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Global Reports and Links: AIBA World Championships, Baku 2011

BRAZIL MAKES HISTORY ON BAKU 2011 FINAL DAY

Beijing Olympian and WSB star, 23-year-old Brazilian Everton dos Santos fought against University World Champion, Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk. The Light Welter was the only boxer among the finalists coming from the last 64. Thus the Ukrainian was probably more tired than the South American. The Brazilian athlete dominated the fight in the first three minutes and was leading by 8:3 before both boxers received public warnings in the second round. Lopes kept a four points advantage. The last three minutes brought a real manly fight resulting with a close Brazilian victory: an historical gold medal for the South American country.

On the opening contest of the day, China’s only finalist in Baku was Beijing Olympic Games winner and twice AIBA World Champion, 30-year-old Shiming Zou who fought against current Asian Champion, 22-year-old Korean Jong Shin who secured bronze at the last edition of the Championships in Milan. The Chinese light flyweight dominated the fight in the second round to lead 13:6. Although Shin gave his best in the last round, Zou used all his skills to win his third World Championships title by 20:11. Shiming Zou becomes the first boxer to win three gold medals in the history of the lowest weight division.

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MEDAL RECORD HAUL FOR BRITAIN

Great Britain finished with three silver medals and one bronze at the World Amateur Championships after an agonising final day which saw Luke Campbell, Andrew Selby and Anthony Joshua all narrowly denied gold in Baku.

European champion Selby lost 13-12 to world number one Misha Aloyan of Russia at flyweight, while Hull’s Campbell was then edged out 14-10 by Cuba’s Lazaro Alvarez in the bantamweight final.

In the final bout of the tournament, Londoner Joshua was defeated 22-21 by Azerbaijan’s Magonedrasul Medzhidov in an explosive super-heavyweight contest in front of a passionate home crowd.

The trio were joined in the podium ceremonies by Liverpool’s Tom Stalker, who won bronze in the light-welterweight division.

The four-medal haul was the best performance by a GB Boxing team at the World Championships and topped the three medals won in Chicago in 2007. The team also qualified boxers in five of the weight categories for next year’s London Olympics.

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IRELAND‘S GALLAGHER BEST R&J AT BAKU

Ireland’s Michael Gallagher has finished on top of the referees and judges podium at the 16th AIBA World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Gallagher was today chosen as the best R&J following the conclusion of the 113-nation Championships in the Azerbaijani capital.

Michael Gallagher being presented with his award by AIBA President Dr Ching-Kuo Wu. The Omagh, Co Tyrone native has officiated at numerous national and international tournaments over the last 20 years.

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RAU’SHEE WARREN WINS A BRONZE MEDAL AT THE 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) – American flyweight Rau’shee Warren’s (Cincinnati, Ohio) run toward a second world title ended on Friday with a 17-13 loss to Russia’s Misha Aloyan in their semifinal contest at the 2011 World Championships. Warren won a bronze medal in the event as well as securing his berth in a record third straight Olympic Games.

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VIKAS KRISHAN HAD TO SETTLE FOR THE BRONZE

In the welterweight (69kg) category after he lost to Taras Shelestyuk of Ukraine in the semi-final of the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday.

Pitted against the European Championships bronze medallist Shelestyuk, Vikas failed to play his natural game and lost 12-15. Vikas, an Asian Games gold medallist, repeated the bronzemedal winning feat of Olympic medallist Vijender Kumar (75kg) at the mega-event but became the youngest Indian to clinch a medal at 19. Vijender was the first Indian to win a bronze at the World meet in 2009.

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ARMENIAN BOXER BECOMES RUSSIA’S SOLE WORLD CHAMPION IN BAKU

During the final bouts on Saturday at AIBA World Boxing Championships 2011, being held in Baku, Azerbaijan—which serve as first international Olympic qualifier for the London Olympics—Misha Aloyan, representing Russia, stepped into the ring against Welsh Andrew Selby for the championship title in 52-kg category and defeated his opponent on points.

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CUBA/ TWO NEW WORLD CHAMPIONS IN BOXING

Cuban boxers Lazaro Alvarez and Julio Cesar la Cruz became world champions after winning their respective bouts in the finals of the Baku 2011 World Championships.

Cuban Boxing Goes down in Baku

Cuba’s team captain, Julio la Cruz proved to be in great shape though the whole tournament, and with excellent footwork and straight punches sorted difficult hurdles, including defending Champion Egor Mekhontsev from Russia in semi-finals.

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AIBA WORLD BOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BAKU 2011 - DAILY SCHEDULE & RESULTS:

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FINALS - 2011 SAT&CO AIBA WORLD BOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS BAKU

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By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

Interview - Yassine El Maachi Talks Prizefighter

On Tuesday 7th June the season finale of the highly successful Matchroom Sports promoted Prizefighter series takes place at York Hall in Bethnal Green.

