Mundine-Wood rematch stinker inspires writing comeback

I haven’t written anything since UFC 110, the UFC’s debut in Australia, last February. I half lost interest in writing my thoughts about boxing and MMA without anyone really reading them and the other half was me not having the time. I now have the time and I just needed the inspiration which is the one thing I got out of the stinker of a fight tonight. The rematch between Garth Wood and Anthony Mundine tonight was the worst display of ‘boxing’ I’ve ever seen (the only thing that edged it out from the first fight was the fact that I got to see one of them lose consciousness at the end) on what was meant to be such a big stage. This is/will be the biggest domestic fight in the calendar year of 2011 for Australian boxing (until the inevitable rubber match) and these two fought like a pair of bums fighting for loose change. That isn’t the thing that pisses me off though; what pisses me off is that people actually enjoyed it.

Basically the fight went as the first one did except without the knockout. Garth Wood would get on his toes and try to make out like he has footwork with his goofy stance while Mundine would look at him with utter confusion as he, techinically, doesn’t have much of an idea of what he’s doing either. Then one of two things would happen; Mundine would lead at which Wood would tie him up and they’d start exchanging lowblows, rabbit punches, shoulders and elbows or Wood would lead then tie him up no matter what was happening in the exchange and then the fouls would start again. Rince, repeat (add boredom, nausea and migraine like symptoms) and that was the fight. (Mundine scored two knockdowns in the last two rounds to get the win, but I’ll get to that later). Anyone who saw the fight as anything different or enjoyed it in the slightest is either uneducated in the sport of boxing (what the majority of the people would fall into) or has a good sense of boxing but has serious short term memory problems/selective eyesight. The fight was TERRIBLE. If someone sits a bucket next to me to help with the vomitting I’ll go through it tomorrow with a stopwatch and see how much was spent clinching and how much was spent boxing and I’d be very susprised if there was 5 minutes of acceptable boxing in the whole contest. Garth Wood flat out has the worst style for a fighter with a winning record I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t box, he tackles and rabbit punches (and if I don’t want to hear anymore shit about his style being good for MMA, if he fought MMA not only would he have to learn the stand-up part, when he tied the guys up as his way of handling their better stand-up then he’d have to deal with someone who knew how to fight in the clinch or on the ground, at least in boxing he has some sort of niche market he can exploit with his disgusting style) and quite frankly I can think of multiple methods of masochism that would be more pleasurable then watching him ‘box’ again.

Now I’m sure by now if you hadn’t seen the fight you’d think that if the fight was as bad as I was making it out to be, the referee would have done something? I’m not sure who the referee was, but he was highly incompetent. I thought he did well early on trying to gain respect from the fighters, but it seemed he got tired of trying to break the fighters up and just let them do their own thing and it went downhill from there. For such a dirty fight, to not have a single point deduction is just laziness. In a ten round fight using the ten point must system, fighters usually score between 90-100 points for a fight that goes the full distance (as was tonight with Mundine winning 96-92, 96-92, 95-93). If I was refereeing this piece of shit fight I would have taken so many points off these two for their crude, primitive, rough-house fighting that those two would have been lucky to score 50! Sure that’s an exaggeration but the referee has to do more then just warn them, he has to do something extra if they ignore the warnings. Instead he did the opposite, he stopped physically breaking them and let them fight like a pair of bums. Then we get to the knockdown in round nine. Mundine landed (well, half landed) a left hook which caught Wood while he was off balance. Wood went down and the referee, not wanting to get between the two fighters incase he got sandwiched by Wood’s relentless clinch game, called a knockdown from the other side of the ring and started counting. Wood bounced back up and started punching which resulted in the referee giving him the mandatory eight count two punch exchanges and about 5-6 seconds after the Wood got up from the knockdown! If the referee can’t even handle a knockdown right (and if you want to argue it wasn’t a knockdown which I don’t really care about one way or the other because the fight was so shit to argue a single point of it would be to sink to it’s level, this was the only fight I’ve ever watched where I gave up keeping score about 30 seconds in because I wasn’t sure I was watching the right sport) then what can he do right?

And as usual we had tweedle dee and tweedle dum (Andy Raymond and Barry Michael) commentating. I had trouble hearing exactly what they were saying the whole time as I’m not a moron and I didn’t pay $50 for this shit, but from what I got they were saying the fight was a ‘war’ and were just laughing it off when Garth Wood would initiate a clinch and start rabbit punching or when Mundine would elbow him and push him into the ropes. This is probably the main problem with Australian boxing, the people who have a say about this aren’t getting angry when you have the biggest national fight of the year turn into a piece of shit. You need commentators who call a spade a spade and who call a piece of shit fight a piece of shit fight and not try to make it out like the viewing public got their moneys worth. Australian boxing needs their internal critics; thats how things get changed. You need people who know the sport to a) be commentators/analysts (yes that’s right, I just said Andy Raymond doesn’t know the sport of boxing) and b) to criticise how the sport is run down here. Boxing is facing a very serious threat in MMA and while I don’t see boxing ever being obsolete on aglobal scale, in Australia where boxing isn’t a first rate sport it has the potential for the scene in Australia to slip into a very poor state and that’s what will happen if shows like this are the pinnacle of the sport in this country!

