World Of Boxing
FightNews.com
Ray Wheatley
Australia
April 29, 2007

Turkish-born Jed Syger (9-1) won a ten round split decision over Junmar Dulog (4-5-1) of the Philippines to win the WBF Asia Pacific Jnr welterweight crown at the Croatia Club at Punchbowl, Sydney NSW, Australia on Friday. Southpaw Dulog forced the action in all the rounds but the 23-year-old Syger boxed skillfully to edge his shorter opponent in most of the rounds.

Dulog has lost to Australian lightweight champion Lenny Zappavigna, Mohammad Elomar and Aussie jnr featherweight champion Davey Browne in crowd pleasing fights. Syger is trained by Johnny Lewis and managed by Jimi Reynolds.

Light welterweight Con Katsourois (4-0) won a fifth round technical decision over Shane McFarlane (3-2) due to cut eye. Scores 40-37, 39-37 and 39-38.

Hot lightweight prospect and former amateur star Benny Warburton (2-0) despached Lucas Mason (0-2) at 1:46 of round two. Warburton is trained by former Australian welterweight contender Billy Harrison.

Featherweight John Akaula (1-1) won a clear four round decison over Kane Buckley (0-3-2) by scores of 39-36, 40-37 and 40-35.

Super middleweight Mark Pawsey (3-1) scored a three round stoppage over Yingyai Sithdara (0-2) of Thailand. Time 1:53.

Promoter Nathan Harrison. Ringside announcer Mark Warren.

News of Delaware County
Ron Christian
Pennsylvania, USA
26 April 2007

The gathering resembled a family reunion in which angled noses, broad shoulders, strong, large-knuckled hands and shared hardship in the squared circled were more the blood ties than facial resemblance or skin color.

Gym founder Ed Crawford was honored among many others, and everywhere there were knots of fighters and former fighters spanning the years since the gym’s inception, warmly sharing their experiences and memories.

As with any gathering of old soldiers swapping war stories, there were different versions of the same events.

Gym director Andy Carr announced the newest inductee to the Upper Darby Hall of Fame, Chuck Rawlings. Carr and Rawlings were both heavyweights fighting out of Upper Darby in the early 1980s, and Carr fondly recalled Crawford pairing the two against one another in a last-minute match-up of teammates when a squad from Delaware failed to bring a heavyweight for either to fight.

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Northern Advocate
Peter Thorley
Whangarei, New Zealand
24 April 2007

Top Northland boxer Mohamed Azzaoui has survived a scare while preparing for his next fight in Australia in two weeks.

Azzaoui called an early halt to a sparring session in Auckland last week, complaining of pain in his elbow.

“During one of the sparring sessions, he tweaked his elbow so we’ve had to pull him out (of any contact) for a week to be certain we don’t do any further damage to the injury,” Azzaoui’s manager Mike Edwards said.

The former Algerian champion received the thumbs-up to continue training after a medical examination and will have another check tomorrow to check on his progress.

He is now aiming to begin sparring again at a scheduled session on Wednesday.

If all goes well, Azzaoui will fight Bosnian Nermin Sabanovic in Melbourne on May 6 for the vacant IBF Pan-Pacific cruiserweight belt and the WBF Asia-Pacific belt.

Azzaoui’s WBA Pan-Asian belt is also up for grabs at the bout.

Sabanovic is trained by Terry Fox and was a successful amateur fighter for many years.

He has a mixed bag of results with seven wins, three losses and two draws in his professional career.

“We don’t know a lot about him. We do know he’s a tough and seasoned professional but we think we’ll have his measure,” Edwards said.

“You can never be too certain about these things and we don’t want to be overconfident but we’ve watched a few of his fights on the small screen and we’re not expecting to be pushed too much.”

Azzaoui took his professional career tally to 19 wins and no losses with his most recent fight at the end of March, when he defended his Pan-Asian cruiserweight title against Samoan champion Alapati Kitona.

Full Court Press
Bob Trieger
19 April 2007
Nassau, Bahamas

Last night’s homecoming for Bahamian native Sherman “The Caribbean Tank” Williams may not have lasted very long but it certainly was successful as Williams registered his eighth consecutive victory via first round knockout of Wade Lewis in a scheduled 10-round bout in Nassau.

Williams (33-10-2, 19 KOs), now fighting out of Vero Beach Florida is the reigning NBA, WBF Intercontinental and Caribbean Boxing Federation heavyweight champion.

“Sherman’s ready to move up to the next level in the heavyweight division,” Williams’ manager Jim Rider said. “We’re looking for a major step up in competition for his next fight.”

Ringside Report
Anthony Cocks
Melbourne, Australia
18 April 2007

A packed house turned up at the Bentleigh Club to watch local lad Shane Brock battle to an entertaining ten round draw against rugged Indonesian Romilus Rahayan for the vacant World Boxing Foundation Asia Pacific Flyweight Title on 15 April.

Despite only discovering his opponent was a southpaw at the weigh-in the previous day, Brock started fast and found a home for his straight right hand almost immediately. Rahayan battled back in the middle rounds, bulling his way inside to land some heavy blows with both hands, but Brock hung tough to pick off the forward-charging visitor with well-timed counters. Going into the final two rounds it was still anyone’s fight but Brock, suffering severe blisters on his feet, struggled to keep pace with the fast-finishing Indonesian.

At the conclusion of the action judge Matt Ropis saw the fight even at 96-96, judge Andrew Campbell had it 95-95, while judge Wayne Ashdown favoured Rahayan 96-94.

Brock, who had been on a three-fight winning streak since stepping up weight to unsuccessfully challenge talented Queenslander Emmett Gazzard for the Australian Bantamweight Title in 2005, saw his professional record move to 7-2-1 (5). Rahayan’s unconfirmed record moves to 26-4-5 (9).

On the undercard cruiserweight Lee Kovacevic, 2-0 (1), overcame a second round knockdown to rally down the stretch and pull out a gutsy win over Tim Teller, 0-1-1. Judges Matt Ropis and Wayne Ashdown scored the fight for Kovacevic 58-56 and 58-55 respectively, while Andrew Campbell saw in favour of Teller, 57-56.

In his professional debut light heavyweight Lucky La Rica went to war against Matthew Kapetanios, 0-1-1. Both boxers landed bombs throughout the bout in a crowd-pleasing fight. At the conclusion judge Matt Ropis saw it 39-38 for La Rica, judge Andrew Campbell gave it to Kapentanios 39-37, while judge Wayne Ashdown saw it even at 38 apiece.

* Photo: Shane Brock and Rommie Rahayan battle it out in Bentleigh
(Courtesy: Werner “The Kid” Kalin, Australia’s Leading Fight Photographer)

MORE PHOTOS TO COME