27.03.04 – By Gavin Macleod – It has often been said that the true measure of a man is not in how many times he gets knocked down, but in how many times he picks himself back up. For Alex Arthur these words have been reverberating in his head ever since the highly regarded prospect surrendered his British Super-featherweight title, in five rounds, to Manchester’s Michael Gomez last October.
The result was a bitter pill for Arthur to swallow, who had been tipped for great things, and it was not made any easier for him to handle when coupled with the fact that he had lost in such comprehensive fashion and in front of 4000 of his hometown fans at the Meadowbank Arena, Edinburgh.
In a bruising encounter Arthur’s defence was found to be absent as Gomez had continual success with his left hook and as such was able to bludgeon the Edinburgh man to submission within five rounds. It was a fight that showed Arthur exactly where he was going wrong and how to rectify his errors. He was dominating Gomez when he was on his toes and boxing, but as soon as he stood still and tried to trade, he left himself wide open to left hooks by keeping his right hand far too low and eventually the cumulative effect took hold and Arthur could no longer ship the blows.
Five months have passed and it is reportedly a new and more focused Alex Arthur who we will see in that same Meadowbank Arena tonight ( 27th March), as he takes on Ugandan Michael Kizza for the IBF intercontinental Super-featherweight strap in front of a near sell out crowd of 3000. For a man who’s stock was once so high, he will be hoping that the training that he has described as “torturous “, can put him back in position as the #1 fighter in the domestic 130lb division.
So what of Michael Kizza? The 24 year old “Iron Bomber” as he is known is your typical African fighter, tough and rugged and brought up in a real spit and sawdust school of hard knocks. Although he is now based in the Italian city of Bologna, Kizza will be hungry for this and will view Arthur as a real scalp as he tries to get his own career heading in the direction of bigger and better things. He brings a record of 17-3 and although most of it has been against very modest opposition, with 12 opponents stopped, there is the suggestion that he does carry a bit of a “dig”.
Kizza’s most notable win came in July of 2002, when he scored a unanimous twelve round decision over Francis Kiwanuka (whom Kizza had previously beaten over 6 round and stopped in five earlier in his career) for the African Super-featherweight title, but when inspecting Kiwanuka’s record of 4-4 going into the fight, one is hardly blown away by the Ugandan challengers biggest scalp. Indeed Kiwanuka is only deemed so as there African title was at stake. Of Kizza’s three defeats, all have been by stoppage and this is not an encouraging sign. He was TKO’d in by the debutant Mathias Ariano in just his third fight, bombed out in two by Joseph Agbeko but there is no shame in this as Agbeko is now 21-0(19) and his final loss was to Kpakpo Allotey, almost exactly a year ago, when Kizza was knocked cold in five by the man who will challenge Craig Docherty for the latter’s Commonwealth title.
It is clear then that Kizza can be hurt, but questions will be asked of Arthur’s temperament after such a painful defeat, and one wonders whether the former amateur star will be a tad trigger-shy in the opening rounds. His training reports would suggest that this will not be a factor as he has been involved in some very competitive sparring for four weeks in Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. Arthur went to LA to right the wrongs of the Gomez fight, a fight for which Arthur himself claims his preparation was a disgrace. Arthur went to the USA for a week before that fight but insisted it was just a ploy to cover up the fact that he was in poor shape. This time it has been very different however.
During Arthur’s four week stay across the pond, he really was trained harder than he could ever have imagined and to make matters worse he spent three weeks of his trip staying in a tough downtown area of LA where he had to go down the block for hot water and also had to eat his meals from paper plates. A far cry from the comfort he experienced in his first week staying with Irish featherweight hope, and Freddie Roach protégé, Bernard Dunne. In the Gym Arthur would be found heading for the showers after ten rounds hard sparring with men such as Dunne, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, and the newly crowned IBF Super-bantamweight champion Israel Vasquez, only to be hauled back into the gym by Wild Card conditioning coach and former Lennox Lewis challenger Justin Fortune. The former heavyweight, who also accompanied Arthur on runs up the mountains, made the Scot balance a barbell above his head whilst, he hit the 25 year old around the ribs and abdominal’s with a stick, conditioning his body for the blows he would sustain in the ring. With training like that it is no wonder that Arthur feels he is in the best shape of his life.
Another demon that had to be eradicated from the armoury of Arthur, 16-1(14), was his leaky defence. In fights before the Gomez clash, men such as Steve Conway and Patrick Malinga had hinted that he was susceptible to the left hook but nothing was ever done to prevent against this. It was not such a factor in Arthur’s eighth round stoppage of Glasgow’s Willie Limond but this may also have been due to Roach’s presence in the corner that night. The two have worked on Arthur’s defence and gym reports have indicated that nearing the end of the four weeks, Arthur was back to his hard to hit upper body movement style that he used to employ in the amateurs. Hopefully this will ring true on fight night as Freddie Roach is again unable to attend but a corner consisting of Dean Powell and Terry McCormack should have enough presence to keep their man on track.
While no one really expects Kizza, fighting outside of Africa for the first time, to beat Arthur he will be no push over and if Arthur has any aspirations of blowing his man away early then he will have to be on top form from the first bell. This is exactly how this writer sees the contest panning out however, with Arthur looking to use his jab for the opening three minutes, a jab that apparently had people at the Wild Card stopping to take pointers from, and when openings arrive, unloading his heavier shots and looking for the stoppage. This may not come in the first round or maybe not the second but certainly around the third or the fourth, if the reports are accurate, then Kizza should be sufficiently damaged to allow the self entitled “Amazing” Alex Arthur to close the show. An end which will be vociferously applauded by an appreciative Edinburgh crowd and one that will hopefully steer Arthur in the direction of regaining his British title.
A full undercard is also scheduled for the Meadowbank Arena with Edinburgh’s light –welterweight hope Gary Young the main point of interest as he tackles journeyman Ernie Smith over six rounds. Also appearing are Jimmy Vincent, Jamie Arthur, Barry Lee, Colin Bain and Colin McNeill.