I’m not in a position of power in the sport and I have no intention of being a commentator or anything other then the keyboard warrior that I am, but after the disgusting card I saw tonight (I didn’t even mention that the undercard was a piece of shit also) I feel that as someone who loves the sport of boxing and (and I don’t mean to toot my own horn, I only ever started writing on here because I was encouraged by numerous people I know in the industry who tell me I know what I’m talking about) has a solid knowledge of it that I need to write more about it. I need to write articles on the fox sport shows and critique the judges who score rounds with a knockdown 10-9 because they thought the round was even outside of the knockdown or score a six round fight 60-59 because they’re too incompetent to judge who won five of the rounds. I need to write articles about the piss poor matchmaking that goes on on local shows and how fighters like Lenny Zappavinga, a fighter who I think has the talent to be a world class fighter, needs to fight better ranked European and North American fighters instead of fighting a few good local fighters then stepping it up for a title shot without bridging the competitive gap first. If I’m going to let myself get as pissed off as I did tonight watching that horrible excuse for a pay per view card (and once again I DID NOT PAY FOR IT I watched it at the local) then I should try and do something about it, if not for the sport of boxing then for my own sanity. So this is me, officially restarting to rant about combat sports. I think someone has to be the mad prophet of the airwaves and if no one else is going to do it then it’ll have to be me. And if you enjoyed the fight tonight and don’t like what I’ve said about it, well I’ve given you one reason to be pissed off about it; it’s inspired me to start writing again!

Why MMA will take over Boxing in Australia

How well would the boxing kangaroo fight off it's back?

With one night to go until the UFC makes it’s much anticipated Australian debut, everything in this country is set up for MMA to finally push boxing into the past and emerge as the future of combat sports down under. With the shoddy state of boxing in Australia at the moment, about the only thing that will stop MMA from moving past boxing would be an ugly incident either in the Octagon or in the crowd at next Sundays event. With even the head honcho’s involved with boxing not caring about it’s future, but rather trying to milk every last cent out of it right now, yet the people in charge of MMA trying to build the sport’s long term future it’s only inevitable that boxing be taken over by the new sport.  

With the small coverage MMA has received in Australia it has a cult following among the people who know about it. The guys who know lots about it get their friends into it, albeit at a much smaller level. The effect of this is like that of a trail of gun powderand the UFC 110 card in Sydney tomorrow is the spark that will explode MMA into a more mainstream sport in Australia. Tomorrow’s show sold out inside of a week with probably 90% of the tickets selling before they were open to the public meaning that there will likely be a second show sometime in the not to distant future (likely next year around the same time). With hardly any big boxing fights taking place in Australia (Australia’s main promoter Angelo Hyder is stuck in the late 90s thinking that big names that Australians want to see are Roy Jones jnr, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson, three men ten years past their best), an annual UFC event will only help the sport grow. The fact that One HD has scrapped it’s “Super Boxer” series and shows next to no current boxing, yet they will show UFC 110 live tomorrow for free is also a big sign of what is to come in the future. 

The bottom line is that Boxing in this country is a joke. The fact that Australians will go to the pub or fork out $50 to watch a Mundine pay per view to see him fight some fringe South American contender while some Rugby League star has a pub brawl with a guy who wouldn’t even be club level material anywhere else in the world yet they couldn’t tell you who the heavyweight champion of the world is is of major concern. Nothing is done to push boxing back into the spotlight or develop some of the upcoming fighters. Even the recent Australian version of ‘The Contender’ left out decent prospects like Jamie Pittman, a man who has the skills to be a threat on the world stage but lacks the exposure that a show like ‘The Contender’ would have given him to be able to build a following in this country. There are plenty of guys out there like Jamie Pittman who are talented boxers but just can’t build the following down here that they would have otherwise done if boxing was taken seriously. Sure Pittman is very well known to the boxing public, but do you really think the Captain of the Australian Olympic Boxing team would be struggling to get televised or even get decent fights in England or the USA? Yet guys like Sonny Bill Williams and Carl Webb get main support fights on what is probably the biggest stage in Australian boxing (the Mundine shows) and probably earn just as much!  

