Oscar Rivas

When it comes to Colombian fighters a common feature is power and and this is one feature of Oscar Rivas, a man nicknamed "Kaboom" due to his power. Rivas was born in 1987 in Valle del Cauca, Colombia (though is now based in Quebec, Canada) and it was whilst competing for Colombia as an amateur that Rivas first came to the attention of the boxing world. As an amateur Rivas would win a number of medals, most impressively was a gold medal at the 2008 Pan Am games. Amongst those he beat as an amateur were Kubrat Pulev, Robert Alfonso and Mike Wilson, 3 impressive names to have on his ledger. In fact the win over Pulev came in the 2008 Olympics, the biggest stage of all.

Since turning professional in Canada back in August 2009 Rivas has largely gone under the radar though been compiling impressive wins for such a novice. Whilst he's not being fast tracked he's already beaten a number of experienced fighters including Stephane Tessier and Ramon Hayes and gained the hard needed seasoning that many young heavyweight prospects lack until later on in their career.

Although Rivas has struggled in one of his early fights (winning "just" a majority decision over David Whittom) he is developing into a better and more complete fighter as shown by his swift stoppage victory over the previous unbeaten Zsolt Zathureczky inside a round that helped moved his record to 6-0 (3). Rivas will be taking part in his 7th professional contest when he faces the very experienced Edgars Kalnars of Latvia. It'd be a huge shock if Rivas doesn't stop the aging Latvian though the fight will help get Rivas some much needed "big scene" experience with the fight taking place on the undercard of Lucien Bute v Glen Johnson.

The videos below are for Rivas' full professional debut against Joe Stofle and are thanks to 14caratboxing


UPDATE-Rivas will fight on December 10th against Matthew Greer in Canada. Also on the card is fellow top Colombian prospect Eleider Alvarez.