None of the Four P4P Best Were Born in the USA!
By: Ken Hissner
The European invasion has been going on for the past ten years in the USA. They are hungry like the Americans were in the 40’s and 50’s. They are action packed fighters from such places as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia and Nicaragua.
No. 4 is from Managua, Nicaragua and is currently 46-0 with 38 knockouts though only 5:03 and goes by the name Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. The former WBA Minimumweight, WBC Flyweight and now the WBC Super flyweight champion has just come off his toughest fight since becoming champion against Carlos “Principe” Cuadras, now 35-1-1 (27), of Mexico City, MEX. Both Gonzalez and Cuadras will be on the undercard Saturday night of the Golovkin-Jacobs main event at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. If both come boxers come out victorious as expected look for a return rematch.
The 29 year-old Gonzalez will be defending against the former WBC World super flyweight champion Wisaksil Wangek, 41-4-1 (38), from Thailand March 18th. He was 1-3-1 in his first five fights has only lost to Cuadras in the last seven years like most Thai’s has a lot of 13 debut opponents and 15 losing record opponents bringing a grand total of 28 of his 46 bouts. Gonzalez was 88-0 as an amateur it’s been claimed. He is 29 years-old. His trainers are Professor Arnulfo Obano and Luis Gonzalez. He is promoted by K2 Promotions.
A boxer who was on the wrong side of a one sided fight he should have been given that he deservingly was the victor but didn’t thanks to a bias referee named Robert Byrd who ignored 46 forced clinches by Andre “S.O.G.” Ward (see it on www.youtube.com) against my No. 3 pick Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev’s, 30-1-1, 26 knockouts, without taking one point away which would have made the scores even and Kovalev would have kept his three titles. This writer had it 116-112 for Kovalev who lost on “all” judge’s scores by 114-113 from Burt A. Clements, Glenn Trowbridge and John McKaie other words known as the “3 blind mice!” Ward is trying to avoid a rematch and may end up going back to super middleweight to do just that. Per Kovalev’s manager Egis Klimas Ward has nine months to give his fighter a rematch and no one else is to fight Ward prior to Kovalev. As an amateur Kovalev was 193-22 and the Russian Military champion and is 33 years-old. John David Jackson is his trainer and Main Events his promoter.
Klimas the “2016 manager of the year” from Lithuania has two of the four P4P top fighters of which one is Kovalev and the other from Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Ukraine, who won three Olympic Gold Medals equaling Laszlo Papp from Hungary and Teofilio Stevenson from Cuba named Vasyl “High-Tech” Lomancheko, 7-1 with five knockouts. He claims to have been 396-1 in the amateurs and is 29 years-old. He was fighting for a world title in his second fight and winning the same title which was vacant after he lost to Orlando Salido by split decision who then vacated that WBO World featherweight title to move up in weight and avoid a rematch with Lomancheko. He is trained by his father Anatoly Lomancheko and promoted by Top Rank.
Salido would go onto win the interim WBO World super featherweight title and then be defeated by Roman Martinez when he challenged him for the WBO super featherweight title. In the return match they battled to a draw. Lomancheko was to fight the winner who due to the draw was still Martinez. Lomancheko would defeat Martinez for the title and is this writer’s No. 2 P4P pick. He is scheduled April 8th to meet WBA World champion Jason Sosa.
There is a boxer from Karagandu, Kazakhstan, who in the amateurs defeated such boxers like Andre Dirrell (future 2-time super middleweight world challenger) in the 2004 Olympics, Daniel Geale (IBF Middleweight and WBA Super World middleweight champion) in 2001 East Asian Games, and in the 2003 World Championships defeated Russian Matvey Korobov (2005 and 2007 world amateur champion and 2008 Olympian who challenged Andy Lee for the vacant WBO 160 title), Ireland’s Andy Lee (future WBO 160 champion), Romania’s Lucian Bute (future IBF super middleweight champion), Cuban Yordani Despaigne (who in the 2004 Olympics defeated Jean Pascal future WBC 175 champion and Hungary’s Karoly Balzsay future WBA 168 champion, then losing to Dirrell who lost to Golovkin) and Golovkin defeated Russian Oleg Mashkin (who represented Russia in the 2004 Olympics) for the 2003 World championship.
He claims to have been 345-5 in the amateurs and is 34 years-old. Abel Sanchez is his trainer and Tom Loeffler of K2 his promoter. He is scheduled March 18th to meet WBA World champion Danny Jacobs.
Today Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, 36-0 with 33 knockouts holds the WBA, WBC and IBF world middleweight titles and is this writers No. 1 P4P pick. Golovkin has won his last 23 bouts by stoppage and will meet WBA World middleweight champion Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs this Saturday in defense of his three titles and for the title Jacobs has.
Today No. 1 Golovkin lives in L.A., No. 2 Lomachenko in Oxnard, CA, No. 3 Kovalev in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, while Gonzalez still lives in Nicaragua with his last four fights in the USA and this Saturday his fifth in the USA.
