16.02.07 – By Neil Thompson: Despite the departure of Floyd Mayweather, Kostya Tszyu and Miguel Cotto the Junior Welterweight division is still a talented collection of contenders and title holders. We don’t have one unified alphabet champion but we do have a Ring Magazine belt holder which is almost as good.
1. Ricky Hatton 42-0 (30 KO’s)
Mr Richard Hatton of Manchester, England is still the true World Champion at this weight. Its been approximately 20 months since his famous upset of Kostya Tszyu and the ‘Hitman’ is still looking for another marquee name to add to his impressive undefeated career. Jose Luis Castillo should be Ricky’s next opponent and the Mexican tough man fit’s the bill. After a brief appearance at welterweight, winning the WBA welterweight title, Hatton has moved back down to his natural weight limit of 140 lbs.
Unlike De La Hoya, Mayweather, Mosley, Hearns and Leonard etc, Ricky Hatton, being a short and squat build, is not physically built to move up through the weights. Therefore, as a Hatton fan, I would like to see him stay at 140 and dominate the division until he retires.
If I was Hatton I would only consider moving to 147 lb’s if a Mayweather fight materialized. By his own admission, Hatton has only about 2 or 3 years left in the sport and would love a shot at Floyd Mayweather after Floyd’s appointment with the ‘Golden-boy’. It looks like its taking Hatton a bit of time to adjust to fighting in America. Both Collazo and Urango are southpaws and its no secret that Hatton doesn’t like fighting left-handed boxers. Collazo was a close decision but Hatton won almost every round against Urango eventhough he still looked a bit uncomfortable in the later rounds. Hopefully Hatton will be back to his old best when he faces Castillo.
2. Jose Luis Castillo 55-7-1 (47 KO’s)
Although he looked unimpressive and ring-rusty last time out, Castillo is still considered, by most, as the biggest threat to Hatton in the 140-lb division. Castillo gave Floyd Mayweather his closest and toughest fight to date and he has been involved in one of the greatest fights I have ever seen (his first fight with Corrales). If I have learnt one thing from following this sport over the last 20 years it’s ‘don’t under-estimate a Mexican’. They breed them tough over there and they always come to fight. Castillo is tough, durable, intelligent, can punch with either hand and is aggressive. Hatton and Castillo are made for each other and it should be a classic war between 2 aggressive fighters. People shouldn’t read too much into Castillo’s performance against Herman Ngoudjo, as it was Castillo’s first fight in 11 months against a young talented yet unknown fighter trying to make a name for himself. I believe Castillo will be fully motivated and well prepared to take on Hatton.
3. Junior Witter 35-1-2 (20 KO’s)
The WBC Champion and Britains number 2 junior welterweight has made great strides these last couple of years. Victories over Lovermore N’dou, Andreas Kotelnik, Demarkus Corley and Arturo Morua have helped Junior to become an alphabet champion and a respected name in this division. Next up for Witter a mandatory defense against Vivian Harris. There are rumours that the winner of Witter-Harris will get a fight with Diego Corrales in America. A victory over such a big name like Corrales would be huge for Junior and would place him in the perfect position to force HBO to take notice of him. Which in turn lead to a fight with Hatton, a fight Witter has craved for years. There is bad blood between Witter and Hatton, so much so that Ricky doesn’t want to give Witter his biggest payday. Witter has taunted Hatton for years but has never managed to get the fight on with Hatton. This is partly because HBO have never wanted anything to do with Witter since his negative and boring display against Zab Judah in 2000. An impressive victory over Corrales would help mend Witter’s image over in the states. Hatton-Witter would be huge in the UK, but Witter must get in line as Hatton-Castillo is, globally, a bigger fight than Hatton-Witter.
4. Diego Corrales 40-4 (33 KO’s)
The former Super Featherweight and Lightweight champion of the World is on the comeback. Having lost his lightweight title, to Joel Casamayor, Corrales has moved up to the 140-lb division. Having not competed at this weight yet, I have placed him as high as number 4 based on his reputation alone. He has now lost his last two fights, one was a brutal 4th round stoppage loss to Castillo and the other was an embarrassing point’s defeat to Casamayor. Is he one the slide? and will his suspect chin hold up at 140 lb’s? Hopefully these questions will get answered soon. Castillo is a true warrior who lives to fight. At 5’ 11” tall it’s hard to imagine how he ever competed at super featherweight and is still considered tall for a junior welterweight. Despite his height, Castillo likes to fight up close and has the style of a much shorter man. He has been in many wars and has faced the best. He never ducks anyone and only a fool would write him off completely. Personally I think both Castillo and Hatton would beat him at this weight. He may also struggle with the awkward and powerful Junior Witter so if I were Corrales, I’d be hoping that Harris manages to pull off the upset later on in the year. That being said, I would favour Corrales over the WBA champ Souleyman M’Baye and the new IBF champ Lovermore N’Dou.