Matchroom Sports have really pulled all the stops out for the season finale with Prizefighter - Welterweight II. The lineup features no less than two former World Champions, Junior Witter and Colin Lynes, a former British Champion, Kevin McIntyre, the current International Masters Champion Yassine El Maachi, a former International and European title challenger, Peter McDonagh, an International Masters challenger, Nathan Graham and two undefeated young prospects, Bobby Gladman and John Wayne Hibbert.

Over the past week or so I have been fortunate to have interviewed Colin Lynes, John Wayne Hibbert and Bobby Gladman, as well as the legendary coach Jimmy Tibbs, who trains Colin Lynes.

Today I managed to catch up with one of the most exciting young fighters taking part in Prizefighter - Welterweights II, Yassine El Maachi.

I’ve seen Yassine fight twice now, and have to admit to being a huge fan. He’s highly entertaining switch hitter that oozes supreme style and panache.

I honestly believe that the TV exposure from Prizefighter could sky rocket Yassine’s career. He’s someone that will excite the fans, in the same way as Prince Naseem did at the turn of the new millennium.

OK, enough of my hyping Yassine, he really doesn’t need me for that, he is more than capable of doing that himself. So without further ado here is a little Q&A with Yassine El Maachi

Rio- You’ve often stated that you have wanted to take part in Prizefighter - Why have you tried so hard to take part in the series?

Yassine - I was waiting to get into Prizefighter for a couple of years now and now they have given me the chance to be in Prizefighter Welter.

I want to be on it to show the people I can do and to prove myself to see how capable to go against the big names taking part.

Rio- What do you think of the Prizefighter series?

Yassine - It has the best fighters in the country, being in there is great. It’s full of former champions. To fight them for thirty two thousand pounds.

For me Prizefighter is geared for people to see eight fighters fight on one night. The winner has to fight three fights, that’s the best thing for me.

A title shot, that’s what I want to be honest with you. That’s what I’m doing it for, I’m in it just for that, to see if I can get a title after that. To beat these guys in Prizefighter is what I want.

For me to just beat these guys to get to a title I’d fight them all at the same time, I would fight seven fighters in one go, I don’t want to fight three of them I want to fight them all in one go.

Rio - OK, interesting idea. Now onto the fighters you may face on the night - give me your thoughts on Junior Witter.

Yassine - Junior is a lovely guy, he can box, he can move. He’s one of the great boxers in the World. He used to be a former WBC, I think, or WBA (ed. WBC) Champion of the World. In 2008 or 2009 he lost it and he want to get it back.

I feel really sorry for him if him and me are going to fight together. I will feel really sorry for him if we meet in the final because he’s only going to make a little bit of money, £16,000, because he’s going to lose to me, because I’m too good.

Rio- If you don’t get Junior you could meet another former World Champion, Colin Lynes, what’s your thoughts on him?

Yassine - Colin Lynes, he got beaten up by Junior Witter. Simple as that, no more to say.

Rio- Next up is British Champ Kevin McIntyre, give us your thoughts on Kevin.

Yassine - To be honest I don’t know who is Kevin McIntyre, but probably he’s going to be the same as other boxers, hands up and comes and box. I love to fight people like that.

Rio- OK, the former WBF Intercontinental and European title challenger Peter McDonagh’s next, what’s your thoughts on him?

Yassine - I don’t know him as well, but he will be the same to be honest with you. Hands up, come forward. I’ll pick him off with punches and tell him goodbye.

Rio - Bobby Gladman’s next on my list. What do you know of Bobby?

Yassine - Bobby Gladman is undefeated, he’s got one draw. He’s a good prospect coming up. It’s too early for him to be in Prizefighter.

Rio- I’m sure you know John Wayne Hibbert as you’ve fought on the same show before, so what’s your thoughts on him?

Yassine - John Wayne Hibbert is a nice guy, he’s undefeated but he’s not going to win if he comes up against me.

Rio - Finally an old gym mate of yours is next - Nathan Graham, give me your thoughts on him?

Yassine - Nathan Graham he’s a nice, good fella. We used to train at the same gym. I wish not to get a draw with him in the first fight, or in the second. If it going to go then go in the final. But if he does I can’t do much I’ll just have to beat him.

Rio- Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, finally is there any thing else you would like to say?

Yassine - It’s going to be hard for any of the fighters, I feel sorry for the undefeated fighters especially. I wish them all luck but if they fight me they will lose.

I mean the fight with Jimmy Colas, number four in Europe, he was looking to fight against Ryan Rhodes. He was going to fight against the best, he’s former WBC or WBO champion, European Champion. He’s the guy that had twenty eight wins and only three or four losses, and I beat him so easily.