The production value of boxing shows is also a major problem with boxing in Australia. The fact that  MORON like Andy Raymond, who is a Rugby League commentator with no clue about anything boxing is the voice of the sport down here is nauseating. The ring announcers have no idea how to properly announce a show, and yes there is a proper and improper way of doing things. For one, you don’t announce the rules of the bout while the fighters are in the ring waiting to get it on (see the Green-Jones prelims for an example). You don’t announce a close decision in favour of ”the red corner” in the biggest domestic fight of the year (see Mundine-Geale decision) when no one pays any attention which corner they’re fighting out of. It’s painful watching a high profile boxing card in Australia because you can tell that the people in charge of running it have no idea what they’re doing. I rarely watch local Fox Sports boxing shows anymore because of how bad it is (that and the mismatches that they often have). You don’t need four or five ring girls dancing in the ring between rounds with dance music playing (you didn’t see this on say the Pacquiao-Cotto card for example did you?). You don’t need to show the Australian rankings after every fight and you definately don’t need to show random rounds out of insignificant fights from past local shows when you’ve got nothing else to do. One of the main strengths of the UFC is the production value. They do an amazing job of hyping up the fights with pre fight interviews, a highly energetic ring announcer and the right amount of tits and arse between rounds with the focus being more on the fighters which is what the people watching paid to see. 

Should the UFC 110 card deliver tomorrow, expect to see a rise in regional MMA shows and an even further drop in local pro-am boxing cards. With more and more people already turning to kickboxing or jiu jitsu, there’s bound to be an emergence of competitors willing to try their luck with 4oz gloves instead of the 12oz gloves and headgear that amateur boxers use. There are already a number of good fighters from Australia and New Zealand (two of them fight tomorrow night on the main card) and if some of them can increase their celebrity down here to a slightly mainstream audience, something that say a victory for George Sotiropolous over Joe Stevenson tomorrow night would do, it’s only going to help the MMA cause down under. Boxing has been on a slow decline in this country since the late 80′s when we had our last batch of Australian contenders who actually fought one another. Sure there’s been a slight resurgence with the likes of Anthony Mundine and Danny Green and Daniel Geale, but our best fighters (Vic Darchinyan and Michael Katsidis) both fight overseas and have a bigger following in the USA then they do down here. No longer are the days of TV ringside where contenders were brought up through the tough local circuit and had to earn their status when fighters like Hector Thompson, Tony Mundine and Paul Ferreri gave the world champions of the day, men who are among the greatest to have ever entered a boxing ring in their respective divisions, some of the toughest fights of their career. The state of boxing today is one of prospects not learning their craft through overprotection and mismatches who end up taking the massive step up in class that they aren’t ready for and when they lose those that were paying attention to them no longer do while the rest of Australia who aren’t as into boxing as someone like me is go on watching their Mundine cards and having a laugh when the two heavyweights start trading arm punches with their chin in the air. MMA has slowly been taking over in America, and although boxing is run pretty badly over there, it’s not nearly as bad as it is down here. All that is needed to start the MMA frenzy is for the biggest promotion in the world to bring one of its shows down here to get some mainstream attention.

Tua jump starts career with KO victory over Cameron

 

 

David Tua pushed himself back into heavyweight contention yesterday. Sure the fight with New Zealand rival Shane Cameron only lasted 13 seconds into the 2nd round, but the head movement and hand speed that got boxing fans excited back the late 1990′s that suddenly disappeared just as he reached the top appeared to be back as well as the always devastating punching power that led to three knockdowns inside a 50 second period. Even if Tua turns out to only have the gas tank to fight like this for a few rounds (it’s better then the few minutes he had been fighting like that the last time we saw him) if he can explode on heavyweights like he exploded on Cameron for the first few rounds that single handedly makes him the most exciting heavyweight in the game right now.

I’ve heard people calling for him to get a title shot right off the bat. That’s crazy talk and it should be met with a backhander as far as I’m concerned. Tua needs to get back in the ring in the next two months and fight again and he needs at least three or four more fights before he’s ready to go against one of the Klitschko’s. The Klitschko’s both have nearly a foot in height over Tua and have been fighting regularily so Tua’s going to have to work to get inside and if he doesn’t have more then three minutes of fight time in the bank he’s going to struggle against the Klitschko’s when they start spearing him with their jab and taking him to deep water like they do. Give Tua Rahman or give him McCline. Just give him guys who could take him rounds but guys who have looked right for the taking in recent times. If he can’t beat these guys he doesn’t deserve a title shot. I’d rather not see Tua get another title shot then see him get one when he’s under done. Still it’s good to see Tua back fighting as a headliner rather then on some shitty card in the States. All the years that John Ruiz has stunk the place out (actually I’d pay to see a rematch with him and Tua) the thought of Tua’s 17 second destruction has kept me hopeful that someone else will do the exact same thing to him. The Heavyweight division got a little better with last nights main event.

Not only was the return of Tua great, but the riddance of John Hopoate just made me smile. Finally a good domestic fighter did what should have always been done to Hopoate. I admit I was starting to buy into a little bt of the hype but deep down inside I knew this guy couldn’t be the best Heavyweight boxer in this country and when Wilson dropped him I jumped out of my seat the way I did when Kostya Tszyu decked Zab Judah to win the Undisputed Junior Welterweight title back in 2001. Hopoate just had no skill level, he was a strong fit guy who could throw a right hand but his jab is limp dick, his head movement is non existant and he couldn’t counter punch his way out of a wet paper bag. I always like Colin Wilson as he was your typical blue collar worker who just got in there and always had a good crack at it and this only made me a bigger fan. Hopefully Wilson can get a good payday out of this (and hopefully it’s not against Bob Mirovic).

