Lateef "Power" Kayode

Doing this weekly column can at times be bloody difficult, weeks come along where I'm scraping the barrel or a note worthy prospect, a decent youngster to write about, other weeks, like this one, sees so many young fighters fighting that it's hard to pick just a single one. In fact both Friday and Saturday could have their own piece for this week and I'd still miss some folks out. The week is irritatingly good, but also one of the most fun, and as a result, a double header. Their will be one column now (Sunday/Monday), a mid week piece and round up of the others in a completely separate piece.

Friday's prospect then, isn't a British born fighter, or an American born fighter, he's not an Olympic champion but he is exciting and can bang. Cruiserweight Lateef Kayode 12-0 (11) isn't the most technical of fighters you'll see any time soon, though as his record and nickname (“Power”) show, he has one of those key attributes, pure destructive punch power. Born in Lagos, Nigeria it seems Kayode is on a similar rise to that of fellow Nigerian Samuel Peter a few years ago, that culminated in Peter winning a heavyweight title.

Having been brought up and toughened up as a youngster in Lagos he would turn to boxing to find a way to protect himself from the repeated beating he'd gotten as a teenage, little did he realise what an impact the sport of boxing would have on him. It was as an amateur that he would start to forge a name for himself winning various African based tournaments though in his first attempt to make a major international mark things went awry. A plane he, and his Nigerian team mates were catching to Olympic qualifiers was delayed and it forced them to miss the qualification process. After deciding to turn professional in the US the search was on for someone to help and a chance meeting with manager Steven Feder started it all off. Feder would sign Kayode to his newly founded “Standing Eight” company, and the rest, as they say is history.

Standing Eight would see Kayode making his professional debut little under 2 years ago, 15th October 2008, facing the significantly bigger Mike Miller. Miller was 53lbs heavier than Kayode and durable having only been stopped once in 17 fights, it was this durability that saw Kayode forced to go the 4 round distance as a professional. Since then however opponents have struggled to test the muscular Nigerian power house who has scored 11 straight KO's in his subsequent bouts. He's gone from being a very small heavyweight at just over the cruiserweight limit to being a very big and incredibly strong cruiserweight, a division that seems much more suited to the Hollywood based fighter.

Although Kayode was fed relatively over matched opponents for much of his early career, who he blew out early doors, the interesting thing about his opponents is they really have been getting better. Fighters like the experienced Billy Willis are often given to much more experienced prospects, yet Lateef needed only 2 rounds to stop him, whilst heavy handed Jose Luis Herrera who had a record of 16-7 (16 wins by KO) was dealt with quickly. Interestingly Herrera fights on the same night against another rising prospect Jeremiah Graziano (12-0 all by KO) whilst Lateef takes another tough test. This time in the shape of Alfredo Escalera Jr who's record of 18-2-1 (12KOs) is intimidating (even if it is heavily padded) in a card that is being televised by Showtime on one of their ShoBox events.

With a win expected for the hard punching Nigerian it's perhaps time he joined the rising charge of Cruiserweights quickly rising through the ranks at the moment. A fight against BJ Flores would likely be the biggest American based fight either man could could currently get as the exodus to Germany of Steve Cunningham has been followed by Matt Godfrey travelling for a world title shot. Though what ever the future brings, “Power” is certainly capable of being a part of it.

The Shobox card will also feature unbeaten Americans clashing as Chris Avalos (16-0 with 13KO's) faces Christopher Martin (18-0-2 with 5KO's) in what should be a classy meeting of two youngsters with a lot to lose.

The Saint in Nevada

Although this appears to be one of the best weekends in boxing in quite a while, numerous world title fights and eliminators around the globe with possibly the most stacked card in quite some time it's also the first week after Sky's “Friday Night Fights”. British talent will miss it until Sky starts again with a Saturday night show, hopefully bringing big time boxing back to Sky Sports on a regular basis. Though it needs to be said that John Lewis Dickinson was upset last week due to a nasty swelling below his left eye which saw the former Prizefighter winner pulled out. Whilst Craig McEwan's trainer Freddie Roach said he thought “We had lost” whilst most thought Tony Jeffries should have lost to Michael Banbula.

