Monday 28 November 2011

Edmund Gerber

This coming weekend is a boxing fans dreams with a huge number of notable fights. Seriously just look at this list of great fights:
Robert Helenius v Dereck Chisora
Alexander Povetkin v Cedric Boswell
Jhonny Gonzalez v Roinet Caballero
Prince Aaron v Brian Rose
Abner Mares v Joseph Agbeko II
Anselmo Moreno v Vic Darchinyan
Pawel Wolak v Delvin Rodriguez II
Brandon Rios v John Murray
Mike Jones v Sebastian Andres Lujan
and of course Miguel Angel Cotto v Antonio Margarito II

Though if you were just thinking it was just a night of big high profile title fights, you'd be wrong, a number of emerging prospects fight on the same night, the most interesting (in regards to the heavyweight division) is quite possibly Edmund Gerber (17-0, 11). Gerber is one of the younger prospects in the division at just 23 years old though is also one who, outside of Germany, hasn't really received much hype despite being a 4 year pro.

Gerber turned professional way back in 2007 and has slowly been improving and racking up victories. Sadly he has a number of things going against him, most notably his style which isn't the most fun to watch, in fact at times he can appear downright lazy. Although he may seem dull he does possess solid skills and genuine 1 punch KO power which he showed in fantastic fashion in his last fight as he sparked Yohan Banks.

When it comes to Gerber's potential he's incredibly young and it's perhaps going to be a while to see him become the complete article, though what we have seen has been a real mixed bag. He's scored a solid stoppage over Rene Dettweiler and shut out Zack Page as well taking on a variety of British journeymen (such as Lee Swaby, Carl Baker, Colin Kenna and Paul Butler) though has yet to really mix it with any solid European level guys. Whilst he does have time on his side it would be nice to see him step in with someone like Yaroslav Zavorotnyi who will come to win and could act as a marking stick somewhat.

Gerber's next fight takes place on the card in Helsinki (which also plays host to Helenius v Chisora and Povetkin v Boswell) and will hopefully be featured on Box Nation in the UK. Although Gerber faces the veteran Marcus McGee (23-18-0-1, 7KO's) it does give us a chance to compare Gerber to David Rodriguez (who was taken the distance by McGee) and hopefully marks the start of Gerber's progression through the levels of opponents.

An updated piece on Edmund Gerber can be found on boxingprospects.info, click here for that.

Video below courtesy of deebak777

Friday 18 November 2011

Magomed Abdusalamov

Although on the older side at 30 years old the Russian born Southpaw has managed to (just) get himself mentioned on this blog due to the way his career is progressing more than anything else. Stood at 6'2" the southpaw was born in Makhachkala, Russia though is now fighting out of Oxnard, California where he is promoted by Seminole Warriors Boxing (who actually have him being younger than Boxrec).

Magomed was a solid amateur fighter having been a 2-time Russian amateur champion at Super Heavyweight (2005 and 2006) though his amateur credentials do seem to lack somewhat on the world stage mainly due to being Russia's #2 behind Islam Timurziev. Being the second choice behind Timurziev however shouldn't make boxing fans worry too much about Magomed's potential as Timurziev was the 2006 European champion and 2007 World Bronze medal winner.

After missing out on an Olympic place Magomed would turn professional and debut in September 2008. His debut was short lived as he took out Epiphanie Pipi in just 130 seconds on a card in Russia. Despite it being a brief fight it's still one of the longest of his career as he's paved a path of destruction in an 11 fight career that has seen ever opponent taken out before the final bell. In fact Magomed's first 8 fights failed to even last a round as he showed impressive power. Although many of his early wins were against relative nobodies who were their to pad his record and help him earn a reputation as a banger he did impressively take out the experienced Raymond Ochieng in 95 seconds, probably his most impressive win to date.

Now with a record of 11 wins all by KO (and only Jerry Butler having survived a round) Magomed is preparing for his toughest fight to date when he takes on Rich "Super" Power on November 20th. Power comes to the ring with a very respectable record of 15-1 (11) with his only loss coming on points to Tyson Fury last year. A stoppage win over Power would lay down the marker and give the first real comparison between Magomed and the gigantic Englishman who was recently dropped by Neven Pajkic.

With explosive power in both hands and a real killer instinct it's going to be fun to see just how far Magomed can go in the sport, though if nothing else it's nice to see that he is taking the sport seriously having lost around 30lbs since his debut. Whilst he may appear crude at times he is likely just overly confident of taking his early opponents out and has no fear which could make him one of the most fun heavyweights to watch that we've seen since Tyson.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Tyson Fury

British heavyweights have for a long time been a a running joke in the sport of boxing. Whilst a few have managed to make an impact in the last 100 years they have been few and far between with the likes of Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno, Henry Akinwande and David Haye being the few stand outs who have made it on the world stage. Sadly all of those are known almost as well for their failures as for their victories. Lennox being knocked sparked out Hasim Raham, David Haye flopping like a fish against Wladimir Klitschko, Frank Bruno being stopped by Mike Tyson and Henry Akinwande being DQ'd for hugging onto Lewis like his was his mother.

Tyson Fury (16-0, 11) however wants to change the view on British heavyweights almost single handed and is going about things in an impressive fashion so far. Fury, aged just 23 has already captured the British and Commonwealth titles and generally impressed time and time again proving that he's more than just hype.

Stood at 6'9 and with an 85" reach Fury has shown he has skills to go with his size and with wins against the likes of Scott Belshaw (TKO2), John McDermott (Points 10 and TKO 9) and Dereck Chisora (UD12) he already stands out as being above the run of the mill prospects. Whilst at times Fury has struggled (notably in the 2 McDermott fights) he has shown steady improvement and is now a more complete fighter than he's ever been. He showed a huge level of improvement when he defeated Chisora and last time out (against Nicolai Firtha) he showed an excellent jab as well as knowing what to do when he was hurt (after Firtha caught him with a beauty).

This coming Saturday Fury will face Canadian based Neven Pajkic (16-0, 5) who himself holds a number of solid wins (including a decision over Firtha, and wins over Jason Gavern, Grzegorz Kielsa, Raphael Butler and Johnnie White). A win over Pajkic would be the 4th time Fury has taken an opponents "0" (after Rich Power who was 12-0, Marcelo Luiz Nascimento who was 13-0 and Dereck Chisora who was 14-0) an impressive feat for a fighter with less than 20 fights.

Fury v Pajkic will be shown for free on Channel 5 in the UK so make sure to tune in to one of Britain's fastest rising boxing prospects.

Below is the fight between Fury and Firtha thanks to superboxmma5