The undercard also saw two excellent battles in the Cruiserweight and Junior Middleweight divisions. Daniel Ammann outpointed Lawrence Tuassa over six rounds in one of the earlier bouts of the evening. Tuassa had his moments early in the fight but Ammann’s workrate was just too much. I have no idea what Jeff Fenech and Bob Sheridan were watching because anything less then a 59-55 card in favour of Ammann (let alone a fucking draw) would have been criminal. Ammann appears to be a strong and tough customer as he manhandled Tuassa in the clinches and took some bombs without flinching. His skills aren’t top notch by any means but from what I’ve been told he had few amateur fights and has fought most of his career as a pro so they’re going to improve. It will be interesting to see how far he goes. The third fight between him and Dominic Vea has to happen. The other fight on the card worth noting was the opening fight of the evening between Steve Heremaia and Frank Laporto. Heremaia dropped Frank twice in the opening round and showed excellent head movement and punching power but La Porto fought back to take the middle rounds and looked to have Heremaia out on his feet in the fifth only for Steve to rally and win the final round and the decision. I’d love to see a rematch between these two over ten rounds.

Combat Sports over the weekend

A lot happened during my recent absence and I can’t be fucked writing seperate articles for everything so here it is in brief format:

Hopoate outpointed Mirovic at Super Boxer last Thursday. This was by far the worst card so far with the main event somehow managing to eclipse the first fight in terms of being boring as all fuck. Mirovic did alright early but once Hopoate started landing he went into his shell and resorted to holding. He lost a point in the 9th round for repeated holding (a call I can’t dispute because I actually fell asleep in the 8th). The undercard was pretty ordinary with a bullshit stoppage for Ben Edwards (the guy maybe deserved an eight count and he was outclassed, but you’ve got to let him fight I mean it’s professional boxing, I’ve seen amateurs more outclassed then that and allowed to continue), a decent fight between Erin McGowan and Angie Parr in which McGowan won on points and a mismatch n the first fight that went the distance.

Fox Sports however gave me some more fuel for the fire I’ve lit in terms of referees sucking in this country. The Rob Medley fight was a disgrace by the referee. He took a point off for holding when the guy was punching back and doing alright even though he was losing. He repeatedly warned the import for nothing and even when Medley fouled he warned the import for doing nothing. The stoppage and the footwear was bizzare, but the other guy quit because the referee was that bad. Something seriously has to be done about refereeing in this country because we’re starting to get the reputation that Germany had a few years ago in terms of bad places to come and fight the home town fighter. If I was an overseas fighter I wouldn’t come to Australia to fight based off the recent performances. Australian officiating is that far behind the rest of the boxing world that it’s become serious.

Now for the big MMA news, Affliction: Trilogy is off and Affliction is dead as a fight promoter. They were gonna merge with Strikeforce, but Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is on holidays and they couldn’t make the deal. So now Affliction has been bought out by the UFC with from what I understand the UFC getting the fight library, some of the contracts and first crack at signing the rest of the fighters under contract. The big possibility here is that Fedor is signed and the fight with Lesnar made, but I’m skeptical. Fedor and his management won’t have changed their tune and will want a co-promotion with M-1 Global for the fight to be made and still probably want an open contract. Vitor Belfort is likely to be signed and will be a nice addition to the middleweight picture. Affliction will now act as a major sponsor for the UFC and fighters will be allowed to wear Affliction T-shirts in the Octagon again (not when they fight of course).

Also news is that Tito Ortiz could be returning to the UFC and could be facing Rich Franklin instead of the Franklin-Henderson rematch at the main event of UFC 103. A press release has been scheduled for Saturday for some ‘big announcements.’

Boxing Breakdown: Super Boxer (23rd July)

The first batch of the Super Boxer series peaks tomorrow night with the long awaited rematch between Bob Mirovic and John Hopoate for the Australian Heavyweight title. I’m actually looking forward to this rematch a lot more then I did the first fight because I don’t have to go out to watch it and we know a bit more about Hopoate (11-3)since before the first fight. He’s had two stern tests since he stopped Mirovic (29-20-2) in battering US journeyman Cliff Couser and being battered by former WBC champion Oliver McCall. I really fought Bob fought a terrible fight the first time they met. He usually controls center ring but he gave it up against Hopoate and didn’t once try and back him up. I think Bob can win this fight if he can back Hoppa up, but whether he can at his age and the ring rust he’ll have from 10 months out of the ring is the big question. Hopoate has no doubt improved since that fight and I think this fight is his to win. I think this one goes the full ten rounds with Mirovic doing well early, but not having the speed to keep Hopoate off him or the conditioning to handle his rushes. Hopoate by unanimous decision.