So moving on to this week and the excellent Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino card headlined by the rematch between Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz it seems only fitting that the prospect of the week is fighting on that very undercard. With many of the fighters on the card being too advanced to really be considered prospects, such as Dmitry Pirog and Daniel Jacobs (who meet in a battle for the WBO Middleweight crown) and Jorge Linares (who whilst aged 24 has been a 2-weight champion already) it seems only fair to talk about the young fighter making his US debut. George “The Saint” Groves is arguably the hottest young fighter in Britain and looks to try and his name to the long and illustrious list of great Super Middleweights from the UK.

Although Groves, 22 year old from Hammersmith may not have got the Olympic success of fierce rival and former gym buddy James “Chunky” DeGale many are picking the Hayemaker managed Frank Maloney promoted fighter as the better fighter, and with good reason. A two time British ABA Middleweight champion, who as a kid held the more experienced DeGale to 50-50 sparring sessions and actually beat him in '06 as he piled up a 66-10 (40) amateur record.

Groves would sign a professional deal with the fledgling Hayemaker Promotions in 2008 and as DeGale was in China winning Olympic gold Groves was preparing for his professional debut which came only months later on the under card of David Hayes contest with Monte Barrett. It was a relatively low key debut for Groves who was comfortably down the card scoring a point victory over Kirilas Psonko unlike DeGales's debut 3 months later which was a hugely hyped event that saw DeGale booed due to running his mouth. Over the following 12 months Groves would be kept busy fighting regularly in contests against more experienced fighters. He would string together 5 straight stoppages, beating the likes of solid British fighter Paul Samuels, an the usually durable Romaric Hignard from France.

Groves' first high profile bout came on the undercard of David Haye's contest with Nikolay Valuev for the WBA Heavyweight title. In Germany (his first fight outside of the UK) Groves would clearly out point the very durable Belarussian Kanstantsin Makhankau (who despite taking a record of 15-18 into the bout had only been stopped once) over 8 rounds. Though it was his most recent fight that really showed how good Groves is, stopping the well regarded George Adamu in the 6th round of an utterly one sided battle which had seen the tough Ghana born fighter down 3 times. The win saw Groves winning the Commonwealth Super Middleweight title in just his 9th fight as a professional.

In his upcoming fight “The Saint” meets Alfredo Contreras from the boxing hotbed of Los Mochis, Mexico who is as good a yard stick as you can get. Contreras has been in with Craig McEwan, David Lemieux, Anthony Dirrell (brother of Andre) and Sebastien Demers. Although Groves is expected to win comfortably, a stoppage will have him further proving his credentials and putting him further ahead of DeGale in the race to a world title.

On the card we also get one of the hottest young Americans in Frankie Gomez an 18 year old star in the making who is worth keeping an eye on if you get a chance.

Only 1 interesting prospect fight...shame

Last weekend saw the battle of the prospects, several enticing and interesting bouts featuring prospect v prospect such as Lanard Lane's contest with Mike Dallas Jr and Shawn Porter v Ray Robinson so we'll take a quick look at the round up of them before we look at a less interesting weekend.

Results from Friday night:
Matty Askin WTKO1 Lee Kellet
Scott Quigg WTKO9 Gavin Reid
Fernando Guerrero WUD10 Ishe Smith
Shawn Porter WUD10 Ray Robinson (in a really brilliant match that's well worth watching)
Lanard Lane LUD8 Mike Dallas Jr (in a bout where Dallas' hand speed really impressed me)
Sadam Ali WTKO3 Julius Edmonds (Ali was also impressive)
Alex Perez WUD8 Edvan Dos Santos Barros

Saturday night:
Raymond Serrano WMD8 Ayi Bruce

So to this week, which sadly lacks the true prospect v prospect fight and instead has more easy learning fights. Firstly the high profile Tony Jeffries, one of the British Olympians from the 2008 Beijing games makes his 8th appearance as a professional, the popular Mackem has an easy nights work on paper against the British based Pole Michael Banbula (10-25-3). Jeffries is expected to win though it's worth noting that Banbula, who has no stoppages, has only been stopped 3 times in his career and is coming in on the back of an impressive victory over Tony Oakey, the former British and Commonwealth Light Heavyweight champion.

On the same card we also have to keep an eye out for 2 other fighters, the first is unbeaten (7-0) 22 year old Martin Ward who faces a really tough test in experienced Andy Bell a former British super flyweight champion. Though Bell is by far more experienced he's jumping up to fight at featherweight against a younger stronger fighter who has the bit between his teeth. The fight on paper looked interesting until you realise that Bells 11-7 record features 4 straight losses in his last 4 fights.

