By Michael Amakor | January 31, 2014
In January 2014, former WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo reignited interest in his previously faltering career by knocking out Victor Ortiz in the 2nd round, and immediately declared, “I want Mayweather”. “I want Floyd here in New York, bring Floyd here to New York”. His victory just reminds us that the last thing to leave a fighter is his punch, this one, a counter left hook that saw him destroy Ortiz and claim the WBA International welterweight title.
In far away Germany, Marco Huck defended his wbo cruiserweight title for a record twelfth time by knocking out Firat Arslan in six rounds in their rematch solidifying his claim to supremacy at cruiserweight and at the same time becoming a prophet when he promised to crush Arslan conclusively and decisively in the rematch.
Mattysee victim, Peterson retained his IBF Jr. Welterweight belt by coasting over limited Dierry in DC. The once seemingly invincible Gabriel Rosado fresh off his loss to Golovkin dropped another decision to Charlo and at the MSG Bryant Jennings defeated Szpilka to keep alive the hope that he could be the next undefeated American heavyweight champ. Mikey Garcia dominated Burgos to retain his title and Golovkin victim, Stevens scored an impressive 46-second first round knockout of Majewski that nobody is sure what it does for his career. Barthlemy Kos Mendez to win IBF 130lb title for the first time but saw that decision overturned and a rematch ordered.
Sadly this January, old school trainers Jim Finley and Jimmy Dupree and owners of gyms bearing their names in DC and Jersey City respectively passed away. At the executive level, Jose Sulaiman the long time president of the WBC died after holding that post for 38 years.
In January, we saw a rash of agreements for future fights with the camps of Stiverne and Arreola reaching a deal to fight for Dr. Ironist’s vacated belt. In addition, the camps of Lebedev and Jones signed a deal for their long awaited rematch. Despite repeated goading, Mayweather refused to get involved in a fight with Pacquaio who will instead be fighting Bradley on April 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Heavyweights Odlanier Solis and Tony Thompson are set to clash on March 22 in far away Turkey. Adamek, Glazkov, Cruz, and Cintron will all clash on NBC Sports and ESPN announced eight-man tournaments in the lightweight and middleweight divisions, simply amazing. We should thank the IBF for ordering a rematch between Froch and Groves within 90 days as Froch was looking for other money fight instead. The WBC also ordered two final elimination bouts to confirm the two mandatory contenders for its title involving Malik Scott against Deontay Wilder and Jennings versus Perez respectively.
Typical of every January we saw a flurry of boxing awards for 2013 by the BWAA, the WBC, WBF, and by Philly and DC boxing scribes, so check them out. We closed out the month with xxx retaining the Pennsylvania Cruiserweight title in no other place but Philadelphia. See you in March.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