The undercard had the explosive fight between kickboxing star Ben Edwards (who holds a first round knockout over Hopoate) and Royce Sio (who knocked out Solomon Haumono in one before ground and pounding his way to a DQ loss), but it’s apparently been scrapped. In the first Super Boxer women’s fight, undefeated Erin McGowan (10-0) takes on Angie Parr (2-1 plus a heap of kickboxing fights) over six rounds. Rookies Ged O’Mahny (pro debut) and Bruce MacFie (0-4) battle over four at Middleweight and Heavyweight Steve Ciappara (4-2-1) returns for the first time in over a year against Arnold Pelman (2-0-1) in a four rounder.

Bell and Pittman survive scares at Super Boxer

Both managed to win their fights convincingly on paper, but for those watching there was some shaky moments for Australian stars Tim Bell and Jamie Pittman on the Super Boxer series on Thursday night. Facing Tongan born Walter Papu’a for the OPBF/PABA Light Heavyweight titles, most anticipated the hard hitting Papu’a to go on the attack. However, it was Papu’a's fine counter punching skills that had seen him win 11 of his 14 professional fights and he racked up an early lead on points by landing several hard left hooks in the opening rounds. Bell looked at sea against a much more complete boxer, but his iron jaw and will as well as his incredible conditioning eventually broke down his opponent and he outworked him over the back half of the fight to take a unanimous decision. Papu’a looked to be an excellent boxer and it was a shame his work rate wasn’t up to par as he’d give a lot of fighters a tough fight if he had the energy to go 12 rounds like he did the first five. As for Bell, his durability is going to make him a tough fight for anyone but I think his skill level will need to improve if he’s going to take the step to world class opponents.

On the undercard, Jamie Pittman survived a rough six round fight with journeyman Frank Ciampa. After rocking Ciampa in the 2nd round, Pittman received an inadvertant thumb in the eye which caused his eye to swell heavily. Whoever his cutman is, he did an excellent job as Pittman’s eye went down through the course of the fight but Pittman never fully solved the awkward style of Ciampa and had to settle for a unanimous decision. In the other two televised fights, Bantamweight prospect Mark Quon outscored Thai import Thonthai Rajanondh over six entertaining rounds while Heavyweight prospect Andre Meunier stopped Kim Heta in the 2nd round.

In a (for some fucked up reason) non televised fight for the Australian Super Middleweight title, Les Piper outscored Luke Maloney over ten rounds to retain his title. It’s fucking stupid not to show fights like this as these are the type of guys who need the coverage. Some promoter has lost a good local main event by wasting this fight on the unaired prelims of a card like this. I’d also like to know what happened to Kariz Kariuki’s fight even though that fight was very unlikely to go past the 2nd round.

I also have a few criticisms of the coverage and officiating itself. Darrell Beattie has got to go, really what does he bring to the table for this promotion? He obviously has not the slightest idea about boxing but is only in there as a channel ten personality. The referee’s were obviously not as bad as last week, but the idiot who refereed the Quon fight needs a reality check. You aren’t the star of the show mate, those two were putting on a good clean fight and you over-refereed the fuck out of it. If one guy is holding and throwing NOTHING then you warn him for holding. If the two guys are putting on a good fight, STAY THE FUCK OUT OF IT AND LET THEM FIGHT! Some of the judging was a little dodgey as well with one judge finding a 10-8 round in favour of Bell somewhere in that fight. If you didn’t have Walter up at least 3-2 after five rounds you need to hand back your judging licence I’m afraid. Overall though the fights were all entertaining and as far as I’m concerned it beats the shit out of anything Foxtel has put on domestically in recent times.

Boxing Breakdown: Super Boxer (16th July)

Take two I guess.

Super Boxer returns this Thursday and many (myself included) hope that there aren’t as many headlines after this card because when it comes to boxing in this country, no news is good news. After the horrendous actions of people I don’t wanna even name because they disgusted me so much, a lot is riding on this card going a) without any drama and b) with some good battles. Luckily one of the main event participants is Tim Bell who is maybe the most exciting fighter in domestic boxing in this country. Bell takes on tough Tongan Walter Pupu’a for the PABA and OPBF Light Heavyweight titles. The undercard sees some of the best, but perhaps lesser known super middleweights in the country doing battle.