The one that interests me the most personally however is the unbeaten Cruiserweight Jon Lewis Dickinson who hopes to emulate local hero Glenn McCrory and win a world Cruiserweight title. Stood at 6'4'' he's a fighter with huge potential and has made a solid start to his career and at just 24 he's coming into his physical prime. Although not long a pro (only turning in November '08) he has managed several note worthy wins in an unbeaten 8 fight career which has swiftly seen him rated inside the top 10 British Cruiserweights (both Boxrec.com and Boxing News magazine rate him at #6 in Britain). Although on Friday he has a relatively soft test against Tyrone Wright (8-4-2) he has managed to win the “Prizefighter” tournament on Sky Sports and currently holds wins over Paul Bonson, Hastings Rasanai, Mark Krence and 2 wins over Nick Okoth not bad for a novice.

In the USA we probably see the best match up with Scottish born Craig McEwan (18-0) meeting the very reliable and experienced Danny Perez (34-7). Perez doesn't usually lose to bad fighters having recently been out pointed by Erislandy Lara and suffering 2 losses to Antonio Margarito. McEwan has been touted around an awful lot, a top class amateur who's now signed to Golden Boy Promotions has struggled to get these sorts of solid tests and it's probably with good reason. Although he has been highly hyped as Scotland's new star the Hollywood based fighter he has yet to truly impress many of those that are impartial and his split decision victory against Darnell Boone in summer '06 saw him getting a rather lucky victory over a solid journeyman type.
Although Perez is stepping up in weight and lacks pop in his punches don't be surprised if McEwan needs to judges to rescue him.

Although after 24 fights it's not fair to call him a prospect the Iceman Vernon Paris intends to stretch his record. Paris is 21-0 with 3 no contests on his record and aged 22 it's time for him to take the sport seriously or get out. Annoyingly he's scuppered his career with drug offences and out the ring altercations which has seen him shot 3 times and stabbed, despite this he's lighting fast and a talented fighter well worth watching for a few rounds. Sadly last time out against Juan Santiago he seemed to fade very quickly and after the midway point seemed to run more than punch. Paris fights 21-6 Courtney Burton in what could well be Paris' toughest assignment so far, though if he's prepared he should go to 22-0-0-3.

Some other fighters fighting during the week:
Australian fighter and highly touted prospect Lenny Zappavinga faces Billy Sumba. For my money Zappa is living on borrowed time and was comfortably beaten by Fernando Angulo in my eyes (Zappa won the bout on the scorecards to go 23-0). Also in Australia Brad Pitt continues his professional career after a successful 2006 Commonwealth games (in which he won Gold). Pitt is currently 4-0 (3) and faces Oscar Siale (12-5) in what is a solid step up in class.

Scott Quigg the prospect of the week...tough week too

Where do we start this week...well lets look at the past. Wins for Mike Jones (in controversial fashion I admit, the stoppage blow was certainly south of the border), John Molina (stopping the arrogant and outspoken Henry Lundy), Carlos Negron and McJoe Arroyo means that it was a good weekend for prospects mentioned in this column. Antwone Smith however did lose, citing illness as an excuse before the bout, I have no sympathy there and the once touted Verquan Kimbrough has now lost 3 of his last 4 and has only 1 win in his last 6.

So this week...Jesus we have a busy week as decent prospects seem to be fighting more than established talent. It was due to this that it was almost impossible to pick a single fighter to be the prospect of the week, though after pulling names from a hat I've decided to go for a fighter I've not yet written about. 21 year old English Super Bantamweight Scott Quigg seems to be one of the most highly thought of young British fighters and with good reason.

Born in 1988 in the North West of England Quigg would pick up Thai boxing as a youngster before turning to traditional western Boxing aged 15. It was due to his background in Thai boxing that he didn't have a prolonged time in the amateur ranks, in fact he only fought 12 amateur bouts (winning 10 of those) before deciding to turn over and become a professional. Sparring with Pro's seemed to show that the professional game, based more on aggression was suited to Scott than the amateur sport where accurate single “scoring” shots are the key. On his professional debut in 2007 as a relative raw 18 year old beating Gary Sheil over 6 rounds.

