We'll tak' a week o' decent fights yet, for auld lange syne...

Here is what's on tap as we ring out MMXIII:

Thursday, 12/26

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10 rounds - Inter
Saturday, 12/28

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10 rounds - TyC Sports
Tuesday, 12/31

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12 rounds - TV Tokyo
Tuesday, 12/31

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12 rounds - TV Tokyo
Tuesday, 12/31

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12 rounds - TBS Japan

I assembled the following guide for the end-of-year action for the Rummy's Challenge league participants, but it could prove handy for others who may have torn away the last page on the calendar prematurely and thought we had no more fisticuffs being televised anywhere until FNF kicks off its season in January. :good

 

Viktor Postol - embodies the jab 'n' grab specialist in the increasingly familiar Ukrainian style. Effective but frustrating to watch. Comparable with Vyacheslav Senchenko and Sergei Fedchenko, maybe a little better than either. He is long and tall and uses these favorable traits intelligently, controlling distance with his jab or applying octopus holds where necessary.

Behzod Nabiev - was the sort they had in mind when they came up with the boxing terminology "bleeder" or tomato can. Over time it has come to mean a rather bad fighter, but originally it referred to someone who could very well be world class but on a given night would always be susceptible to being stopped due to accursed paper skin or rampant hemophilia once hit. Part of the reason he gushes so much is his disposition. Nabiev is a try-hard with an iron will, and once he gets inside is a real devil. He is often the victim of headbutts and elbows (if not legal scoring uppercuts) when adversaries grow too concerned about his spirited infighting and look to any tactics necessary to abate trench warfare, finding him difficult to clinch and harder to contain.

Viktor Postol vs. Hank Lundy:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyibfb_viktor-postol-vs-henry-lundy-2013-03-21_sport

Behzod Nabiev vs. Aslanbek Kozaev:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdeal_2012-11-24-aslanbek-kozaev-vs-behzod-nabiev_sport



Marcos Ahumada - should be undefeated; ignore that blemish. He was a fast-rising light heavyweight prospect on the Argentine domestic scene when a completely absurd ruling saw his zero taken away unjustly. He was beating up journeyman Alejandro Valori and likely on his way to a stoppage when a hard and probably intentional headbutt rocked him and cut him too badly to continue, which should have meant a no contest (or technical decision if they let the fourth end), if not a DQ. Instead, through some baffling logic, they awarded Valori with a TKO4 - in Ahumada's own home town, no less! Ahumada promptly came back to avenge this insult by knocking out Valori in - you guessed it, the fourth round of their rematch. :yep

Cesar David Crenz - is returning to cruiser for the first time since his KO loss to Dmytro Kucher to meet Ahumada. Crenz has a considerable height advantage over 6'1" Ahumada standing a lofty 6'5", and is a determined rumble-happy natural heavyweight with lean wiry strength and correspondingly larger pop than Ahumada has ever felt at light heavy or cruiser...but has a bit of a chin problem and is boiling himself down to a division that has brought him little success in the past - not to mention all four KO losses. He is also coming in on fairly short notice, replacing the omnipresent TBA sometime within the last fortnight. (maybe closer to around three weeks, but still - not a full camp). He shouldn't be underestimated due to his size, and he does have a feather in his cap with a referee stoppage of former champion Hugo Garay - but Garay was a shell of himself, in poor shape, and had been ruined by Marco Huck only months earlier - so that can't be read into a great deal. Just enough to say that Ahumada needs to be cautious and employ all his skills and not make it Crenz's sort of brawl.

Marcos Ahumada vs. Alejandro Valori I:

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Marcos Ahumada vs. Alejandro Valori II:

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Cesar David Crenz vs. Hugo "Pigu" Hernan Garay:

• [yt]dmwbcSqqy6M[/yt]

Takashi Miura - is a victim of bad timing. Not only must he settle for being the 2nd best super featherweight in Japan, but he can't even lay claim to being the best super featherweight in Japan named Takashi. :-( Poor guy. Don't pity him too much, though. He is carving out a championship run of his own and perhaps angling for an eventual all-Japan unification rematch with Uchiyama. He is coming off two very solid performances in 2013: first, snatching the coveted green belt from Cinderella man Gamaliel Diaz and thus avenging deposed countryman Takahiro Ao, and secondly defending the belt on foreign soil in dangerous Cocaine Thompson's own backyard. He is now facing a third consecutive highly experienced pressure-savvy Mexican.

Dante Jardon - carries the nickname Loco, and lives up to it both inside and outside the ring. His style is a madman's, alternating between crouching at long range and leaping toward opponents with supercharged hooks. Of course, this naturally leaves his chin exposed fairly often but on most nights he is able to absorb the punishment that comes his way. He is on a tear since his last defeat, where he was upset by rugged trial horse Miguel Roman when his wild bombs for once failed to rock someone and led to his confidence flagging and Jardon finding himself forced to learn how to fight moving backward. Jardon got his mojo back and easily won the rematch, never letting Roman seize initiative - and has been returned to form knocking people down and out ever since. (Verdugo was on his way to being KTFO when he bailed himself out with a flagrant headbutt). Most recently he outlasted Gamaliel Diaz in a rough slug-fest with Diaz coming directly off his title loss to Miura. Jardon is looking to break his personal tie with Japanese boxers, having been knocked out embarrassingly in a tuneup by lightly regarded Kyohei Tamakoshi but knocking out Akinori Kanai this past April during his rampage to set his mark at 1-1 versus Japan heading into his Miura challenge.