I was picking him off so easy. He was coming to fight. That’s why I say to you I’m a fighter, I’m a boxer. If they don’t want to come and fight I’ll box them, that’s me.

That’s what happened with Jimmy Colas, he came to fight but he found a different type of boxer. I was just playing with him. Everyone see what I did to him in the eight, nine and ten round, I was just playing with him.

I was so much winning the fight, winning the first round to the six round and he just start running away. In the round eight , nine and ten I thought I could easily knock him out, I tried but couldn’t because he was tough, he was strong, but I beat him up badly.

That’s what I will do at Prizefighter, but three times. I’ll beat three fighters.

I wish every fighter good luck, but I will win the Prizefighter.

Prizefighter - Welterweights II, featuring Yassine El Maachi, Colin Lynes, Junior Witter, Kevin McIntyre, John Wayne Hibbert, Bobby Gladman, Nathan Graham and Peter McDonagh, takes place at York Hall, Bethnal Green in London on Tuesday 7th June 2011.

Tickets, priced £35 (Unreserved), SOLD OUT (Ringside), and SOLD OUT (VIP) are available now at www.tkoboxoffice.com or in person at the TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA or call 07960 850645

PHOTO: Yassine El maachi supremely confident of winning Prizefighter - Welterweights II

PHOTO CREDIT: Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

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Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham - A True World Champion, In the Fullest Sense Of The Word

By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

On Saturday Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham, will make his first defense, of his second reign, as the IBF Cruiserweight Champion of World against the tough Serbian born Enad Licina at the RWE Rhein-Ruhr Sporthalle in Muelheim, Germany.

During his career Cunningham has proven to be one of the few World Champions who is unfazed by fighting on his opponent’s home turf. In fact it seems that he actually thrives on this type of challenge, which is handy because on Saturday night Cunningham will again be fighting in his opponent’s home country - Licina has fought eighteen times, out of his twenty one fight career, in his adopted homeland of Germany.

Cunningham, who had fought all over America before hitting the International scene, has never had a true ‘home’ fight, the nearest he fought to his home city of Philadelphia being when he faced Tomasz ‘Goral’ Adamek in Newark, New Jersey back in 2008.

Ports of call for the former Navy man include Brakpan, South Africa, where he beat former WBU & IBO Cruiserweight Champion Sebastiaan Rothmann, Katowice and Warsaw in Poland, Bielefeld and Neubrandenburg in Germany.

Both of Cunningham’s Championship winning bouts took place in Europe. His first, against Krzysztof ‘Diablo’ Wlodarczyk was at the Spodek in Katowice, Poland on the 26th May 2007. This was Steve’s second trip to Poland to face Wlodarczyk following a highly controversial ‘Home Cooked’ split decision in favour of ‘Diablo’ when they first met in Warsaw for the vacant title some six months earlier.

At the IBF ordered rematch Cunningham plain outboxed Wlodarczyk, as he did the previous time, and in the fourth round forced Wlodarczyk to take to one knee for a count which proved to be just enough to overcome any home advantage Wlodarczyk held and for Cunningham to emerge victorious.

For his first defense the globe trotting Cunningham set sail for Germany and a meeting with Marco “Kapt’n” Huck on the 29th December 2007. Against Huck, the bookies favourite, Cunningham looked stronger, tougher and harder punching than he had either time against Wlodarczyk. Huck was struggling to hold up against Cunningham’s aggressive approach and was being backed up and hurt nearly every round. The final round was an even more one sided affair with Cunningham chasing Huck around the ring throwing heavy right after heavy right until Huck’s corner, with just one minute and 4 seconds to go, threw the towel in the ring to save their charge further punishment or worse still a knockout loss.

Next up for Cunningham was a far shorter trip, just an hour or so train journey from his Philadelphia home, to the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey to face Jersey City based Polish expat Tomasz “Goral” Adamek. Whilst on paper this could be deemed a home fight for Cunningham to those ringside it felt more an away match due to many Polish fans that had turned out to support their hero.

From the opening bell Cunningham out punched Adamek and looked set to cruise his way through the fight dominating and controlling it in supreme style. However in the second round, just as Cunningham looked to be going for an early finish, Adamek threw a countering hook catching Cunningham with his forearm and sending Cunningham off balance and down to the canvas. Cunningham jumped up in an instant.

Determined to win back the lost points, Cunningham fought even harder and in the fourth had Adamek reeling and rocking. With just seconds to go Adamek, who had barely thrown a punch for almost the whole round, caught the off balance Cunningham and put him on the deck once more. Again Cunningham leaps to his feet after barely touching the canvas.