Over the following year and a half Quigg would improve his skill whilst beating various low tier opponents and top flight domestic journeymen like Delroy Spencer before being signed up by Hatton Promotions, the company headed by Ricky Hatton. An impressive KO of Sumaila Badu being the deal maker for Hatton and showed that Quigg had become a solid all rounder with power, speed and a very solid professional style for someone so young and inexperienced. By then Scott was just 20 and with just 10 fights experience yet had managed to impress many who had seen him.

With the backing of Hatton and the team behind him Scott has remained busy managing 8 fights in 18 months. Though many of those opponents were nothing to great he had been doing what was needed to dominate them, experienced professionals were being made to look like the amateurs whilst novices were being blown out early. Though it's been the last few fights that Quigg has been especially impressive, blowing out 3 European imports that were expected to extend Quigg the schedule. A 6th round stoppage of Yuriy Voronin, a former European title contender in November of 2009 has been followed by first round stoppages of Nikita Lukin (who had never been stopped previously in 29 fights) and Andrey Kostin (who hadn't been stopped in 6 years) impressed everyone who saw them. Notably the victory over Kostin was amongst the first fights in Quigg's hometown of Bury in 13 years after he helped over turn a ban.

Quigg, now with a record of 18-0 (12) is scheduled to face Gavin Reid in a British super-bantamweight title eliminator. On current form Quigg should secure a relatively easy victory on a fight that is likely to be shown (in highlights at least) on Sky Sports 1 as part of the support for “Friday Fight Night” main event between Matthew Hatton and Yuriy Nuzhnenko. A victory will see Quigg in line for a fight for his first professional title and the first big step to the top.

I'd like to end this with something Phillipe Fondu said in a recent issue of Boxing Monthly "Scott Quigg is the best prospect in Britain by far". From the European mega agent Fondu, thats high praise indeed, though it's worth noting Fondu is the agent for both Yuriy Voronin and Nikita Lukin.

Sources:
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=391424&cat=boxer
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/more-sport/2010/05/30/quick-fire-quigg-115875-22296371/
http://www.brandhatton.com/VideoProfile/9/.aspx
http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/BN08/detail.asp?id=1526
Boxing Monthly (July 2010)

Jose Benvidez...The best prospect in the world

So week 3, and as promised a "super prospect", if you need to put your money on any fighter features in this column ever making it to being a world champion this is the banker, the NAP if you will. 18 year old Mexican-American amateur star Jose Benavidez, undoubtedly the most highly sought after teenager in boxing history prior to signing for Bob Arum's Top Rank (the same company that also have training mate Manny Pacquiao). Having been the youngest fighter in history to win National Golden Gloves Champion (aged just 16) his signature was sought after high and low by professional promoters wanting to sign him, though at the same time dreams of Olympic success were also acting as a battling force, he would likely be amongst the US' best chance at the 2012 games in London having matured into a young 20 year old under the wing of famed trainer Freddie Roach. Although he had options like few other amateur stars it was the guidance of Roach that eventually lead Benavides to turning professional with the trainer applying for a professional Nevada license. Despite needing to be 18 to get the license the NSAC gave special dispensation to Benavidez due to his advanced skills, that rivalled that of seasoned professionals. In fact even before he had turned professional he had been sparring with seasoned and high level professionals such as Amir Khan who Freddie Roach was quoted as saying he'd been "Dead Even" with in sparring.

Stood at a gangly 5 foot 11 and with an unassuming personality the likeable kid (who has now turned 18) is currently campaigning as a professional in either the Lightweight (135lbs) or the Light

Welterweight (140lbs) divisions both of which he stands as a relative giant. With the commentators on TV before his debut explaining that Benavidez was being likened to Sugar Ray Robinson it was easy to take an immediate dislike to the hype behind the youngster before he had even stepped into the ring, though within just 81 seconds you could see that this wasn't meaningless hype. He debuted on one of the Top Rank TV shows back in January and faced the unbeaten Steven Cox (1-0), having had a massive build up it would have been easy to expect Benavidez to freeze, though he came out and performed like a seasoned pro, showing the skills of someone with years of experience. He seemed not only able to do the simple things, like establish his jab (which, with his 74 inch reach, is likely to be one of his most potent weapons) but also manage to work his opponent into the places where he'd want him before landing a beautiful and powerful left hand that sent Cox down. Even after Cox got up to his feet Benavides wouldn't relent and cleverly picked Cox apart before the referee waved it off. Inside 81 seconds Benavidez had gone from a 17 year old that no one outside of the most extreme of boxing fans had known about into a fighter that looked like he had stardom written in his destiny.