Tim Bell vs Walter Pupu’a
(12 rounds, OPBF/PABA/WBO Oriental Light Heavyweight titles)
This should be an absolute war! Both men are big punchers who can take tremendous amounts of punishment and both like to come forward and I see nothing else but a slug-fest for the ages in this fight. Tim Bell (16-5-1) always comes to fight and it’s that style that has seen him score wins over top domestic fighters Daniel Lovett, Sonni Michael Angelo and Kane McKay in his last three fights. He’s currently riding a five fight winning streak which also includes wins over Marc Bagero and a revenge win over Sean Connell. Bell really put himself on the radar with the win over Lovett last October in a fight that was undoubtedly fight of the year in this country last year. Pupu’a (11-3) is in the 2nd phase of his career, having compiled a 5-1 record in the mid 1990s in America before going 6-2 in his last eight since 2005. Not a whole lot is known of Walter other then he can punch and he’s well travelled so fighting in Bell’s backyard won’t phase him. There really couldn’t be a better main event considering how bad last weeks event went and this is a great chance for Bell to let the people of Australia know who he is. I think Bell will be too sharp and strong for Walter but they’ll trade hellacious bombs for the entire 12 rounds. Tim Bell by unanimous decision.

Luke Moloney vs Les Piper
(10 rounds, Australian Super Middleweight)
This is an interesting fight. Both fighters are fairly inexperienced and have fought a lower caliber of opponent so it should be interesting to see how they handle the step up in competition. Piper (9-2-3) has fought the better opposition, but hasn’t come away with a win whenever he’s stepped it up. Moloney (13-3) is riding a 10 fight winning streak, but hasn’t fought anyone of note and hasn’t really fought any experienced fighters since dropping three of his first six fights. Piper is the current Australian Super Middleweight champion and this fight is scheduled for ten rounds so I assume the belt is up for grabs in this fight. Having seen minimal amounts of both men, I’m finding it hard to make a real accurate prediction in this fight, but I’m going to lean towards the experienced fighter in Piper to win a close decision. Les Piper by split decision.

Kariz Kariuki vs Plaisakada Singwancha
(8 rounds, Super Middleweight)
A battle between two foreign born fighters, although one of them calls Australia home. Kariuki (18-7-2) hails from Kenya and represented his home country in the 2000 Olympics, staying in Australia and turning professional shortly after. He’s come into his own in 2009 with three knockout wins, the last one coming over tough African-Australian Sonni Michael Angelo in a spirited battle in April. Kariz has fought some of the tougher domestic fighters in recent years with the likes of Paul Briggs, Glenn Kelly (who Kariz dropped twice) and Jason Delisle having shared the ring with him. Kariuki possesses big punching power, with 17 of his 18 wins coming by way of knockout. Plaisakada Singwancha (36-18) had a solid start to his career racking up a 30-4 record before having his first fight in Australia where he lost to Sam Soliman by 3rd round KO. He has won only seven of his last 20 bouts, although his opposition has greatly increased and he proves a tough test for many inexperienced fighters. Kariuki doesn’t fit that description however and I expect him to make short work of his Thai opponent. Kariz Kariuki by 2nd round knockout.

Also apparently on the card is 2004 Australian Olympic Team Captain and former challenger to Felix Sturm’s WBA Middleweight title, Jamie Pittman (18-1), who reportedly takes on Frank Ciampa (7-13). Pittman should have way, way too much for Ciampa and should score a one sided stoppage victory. Australian Super Bantamweight Champion Mark Quon (6-2) battles 20 year old Thailand journeyman Thongthai Rajanondh (15-10) while Heavyweight rookies Andre Meunier (5-1)and Shane McDonald (0-1) round out the card.

Boxing Breakdown: Joseph Agebeko vs Vic Darchinyan

Armenian born Australian citizen and reigning undisputed Junior Bantamweight champion Vic Darchinyan looks to equal Jeff Fenechs triple world crown tomorrow when he takes on IBF Bantamweight champion Joseph Agebeko of Ghana. Agebeko has been a professional for ten years, although he’s only recently started fighting on the world scene. He dropped a 12 round decision to WBA champion Wladimir Siderenko in 2004 before taking nearly three years off. Since his comeback, ‘King Kong’ has won four fights including winning his title and making his initial defence of it. Agebeko battered Luis Perez in 2007 before edging William Gonzalez last December.

Darchinyan is slowly becoming one of the bigger names in boxing. His trash talking draws a line between fans and haters and that combined with his take no prisoners style of fighting makes him someone to take notice of. Darchinyan won his first title in 2004 with an 11th round stoppage over Irene Pacheco for the IBF Flyweight title. After making six defences of that belt, he was stopped by Nonito Donaire in five rounds in one of the biggest upsets in recent years. Redemption for ‘The Raging Bull’ came last year as he destroyed both Dimirti Kirilov for the IBF title and then unified with pound for pound ranked Cristian Mijares by one sided knockout to become the first unified 115lb champion. He has since defended the title with an 11th round stoppage over Jorge Arce.

I like Vic in this fight and I think it’ll be one sided with the only thing worth arguing about is when Vic ends it. Agebeko’s way too inactive and he’ll need to be at his absolute sharpest to handle Vic and I also think Vic will need to have an off night. The guys that will trouble Darchinyan will be good movers who can make him miss and Agebeko doesn’t fit that description. It’ll probably be a good fight for a round or two but then Darchinyan takes over and starts letting those machine gun like assaults off in battering Agebeko into about a 10th round knockout.