With two knockdowns against him Cunningham seemed determined to go for a knockout and looked well on his way to getting it when in the eighth the very same thing happened again. Just as Cunningham looked to finish his challenger off after a frantic exchange, Adamek caught a fast back stepping Cunningham off balance to send him down again, Cunningham was up again before the referee could even start the count.

The final rounds were superb Cunningham fought like a demon to try and make up the lost points and Adamek fought hard for survival.

When the final bell rang the consensus of the majority of the press corps was that the champ had done enough to be declared victor or, at least earn a draw to retain his crown. However the judges saw it differently and gave the victory to Adamek by split decision.

This battle was so magnificent that the vast majority of press reports claimed Cunningham-Adamek the all-time best cruiserweight fight and contender for ‘Fight Of The Year 2008’ honours as well as calling for a rematch.

Cunningham’s hopes of a voluntary rematch with Adamek failed to materialise, instead Cunningham was ordered to face former WBC Champion Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite, at the BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, Florida on the 11th July 2009, in an IBF final eliminator that decided who will be Tomasz ‘Goral’ Adamek’s mandatory defense later that year.

Cunningham won the fight easily via a twelve round unanimous decision (119-109, 117-111, 118-110) and the scene was set for the long awaited rematch with Adamek.

However, the fight was destined to never happen as Adamek vacated the title and moved to the Heavyweight Division.

Originally Cunningham was set to face Matt ‘Too Smooth’ Godfrey for the now vacated title but due to a rather confusing series of events that first see Don King Promotions pull the plug on the fight closely followed by Main Events’ Kathy Duva coming to the rescue, by taking over the ESPN televised event promotion.

Cunningham continued training throughout, but for some reason Godfrey decided to leave his training camp and subsequently pulled out of the fight.

Shortly after the Godfrey fight fiasco Cunningham’s eight year promotional contract with Don King Promotions came to an end and he signed with German promoters Sauerland Event.

Within a week of signing promotional papers with Sauerland the IBF announced that Troy Ross would be his next opponent following swift negotiations between Sauerland and Ross’ promoter Yvon Michel.

Once again the globe trotting ‘USS’ Cunningham prepared to leave his Philadelphia home and set sail for Europe.

On the 5th June 2010 Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham faced Canada’s Troy ‘The Boss’ Ross, at the Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg in Germany, for the vacant IBF Cruiserweight crown.

From the first bell Cunningham dominated the center of the ring using his wickedly fast jabs to keep the shorter Ross at bay. Ross, a seriously tough southpaw, seemed willing to take a few punches in order to get in closer to let off some wicked bombs.

Rounds two and three produced more of the same, although Ross was getting a little more success. The problem for Ross though was that his getting in more also meant he was taking more shots, causing noticeable swelling to his left eye.

Round four produced both a serious problem for Ross, who received a serious cut to the lower eyelid, and a scare for the Cunningham team as they see their man reel backwards and down to the canvas following a straight left to the chest.

Thoughts of a repeat scenario to the Adamek fight were dispelled within minutes as prior to the start of the fifth the referee, Bill Clancy, sent Cunningham to a neutral corner and called for the ringside doctor to check out Ross’ badly cut eye. The doctor had no choice but to stop the fight as it was clear that the Canadian’s eye injury was serious.

Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham was once again the IBF Cruiserweight Champion of the World which brings us nicely to date with Cunningham set to defend his newly regained crown against the seriously tough former IBF Inter-Continental Cruiserweight Champion Enad Licina on Saturday 12th February 2011.

Cunningham will have his hands full with the heavy hitting Licina, who has stopped ten of his opponents, however Cunningham’s 3” height advantage and superior reach, along with his seriously impressive movement and hand speed, could well be hurdles that Licina may not be able to overcome with his shuffling European style, which has been likened to that of Marco Huck - and of course we all know what happened when Cunningham met Huck.

Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham versus Enad Licina for the IBF Cruiserweight World Championship co-headlines with Cuban Yoan Pablo Hernandez versus France’s Steve ‘Centurion’ Herelius for the interim WBA Cruiserweight World title at the RWE Rhein-Ruhr Sporthalle, Muelheim, Germany on Saturday 12th February 2011.

Supporting the two Cruiserweight Championship headliners, at the Sauerland Event promoted show, are ‘King’ Arthur Abraham against Stjepan Bozic in a ten round Super Middleweight clash, Dominik Britsch versus Joe Rea in an eight round Middleweight bout, Francesco Pianeta faces Samir Kurtagic in an eight round Heavyweight contest.

In addition there are three Light Heavyweight bouts - Eduard Gutknecht vs. Oleksandr Cherviak, Karo Murat vs. Christian Cruz and Erik Skoglund vs. Valerijs Rogozins.

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