Takashi Miura vs. Sergio Thompson:

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Dante Jardon vs. Gamaliel Diaz:

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Takashi Uchiyama - perhaps the most dominant champion that nobody talks about, here makes his eighth WBA title defense and is taking only his second relative 'soft touch' of the entire reign (the first since Granados). But for an unfortunately anticlimactic technical draw with Michael Farenas, his KO streak would extend all the way back to his Oriental & Pacific title reign, six years, with very few 'soft' touches in the mix. Uchiyama has thunderbolts and knows how to use them. Much like Golovkin, he fits that mold that defies classification of surefire KO artists who are undeniably sound and educated defensively. Also like Golovkin, he got a somewhat late start and is getting a bit old to make the statement his talents can surely back up.

Daiki Kaneko - hit a career snag two years in with back to back losses, but has gone unbeaten since that dreary 2007. He is 13-0-3 (10) in the ensuing six years and fought his way to a capture and four defenses of the Japanese super featherweight title - all by KO. The opposition has really been the best the country has available barring the obvious exceptions of the world champs, Takashi #1 and Takashi #2. In his last defense he took revenge on Mitsuya Omura, the man who dealt his most recent (and only stoppage) loss. Omura was knocked out in under two minutes. Before that, Kaneko had kayoed our aforementioned pal Kyohei Tamakoshi...and began his reign with a mild upset scoring a TKO over Seiichi Okada, who once held Miura to a close SD. Kaneko has youth on his side and is bigger than Uchiyama, and with his current momentum will probably not be too starry-eyed going into the champ's turf for this huge opportunity.

Takashi Uchiyama vs. Bryan Vasquez:

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Daiki Kaneko vs. Ryota Kajiki:

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Kazuto Ioka - should not require any introduction, being the wunderkind now boasting more world title bouts in his career than non-title bouts, who captured his first belt in only his seventh outing with under two years' pro experience. This will be Ioka's first rival at fly pitting a perfect record on the line with his own. Down at straw he fought on two occasions with zeroes thrown into the pot along with a world title. Both opponents were knocked resoundingly out. Once again, Ioka is boxing in the comfortable bosom of his native Osaka - as in his last five bouts and all but two in his career. He may be growing slightly complacent as his last two challengers, both hailing from Thailand with padded records, were relative pushovers despite one having been a former titlist, if briefly. His last real test was J-Rod - but to be fair, he passed with flying colors.

Felix Alvarado - in addition to his pretty if wanting record, is the flyweight champion of Nicaragua, where the lower divisions are becoming a hotbed of talent...and is a favored sparring partner of pound for pound virtuoso Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez, so this will be no soft touch defense for Ioka. Alvarado is quick on his feet with a flash-bang jab and is aggressive, physical, and well-conditioned. He may have as much natural strength at 24 as does Ioka. This will be Alvarado's first time ever competing more than 200 miles from Lake Nicaragua (with his two only expeditions beyond his national borders coming in next-door Costa Rica).

Kazuto Ioka vs. Jose Rodriguez:

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Felix Alvarado vs. Nerys Espinoza:

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:yep :good

 

Asian boxing - particularly Japanese - is great stuff...as is Mexican.

If you are ever in a position to catch what looks on paper to be an evenly matched domestic clash - even if you don't know the principles - you should check it out. It's often more competitive and exciting than anything you ever see on HBO/Showtime/Sky/BoxNation etc.

Neither the Ukrainian nor Argentine card have major implications as far as global rankings and neither is even half as intriguing as the New Year's Eve stuff in the Land of the Rising Sun - but if you aren't doing anything but nursing a hangover post-holiday they're worth tuning in for. Nabiev will make Postol uncomfortable for however long it lasts, and Postol is rarely uncomfortable. Ahumada vs. Crenz will either be a very good smaller man breaking down a so-so bigger man with speed and counter punches, or the smaller man getting smashed up if he is drawn into a prolonged firefight...either way, fireworks with a probable explosive finish.

 

For those who don't often catch action from these corners of the globe:

The Ukrainian card is set to begin at 5pm local time in Kiev, 10am EST on Thursday with the main event probably on by 2pm EST. (9pm local time)

The Argentine card should begin at 10pm local time in San Luis, 8pm EST on Saturday with the main event on by 10pm EST. (midnight local time)

The cards in Osaka and Tokyo on NYE one week from tomorrow will unfortunately clash with both main events likely beginning around the customary time of 9pm local/7am EST.

 

All three of the world title bouts in Japan are, 100%.

All three champs will be comfortable favorites but none of the underdogs are hopeless. Kaneko, Jardon, or Alvarado could prove tempting if the odds are very long.

 

Bad news, everyone. Ahumada vs. Crenz is off. :sad2

This next week just got 20% less interesting.

 

Postol beat Nabiev via UD.

The scores were 100-87 x3. Nabiev was down in the fourth and twice more in the final round. No word yet on whether he was cut but given how much taller and longer Postol is and how available for jabs Nabiev would presumably be and prone to laceration he probably did get chopped up.

 

We are officially down to our New Year's Eve cards as our last fix of prizefighting. The sun will set on 2013 in the Land of the Rising Sun.

****! :hi: (C U Next Tuesday)

 

:-( Charlie Sheen is putting 30+ year old jokes into his new sitcom? No wonder it hasn't blown up the way his last one did.