Also in action this weekend, Lightweight contender Tony DeMarco takes on Anges Adjaho in the co feature. Former IBF Cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham meets former WBC Cruiserweight champiojn Wayne Braithwaite in an untelevised fight on the Darchinyan undercard. The winner will take on Tomasz Adamek, who’ll likely defeat Bobby Gunn in a defence of his Cruiserweight title. WBA Middleweight champion Felix Sturm defends against dangerous contender Khoren Gevor.

Dirty Fighting and Bad Referee Spoil Super Boxer Debut

The long awaited debut of the new ‘Super Boxer’ program, which is the first free to air boxing show in Australia since ‘TV Ringside’ in the 1970s, left a sour taste in the mouths of hardcore boxing fans as illegal tactics and bad refereeing spoilt the main event and one of the co features. World title challenger Billy Dib’s antics in his fight could single-handedly have put the entire programin jeapordy of continuing. In saying that, the other two bouts on the card were top notch and exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to see.

Billy Dib TKO1 Kenichi Yamaguchi
What a complete pile of horse shit the ending of this fight was. Yamaguchi was handing Billy Dib his arse for the entire first round, including knocking him down, and then what was the second worse refereeing decision of the night took place. Dib threw a combo that was mostly blocked by Kenichi but caught him off balance and he slipped. Dib then hit him with a flush left hook from behind him that nailed him on the button and dazed him. Kenichi rose, took an 8 count, which was completely unwarranted, then after he had seemingly regained his composure (I’ve seen plenty of more hurt fighters then that continue before), referee Les Fear stopped the fight and awarded Dib a first round knockout.

This is where the real fun begins. Yamaguchi complained to the referee briefly before Billy Dib shoved Yamaguchi for no reason other then he’s a twat and then also shoved his trainer which started a minor melee in the ring. No punches were thrown and it didn’t escalate to the heights of Elomar-Kicket last year, but it very easily could have if Kenichi or his trainers didn’t do the right thing and leave the ring. Once again Billy Hussein was the only member of the entourage that started the brawl who tried to calm things down quickly. To shove someone who you just stopped in a fight is both dangerous and classless. The little opinion I had of Billy Dib as a person before this just plummetted and I really wish nothing but the worst for him in the future. To be given the opportunity he was in that he could build himself into a household name and help build boxing back up in this country and then do that, I’m sorry but you’re just a piece of shit and I have zero interest in ever watching you compete ever again.

Dominic Vea TKO7 Anthony McCracken
Excellent fight. You couldn’t have asked for a better show from these two. McCracken was outgunned, but he hung in there and tried to battle back when he could and the times Vea took a breather he took the fight to him. Vea looked a little rusty, I’ve seen him look quicker then that in previous fights but he’s been out of the ring for a few months so it was to be expected. His punching power is awesome and the way he picks his shots on the inside is superb. McCracken is a tough son of a bitch; one of the toughest in this country. It was clear from the 3rd-4th round that he wasn’t going to win but he kept in there and kept battling away. In the end Vea’s body work paid dividends and he dropped McCracken three times in the 7th with body shots which forced the ref to stop the fight. I’d be happy to watch either man fight again anytime soon.

Daniel Ammann technical draw 1st round Jamie Withers
If that doesn’t warrant an immediate disqualification, then what does? The rules state that if a delibirate illegal blow renders the opponent unable to continue, then it’s an automatic disqualification whether there’s been a warning before or not. If you can show me a clearer example of a fight that should end in an automatic disqualification, then please send it to me. The elbow Withers threw was more intentional then 99% of elbows thrown in Muay Thai. I really don’t think Withers wanted to be in there. He looked scared and nervous (and even admitted to being ‘petrified’ in the post fight interview), he didn’t want any part of looking Ammann in the eyes during the final instructions and he had a bit adrenaline dump just before the opening bell. Ammann on the other hand looked like a boxer intent on erasing a loss on his record. The fight itself was fairly even for the minute or so that it lasted, but I think Withers wanted a way out and took it. The referee again was Les Fear and he should, in my opinion, be demoted to refereeing amateur club fights rather then main card fights on television. Hopefully Ammann makes a speedy recovery (it was a big cut) and these two can do battle again.

Michael Bolling W6 Toga Letoa
Another excellent fight and credit to the matchmaker for finding such a tough opponent for Bolling. This fight will surely help him out long term as he’s battled a tough fighter who can punch and gone the distance with him. Letoa rocked Bolling in the 2nd round but Bolling showed exellent composure and came back to pound out a unanimous decision.

Hopefully next Thursdays card first of all actually stays on TV and then goes off like the Bolling and Vea fights did without any of the other shit.

