By Michael Amakor | January 15, 2014
Welcome to 2014, I was too busy toasting the end of 2013 and celebrating the holidays that I am only now getting back to the business of boxing reporting, updating these Chronicles, and combing the archives for upcoming 2013 boxing awards.
Since our Dec 7th update, we have seen a flurry of activities around the world starting with the WBC, which elevated Vitali Klitschko to Emeritus Champion which immediately created the existing vacancy for his title that is ready to be seized by WBC #2 Stiverne and WBC #3 rated Chris Arreola soon.
Roy Jones became the new WBU cruiserweight champion in far Russia while Glen Johnson and Bobby Gunn who were supposed to battle for the US version of the same title ended up fighting in an untelevised non-title bout instead.
From mid December to the end of 2013, there were few to no fights scheduled on US TV making it seem like there was no boxing taking place, but nothing could be further from the truth as boxing sailed strongly into 2014 with the Czech republic putting on a great show with Czech’s Tomas Mrazek and England’s Danny Williams headlining the main event. For the second year in a row, the Japanese held two big shows featuring three intriguing title fights in Japan on New Year’s Eve to close out 2013 in samurai style. In Germany there was a card featuring former heavyweight title challenger Kevin Johnson versus Christian Hammer. In Yemen, minimum weight Ali Raymi faced former WBF titleholder Sampson Dutchboygym. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, WBO super flyweight champion Omar Narvaez defended his title against David Carmona. In Valencia, Spain, IBF super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez defended his title against Jeffrey Mathebula. In Leeds, England, Stuart Hall defeated Vusi Malinga for the vacant IBF bantamweight title.
We also found out why Unbeaten heavyweight contender Finnish Robert Helenius had not fought for a while as he is battling Sauerland Events to get out from under a slave contract he claims was written in German which he did not understand and which he signed without legal representation present.
In wrapping up 2013 I could not help noticing that there are several champions in boxing’s various weight divisions, so I explored the possibilities of a unified and undisputed champions emerging in 2014 in “Unified and Undisputed Championship Hopes for 2014” that you need to check out as a lot of time was expended generating it for your delight.
Also, be sure to check out FightKings TV wrap-up of all the fights from 2013 and start voting for your favorite fights and fighters. Weep not for 2013 as 2014 is shaping up to be another blockbuster year with a few title fights already past and with five solid cards ready to close out Jan 2014 with a bang (check the slideshow).
In the meantime, please pass on the word that FightKings has the only Cruiserweight and African boxing pages in Boxing and check out the Chronicles of St. Michael for more in-depth summaries of past boxing events. Stay Tuned.
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.
