed home and away (USA, Germany and Russia (against Yakovenko who later fought Nuzhnenko)). Couple of good opponenets but largely matched with fighters with losing records, but is starting to get some recognition across the pond (as well as here with an article recently in a particular weekly magazine). He's a lefty with a cracking dig. Shared an undercard with Rigondeaux in Miami so presumably they're with the same promotion team. Short but powerful, fast and accurate. Last fight: TKO8 over Broderick Antoine (10-10-1 at the time) Who you want him to fight next: Stacked division at LWW, so maybe after a couple more fights I'd like to see him in with maybe Vivian Harris or (Zab Judah victim) Santa Cruz. Potential: To the toppermost of the poppermost.
Name: Tony Bellew Record: Won 13 (9 KO’s) 0 Losses Overview: Tony Bellew likes to call himself the ‘smashing machine’ because of his formidable power having already achieved 9 knockouts. He is popular with the fans and even posts on eastsideboxing.com forum, and has a good fan base already. Bellew has passed every test in his short career convincingly especially in his last fight, winning the commonwealth belt. Last fight: TKO1 over Atoli Moore for the vacant light-heavyweight Commonwealth belt (4-0 at the time) Who you want him to fight next: After having a couple of good fights fall through he's down to face Bob Ajisafe. Providing he comes through that test a good opponent would be a defence against Australia's Tim Bell who always comes to fight aggressively and is very beatable but still dangerous if Bellew gets careless. Potential: Bellew is exciting to watch, he goes into every fight with bad intentions like his hero Mike Tyson. Bellew is highly ambitious and has already called out European champion Nathan Cleverely. With excellent raw punching power, a solid chin and an exciting style it is hard not to like Bellew. I predict he will be a world title contender and possibly hold a world title in the future.