5. Souleyman M’Baye 35-1(20 KO’s)
The 31-year-old WBA Champion won the title on his second attempt. The first time he was out-pointed by Vivian Harris, in July 2003. Later Souleyman signed with Frank Warren’s Sport’s Network promotional company and 3 years later he made the most of his second attempt in winning the vacant title by knocking out Raul Balbi in September 2006. Souleyman ‘the Sensation’ M’Baye of France is now fighting with renewed confidence and looks a classy operator. At almost 5’10” tall, with a 70” reach, Souleyman would be a handful for anyone in this division. Next for M’Baye is a defense against Andreas Kolelnik, a fighter he’s faced before. This is a tough one as M’Baye struggled on home turf against the Ukrainian a few years back. This time they will be fighting on the neutral turf of Liverpool, England. M’Baye-Kotelnik is a fight I’m looking forward to watching.
6. Andreas Kotelnik 27-2 (12 KO’s)
A good fighter who has dropped controversial decisions to both current WBC Champ Witter and WBA Champ M’Baye. Many people believe Kotelnik was robbed on both occasions. Both of these debatable decisions were fought on his opponent’s home territory. With this in mind it’s easy to see that Kotelnik is a threat to anyone. He is a sound boxer with a traditional European style, he’s not outstanding in any particular area, but is no glaring weakness either. Next for Kotelnik is a return with M’Baye for his WBA crown on the 10th March. I like watching Kotelnik and anyone under-estimating him will do so at their own peril.
7. Vivian Harris 28-2 (18 KO’s)
Before his defeat to Carlos Maussa, Vivian Harris looked like a very dangerous champion. He won the WBA 140-lb title in 2002 against Diosbelys Hurtado with a 2nd round stoppage. He then outpointed M’Baye in Las Vegas for his first defense. He then had back to back defenses against the always-dangerous Okay Urkal in Germany. The first time he won a split decision and the second time he scored an 11th round stoppage. However, next came the Carlos Maussa nightmare and after starting the fight well he faded and was embarrassingly stopped in the 7th round. His last fight was an eliminator for Junior Witter’s WBC crown against Juan Luzcano. Once again Harris looked exceptional in the early rounds but seem to fade and allowed Luzcano back into the fight. Harris won but it ended up being a closely contested fight with Luzcano having plenty of success and made it a very close decision by the end of the 12th round. Harris should never be under-estimated but something doesn’t feel right when watching Harris that I cant put my finger one. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of stamina or a lack of focus but he does seem to be making hard work of the fights he would of won more easily a couple of years ago.
8. Lovermore N’Dou 45-8-1 (30 KO’s)
It’s been a long road for the new IBF 140-lb champion. At 35 years of age Lovermore has dropped decisions to Sharmba Mitchell, Miguel Cotto and Junior Witter. In February 2007 things finally started to go his way with an 11th round stoppage win over Naoufel Ben Rahab. Big, strong and powerful, N’Dou isn’t out of his depth with anyone. Lovermore is willing to fight anyone but like many African fighters he seems a bit slow and one paced. I think he is the weakest of all the alphabet champions but N’Dou still deserves respect. The ‘Black Panther’ living in Australia by way of South Africa is getting on in age and will be looking to make as much money in the shortest possible time. I wish him well and I hope he gets a big payday soon. Unfortunately Hatton relinquished his IBF title in order to fight Castillo, so N’Dou will have to look elsewhere. However, with Corrales looking to win a title at 140 he may feel N’Dou will be his best bet. I suspect that’s a fight N’Dou would love to be a part of.
9. Herman Ngoudjo 15-1 (9KO’s)
Another fighter with the nickname ‘The Black Panther’ (just like Lovermore N’Dou), Herman Ngoudjo surprised everyone by giving Castillo a very, very close fight. It was so close that the British TV commentary gave it to Castillo whilst their American counter-parts gave it to Ngoudjo. Herman took the fight to Castillo and many people thought he won. This 27-year-old from Canada is still young and can come back and build on his admirable performance against Castillo. A fight with Lovermore N’Dou would be entertaining and the styles of the two ‘Black Panthers’ should match up well. It will be interesting to see if Ngoudjo is as good as he looked against Castillo or did he just catch a ring-rusty Castillo coming back after an 11th month lay-off? Ngoudjo is a fighter to look out for in the future.
10. Juan Luzcano 37-4-1 (27 KO’s)
Juan Luzcano of Mexico proved his worth against Vivian Harris in an entertaining contest. Being a WBC final eliminator, Luzcano lost a close points decision and therefor a crack at Junior Witter’s title. The decision was close and Luzcano has nothing to be ashamed of. He is a good fighter but maybe just lacks that extra something to make him a champion. Earlier on in his career he was outclassed and out-pointed by Jose Luis Castillo for the WBC Lightweight title. His losing performance against Harris was a much closer fight. Trained by Freddy Roach it will be interesting to see if he can make another push towards a title shot.
Those that just missed out:
11. Demetrius Hopkins 25-0-1 (26 KO’s)
12. Juan Urango 17-1 (13 KO’s)
13. Naoufel Ben Rahab 24-3 (13 KO’s)
14. Kendall Holt 21-1 (12 KO’s)
My next article will be “My Welterweight Rankings”
Thank you for reading
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