American Heavyweight Dominic Breazeale (0-0) is just hours away from making his professional debut, so with that in mind it seemed a perfect time to look at yet another American Heavyweight.
The 27 year old Breazeale from California is, like Seth Mitchell, a boxer who came from an American Football background, having played for the University of Northern Colorado team. Despite his background however, Breazeale is arguably already better known for his boxing exploits than his football exploits due to the fact he quickly rose through the US rankings.
Despite not coming to the sport until relatively old for a fighter Breazeale made a quick impact and made the 2010 PAL Quarter finals in the Super Heavyweight division before losing to eventual runner up Roberto Morban. This was just the start for Breazeale who would quickly improve.
In 2011 Breazeale's talent really started to mature and although he failed somewhat in the Golden Gloves, he proved his skill at the US National Championships where he came 3rd beating the well regarded Brett Rather along the way. Sadly for Breazeale however he ran in to eventual winner Jonathan Hamm in the Semi final who had a little bit too for the likable Californian.
Having really started to find his groove in 2011 Breazeale climbed to the top of the mountain in 2012 as he got revenge over Jonathan Hamm and went on to claim the 2012 US National Championships. This championship victory was a major point in Breazeale's amateur career and helped him become the USA's #1 in the Super Heavyweight division. It had come as an excellent achievement just weeks after Breazeale had come the runner up in the American Olympic Qualifier to Ecuadorian Italo Perea.
Whilst Breazeale did fail to medal at the 2012 Olympics, coming unstuck against Russian Magomed Omarov his appearance at the Games did bring him some widespread attention and he'll look to ride that attention into his debut later tonight!
Showing posts with label debut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debut. Show all posts
Friday, 9 November 2012
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Robert Alfonso
When top Cuban amateurs turn professional it's often a time to get at least a little bit excited and that's exactly how I feel having found out that Robert Alfonso (0-0) will be making his professional debut (originally slated for a few weeks ago, it will now take place in November).
As we all know the Cuban amateur scene is legendary and probably the best in the world. Just amongst the Heavyweight and Super Heavyweight divisions we've had legendary names such as Teófilo Stevenson, Félix Savón, Odlanier Solís and Roberto Balado. Whilst no one will ever put Robert Alfonso on the same pedestal as those names he was a very credible amateur.
In the unpaid ranks Alfonso was an exceptional fighter though not the most successful, in fact in international competition his best achievement was probably a Gold medal at the 2007 Pan American games.
Despite his lack of medals, his record was very solid with victories over Newfel Ouatah (the 2007 All African Games Silver medal winner), Michel López Núñez (2004 Olympic Bronze medal winner), Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (the 2006 South American Games Gold medal winner who is better known for his MMA exploits), Óscar Rivas (Pan Am Silver medal winner) and American Michael Hunter Jr (a 2-time AAU champion).
Stood at 6'4" and weighing around 220lbs Alfonso is an excellently sized Heavyweight and aged just 25 he has a lot of time to adapt to the professional game before needing to make his move towards a Heavyweight title. Interestingly Cuba have never had a professional boxing Heavyweight champion, despite both Juan Carlos Gomez and and Odlanier Solis fighting for the WBC title in recent years, maybe Alfonso could be the man to change that.
As we all know the Cuban amateur scene is legendary and probably the best in the world. Just amongst the Heavyweight and Super Heavyweight divisions we've had legendary names such as Teófilo Stevenson, Félix Savón, Odlanier Solís and Roberto Balado. Whilst no one will ever put Robert Alfonso on the same pedestal as those names he was a very credible amateur.
In the unpaid ranks Alfonso was an exceptional fighter though not the most successful, in fact in international competition his best achievement was probably a Gold medal at the 2007 Pan American games.
Despite his lack of medals, his record was very solid with victories over Newfel Ouatah (the 2007 All African Games Silver medal winner), Michel López Núñez (2004 Olympic Bronze medal winner), Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (the 2006 South American Games Gold medal winner who is better known for his MMA exploits), Óscar Rivas (Pan Am Silver medal winner) and American Michael Hunter Jr (a 2-time AAU champion).
Stood at 6'4" and weighing around 220lbs Alfonso is an excellently sized Heavyweight and aged just 25 he has a lot of time to adapt to the professional game before needing to make his move towards a Heavyweight title. Interestingly Cuba have never had a professional boxing Heavyweight champion, despite both Juan Carlos Gomez and and Odlanier Solis fighting for the WBC title in recent years, maybe Alfonso could be the man to change that.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Sergey Rozhnov
When I write about prospects I try to avoid debutant as we don't generally know how well they will do when they take off the headgear though I'm making an exception here by writing about Sergey Rozhnov who debuts later today against former world title challenger Owen "What the Heck" Beck (29-9, 20). Whilst Rozhnov's debut isn't an easy looking fight (despite the run of 6 straight losses by Beck) the former amateur standout is expect to win with relative ease mainly due to his amazing amateur experience.
Roznhov was born in Russia back in the early 1980's though really made his name competing for Bulgaria in major international competitions in the last decade or so. In fact in 2004 Rozhnov won a silver medal for Bulgaria at the European Championships, en route to that medal he beat Mariusz Wach before being able to compete in his semi final against Roberto Cammarelle.
Whilst Rozhnov never won gold at any major amateur tournament he did mix it with the best names of the era including a memorable clash with current WBA world heavyweight champion Alexsander Povetkin. He's been described as a powerful technician and a fighter who had a very professional looking style, sadly however he has been someone what missing in action since 2004. Having seen how fellow Bulgarian Olympian Kubrat Pulev is doing we could very easily have 2 Bulgarian amateurs charging through the ranks on collision course.
Hopefully we will have the result of Rozhnov's fight by the end of the day as the card is being shown on Russia TV 2 .
Roznhov was born in Russia back in the early 1980's though really made his name competing for Bulgaria in major international competitions in the last decade or so. In fact in 2004 Rozhnov won a silver medal for Bulgaria at the European Championships, en route to that medal he beat Mariusz Wach before being able to compete in his semi final against Roberto Cammarelle.
Whilst Rozhnov never won gold at any major amateur tournament he did mix it with the best names of the era including a memorable clash with current WBA world heavyweight champion Alexsander Povetkin. He's been described as a powerful technician and a fighter who had a very professional looking style, sadly however he has been someone what missing in action since 2004. Having seen how fellow Bulgarian Olympian Kubrat Pulev is doing we could very easily have 2 Bulgarian amateurs charging through the ranks on collision course.
Hopefully we will have the result of Rozhnov's fight by the end of the day as the card is being shown on Russia TV 2 .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)