Since then Benevidez has just been improving, showing more and more aspects to his game and although his opponents so far have been there for no other purpose than to allow the youngster to get confident in the ring and improve as a professional he has managed to beat them with out looking like the youngster that he is. In fact from his first 6 opponents only one has managed to survive into the 3rd round, with 4 being stopped in the opener. For a youngster Benavidez really has it all, speed, natural talent, power of which you wouldn't have expected and maybe more crucially the ability to pick his punches beautifully to both head and body. The most recent victory for him being a clinical first round stoppage of Ronnie Peterson after a body shot that seemed to to just sap the fight right out of the 3-1-0-1 Peterson (who had only previously suffered a loss after damaging his shoulder).

For Benavidez, who wears glasses outside of the ring and looks like a typical bully victim with his slim build and innocent smile, the up coming test against Steve Hall in the Alamodome on Saturday as part of the undercard of John Duddy's fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr should be a rather easy nights work. Hall coming in with a 2-1 (2) record has stopped his last 2 opponents though against Benavidez he's meeting a special kind of fighter. Hall is only going to last as long as Benavidez wants him to, that's not a knock on Hall but a simple explanation of just how good Benavidez is, in fact you could make a solid case for him being better schooled than either of the main event fighters.

Also on the card is Mexican idol Marco Antonio Barrera, perhaps bowing out his career on the same card as Benavidez establishing his

Week 3 part 1 Edwin "La Bomba" Rodriguez

As part of a double header of prospects for this week (it’s a busy week) as well as a mid week column we’re going to look at probably the best prospect in the world in the second one, though for this column we have a Super Middleweight who seems like he’s being matched better than most in his position. 25 Year old Edwin Rodriguez from the Domican Republic is one of the more well known prospects in boxing today though it worth a look at. With a record of 15-0 (11) since he turned professional in 2008 he has come along nicely and has kept relatively busy learning his trade as he goes.

A talented amateur Rodriguez won both the US Championships in 2005 and the 2006 National Golden Gloves at Middleweight establishing himself as one of the hottest amateurs in the country. Though he failed to make the Olympic team for Beijing after compiling an 84-9 amateur record he decided to move on, knowing life in the professionals would suit him and give him a well earned financial security. Although life hasn’t been plain sailing from then outside of the ring it has inside for the 6 foot man known as “La Bomba”. His battles outside of the ring have circled around the lives of his 2 twins, who were both born with medical problems. Instead of campaigning to get into the Olympic team Edwin put his dreams on hold instead concentrating on the lives of his children.

Having signed with Lou DiBella and the DiBella Entertainment promotional company and managed by Larry Hazard who sees Edwin as a friend as well as a client he has a solid pairing behind him. Though it’s the fact that Edwin is an intelligent and nice guy that has really seen him gaining the sort of attention he has had. Edwin has spent time doing things for those less fortunate than himself, such as playing hide and seek with disabled children and is also a graduate from Holy Cross where he earned a degree in Political Science.

Though with out repeating these facts it’s hard for many to understand what an all round star he is and it’s not just his boxing ability that has seen him become a star. His 15-0 record has seen him beating progressively better opponents such as Darnell Boone who’s 16-12-2 has been spent facing mainly the stiffest prospects out there (such as Erislandy Lara, Craig McEwan and Brandon Gonzales) and George Armenta (who has faced Yuri Foreman, Sachew Powell and last weeks midweek update fighter Mark “TNT” Tucker). In his upcoming fight Rodriguez faces the experienced Gabriel Holguin (25-8-1 with 9KO’s). A loss to Holguin would likely seriously damage Rodriguez’s career though it would be a major upset, as Holguin has only a single win in his last 4 fights, however he has only been stopped once in his career back in 2004, a stoppage win for Rodriguez would be incredibly impressive, though the bout is a good test for “La Bomba’s” stamina as it’s to be his first 10 rounder.