“Super Boxer” 9th July Preview

Domestic boxing finally returns to Australian free to air television with the new One-HD channel’s “Superboxer” starting this Thursday at 9pm. The card has some solid fights on it with the headliner featuring world title challenger Billy Dib in a Featherweight regional title clash. The undercard sees a mini tournament between Australia’s top four cruiserweights which could likely set up a big fight in the not to distant future as well as one of the countries brightest prospects in the super middleweight division.

Billy Dib vs Kenichi Yamaguchi
(12 rounds, WBO Asia Pacific title)
Dib (22-1-0) might not be world class yet but he’s definately on his way there and at 23 years old he’s got plenty of time on his side. With his unorthodox style which utilises his handspeed and reflexes, Dib often confuses his opponents and draws openings from where there are none. However, his inexperience was shown in his only loss to date last year when he came up short against WBO Featherweight champion Steve Luevano by unanimous decision on the Hopkins-Pavlik undercard last October. Coming off a tough split decision win over Davey Browne in March, Dib takes on Japanese contender Kenichi Yamaguchi (15-1-2). Not a lot is known of Yamaguchi as he hasn’t fought outside of his hometown of Osaka, Japan but on paper he seems a step-up from some of Dib’s opponents. Dib will be looking to impress as the main event on the first free-to-air card in a long, long time and should do so against his inexperienced opponent. Billy Dib by unanimous decision.

Dominic Vea vs Anthony McCracken
(8 rounds, cruiserweight)
This will probably be fight of the night as both guys like to throw (and take) hard punches and have been in their share of wars in recent times. Vea (10-1-0) is one of the better prospects in the country with the only blemish on his record coming against Australian Cruiserweight champion Daniel Ammann in a war in 2006. The fight then was held at 86kg rather then the international limit of 91kg which the title now sits at. The two have since rematched with Vea winning a unanimous decision in an equally exciting war for the OPBF title last year. Vea is a heavy handed slugger with an iron chin who carries his power late into the fight. McCracken (10-2-0) is one of the toughest fighters in the Australian cruiserweight division with his only two losses coming against Ammann and Jamie Withers in 2007 fights. McCracken probably has the edge in skill level but Vea’s punching power more then tilts the scales in his favour and the big question will be how McCracken takes Vea’s power. I like Vea in this fight, but I think it’s going to be a war for the first two or three. I think McCracken will show a good chin early, but as Vea starts landing he’ll go into his shell a bit more and Vea will outwork him over the 2nd half of the fight for a comfortable points win. Dominic Vea by unanimous decision.

Daniel Ammann vs Jamie Withers
(6 rounds, Cruiserweight)
This is a rematch of a 2005 four rounder on an Anthony Mundine card in 2005 which was won via split decision by Withers (11-0-0). That fight was controlled by Withers, although Ammann (15-2-1) had his moments and did very well considering his inexperience at the time considering Withers had an extensive amateur background. Since that fight Ammann has risen to be the best Cruiserweight in the country for a period while Withers battled it out against (mostly) overmatched opponents on Mundine undercards. Ammann won the Australian cruiserweight title at 86kg, defended it four times including wins over Vea and McCracken, challenged for the OPBF title and most recently battered former world title challenger Mohammed Azzoui, scoring five knockdowns in the most lopsided six round decision I’ve ever seen (60-51, 60-50, 60-49). Withers is yet to be beaten and has beaten some of the same guys Ammann has, just not in the same fashion. He struggled against Anthony McCracken (over six-two minute rounds) despite winning a one sided unanimous decision (I scored that fight to him by a point). Withers also outpointed Azzoui last year, winning every round in an uninspiring performance. This is probably the best fight on the card, although I don’t think it has the potential to explode like McCracken-Vea does. Over ten rounds I think Ammann would likely stop Withers, but over six Jamie has a strong chance. I’m giving Ammann the edge as I think he is the more tested, although I think it could be close. Daniel Ammann by split decision.

I believe that will be the televised portion of the card although I’m not 100% sure. Super Middleweight prospecty Michael Bolling (6-0) is also on the card according to boxrec.com, but an opponent is not listed.
Welterweights Anthony Brownlie (2-2-0) and Alex Ahtong (2-2-2) do battle in a four rounder. Brownlie has shown to be very game in his four pro bouts, while Ahtong scored a knockout over tough journeyman Ariel Omongos last October.
Junior Welterweights Robert Whaley (1-0) and Gavin Locock (2-1-1) will fight over four rounds. Whaley will have a slight size advantage but Locock is apparently an experienced amateur with a pro win over Brendan Batty who is making a comeback after a three year absence so this should be a competitive battle.
The nights opener in the Light Heavyweight division is between Mark Pawsey (5-3-1) and Ben Wrotniak (1-0).

Just a note for any promoters, trainers or fighters out there. If you would like your fighter interviewed on this site, please email me at angryfightfan@hotmail.com or leave a comment with your email and I’ll email you. I’m very much in the interest of giving free promotion to Australian boxers who are lacking the coverage so if you would like to give your fighter, gym, fight, promotion or anything similar a plug, please give me an email.