Expect a wide decision for a very talented fighter who will hopefully be moved onto top 30 type fighters as he has the talent to try and get in with some of the fighters from the Super 6 come the end of 20111

We want results

The failure of McWilliams Arroyo last week was an upset, though this week we had a host of prospects fighting as they dominated ESPN's Friday Night Fights. A mix of international talent and US talent were on the card with Sherzod Husanov and Maxim Vlasov both giving it an Eastern European feel whilst Demetrius Andrade was a stand out American amateur.. Though the card had been set for a while Kinglsey Ikeke had been taken off the card and replaced by Jerson Ravelo, which links us nicely to tomorrow. Ravelo has faced both Andre Ward and Allan Green who fight tomorrow, on that card is Mark “TNT” Tucker, another fighter who appears to be one to watch. Though Tucker's result will be featured next week, the others are here and now as we round off week 2 of Prospect Scotting.

The card started with the more experienced Jerson Ravelo (20-4 with 12KO's going in) facing Maxim Vlasov (17-0 8KO's going in). Ravelo did come into the bout with a weeks notice (due the the aforementioned Ikeke pull out, caused by a broken jaw in sparring) and at times looked a bit unprepared for the Russians style who was busier and better and seemed to have his foe much better scouted. Controversy at the end of the second saw Ravelo's face cut up from a clash of heads (that looked deliberate from Vlasov), that was the nasty side of Vlasov, but the beautiful side of him was shown the following round. A right hand hook effectively put Ravelo out of it whilst an uppercut merely rubbed salt into the round and helped result in a 3^rd round TKO to help the Russian climb to 18-0 (9).

Sherzod Husanov an unbeaten (14-0-1 with 7KO's)* Uzbek who was a former top amateur was making his US debut for the shows main event when he took on hard hitting Colbian Jhon Berrio (15-6 with 11KO's) who was also making his US debut. Husanov impressed midway through the opening round, through deadly accurate straight right hands that connected sweetly on Berrio's chin as he the Uzbek took the centre of the ring trying to establish himself straight away. The second seemed to be a more brawling round, that should have suited Berrio but his slow looping wide punches were ineffective against a better schooled and faster foe. Although Husanov had dominated the early part of the fight he wasn't being particularly intelligent about it, and Berrio although lacking in finesse was turning the the fight to be a brawl, and seemed to be earning his way into the fight. The score cards gave the decision in the end to Husanov who managed to just about do enough to deserve the majority decision he got though he seemed to lack that spark that a truly great prospect has.

Overall the prospects looked good but not great whilst Andrade was kept of TV sadly and at time of posting his result wasn't known publicly though he had a late change of opponent from Quandray Robertson to Dumont Welliver, probably on paper an easier opponent. Like Tucker his result will be mentionedat the start of next week.


*ESPN reported that Husanov was 9-0-1 (5) boxrec have him at 14-0-1

Andrade an emerging American force

You want a super prospect? Well for week 3 we have a piece on possibly the most hyped young American fighter in recent history, as well as a special look at at least 1 other fighter in what will be once of the busiest weeks. All I’ll say for now is that that fighter has been compared to Sugar Ray Robinson already and has sparred with Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan (he was said to have been “Dead Even” with Khan).

For this week however we have Demetrius Andrade as our fighter of interest, one of a host of young Americans on their way up. Andrade, an unbeaten 22 year old with a record of 10-0 (7) has been around for what seems like years despite having only been a pro for just over a year and a half. The thing about him is that many will remember “Boo Boo” being surrounded with hype as he turned professional. The hype of his amateur days followed him through as he signed a pro deal, having been one of the USA’s great hopes at the 2008 Olympics. Although he flopped in Beijing going out in the quarter finals to Kim Jung-Joo from South Korea he had gone in as one of the favourites having won the 2007 World Amateur Champions Gold at the Welterweight division in Chicago. This gold was in addition to the Pan Am silver he won in Rio the same years which had seen him become one of the best prospects for the US at the games and in the eyes of many, he had been robbed there by poor officials.  

The talented amateur star wasn’t willing to wait until 2012 to try and improve his Olympic record so instead turned to the pro ranks where he’s slowly amassed his record since October 2008. Having debuted on the undercard of an IBF featherweight title fight where he knocked Patrick Cape in the second round Andrade has been brought along carefully and slowly as he gets used to fighting with out the head gear. Having had 4 easy KO’s in his first 4 fights he was given a stiffer test in the 8-1-1 (4) Tony Hirsch who managed to see the final bell with Andrade. Although “Boo Boo” won every round on every card in a controlled performance he showed that perhaps he hadn’t full grown into his power and at 21 it’s perhaps to be expected. Since then he has won 5 more fights against low key opponents with both Chris Chatman and Geoffrey Spruiell extending him the 6 round schedules only losing a single round on a single card combined.  

At 6 foot 1 it’s unlikely that Light Middleweight will be the weight in which Andrade really establishes himself, in fact it’s quite likely he’ll end up as high as Light Heavyweight before his career comes to a close though at 22 and whilst able to make the 154lbs limit it’s looking likely that he’ll remain here for the foreseeable future. In his next fight, which is scheduled for 6 rounds he faces the experienced (37 years old) Quandray Robertson a fighter who has fought between Welterweight and Middleweight in a 24 fight career since 1997 winning 15 (with 10KO’s) and losing 9 (8 losses by stoppage). It would be hoped that Andrade will be able to get rid of the veteran inside the distance, though he has only been stopped inside 6 rounds twice in his career (one of those coming against Sergiy Dzinziruk). It’s a bout that should be a safe one for a fighter as highly talented as Andrade is, as he slowly starts to step up his opponents over the next 12 months or so.

If he manages to, as expected, beat Robertson, don’t expect him in a difficult contest for a while as Arthur Pelullo and his Banner Promotions are likely to bring him along slowly on the under cards of their bigger fighters building his record and experience before letting the confident and lanky youngster loose.

Banner Promotions, the promotions of the future

Despite this column being mainly about prospects I’ve decided every week (or rather when I can be bothered) will have a mid week piece, either a round up of other prospects fighting, results or just something of interest to those who follow prospects. Well with no other note worthy prospects fighting this week I’ve decided to take it on a slight tangent in looking at Artie Pelullo promotional company, Banner Promotions. I think Banner Promotions are going to be a major player in the coming years for the talent spotting, especially of Eastern European fighters who are yet to emerge in the US, or have just began to emerge.

Although they do have the occasional star, such as Ricky Hatton who is (or was) signed to Banner and even the likes of Cristobal Cruz, the former IBF Featherweight champion and Sergey Dzinziruk the WBO Light Middleweight champion who is looking to make waves in the US. Though as this is Talent Scotting, we’re not interested in those fighters but the youngsters, who seem like they will become a staple of this very column.

Demetrius Andrade is the first to be mentioned in the column (next week infact) though along side him is Maxim Vlsaov (who will be featured in one of these mid week pieces I’ve just spoken about). Though South Korean Ji Hoon Kim (21-5 (18KO’s)) may not be regarded as too much of a prospect having won an eliminator for the IBF Lightweight title he’s one that could well seen the company take off. A powerful hitting fighter who aged just 23 looks to be making waves that could hit the bigger shows next year.

Though how about some of these names:
Ruslan Provodnikov, a 5 foot 6 Light Welterweight with a pressure style, heavy hands and an exciting prospect with plenty of ability. Although he’s relatively old for a prospect at 26 he’s being moved along quickly in his last few fights. With a record of 16-0 (11) and wins against the likes of Victor Hugo Castro, Javier Jauregui and Emanuel Augustus in his last 3 he’s hot on the tails of the top fighters around 140 and has been exposed to the US market.

Garrett Simon an unbeaten 18 year old American heavyweight (4-0 with 3KO’s) who could well be a decent name at cruiserweight at his young age (he’s only around the 200lb limit at the moment). Stood at 6 foot 5 you’d expect him to build into a heavyweight prospect worth remembering though sadly American heavyweight sin recent years have been memorable for all the wrong reasons. Sadly Banner Promotions don’t seem to have much to say on young Garrett though he has a chance to make a big impression next Friday (18th June) as he fights on an ESPN2 undercard.

Alisher Rahimov despite being in his 30’s (32) the Super Featherweight is unbeaten at 20-0 (11) and has held a few fringe titles. Although not well known as such he does have one or two recognisable name son his record (such as Oleg Yefimovych-the Current EBU Featherweight champion). Probably never going to get his name back into title contention and probably to old to be a prospect hopefully Rahimov, a class amateur will step up at some point.

An almost mystery fighter on Banner’s list is Jackson Junior, who appears to be a Brazilian Light Heavyweight with a record of 7-0 (6) which looks nice on paper and includes wins over more experienced fighters, though sadly having made his debut in 2004 he’s just not been active enough to make much of a note of.

Although Banner Promotions aren't one of the big names hopefully they will keep bringing fighters like Kim and Provodniov to the US and getting them TV time.