BritishBoxing.net, UK
July 13 2005
A rundown on Magee and Eastman’s opponents
by Michael Weber
Jul 13th 2005
New foreign correspondent Michael Weber gives British fans a run down
of the two opponents who will face Brian Magee and Howard Eastman on
Saturday.
Firstly Vitaly Tsypko who is 15-0 with 9 ko’s:
Brian Magee is facing the tall Ukrainian for the European
championship and is still unbeaten and one of the greatest talents in
the super-middleweight division.
He set his mark in the division when he beat the former Commonwealth
champion, Charles Adamu, in 2004. It was the first defeat of Adamu
and the win of the WBA International title for Vitali. He defended
the title twice, versus Alexander Zaitsev (UD 12) and Lawrence
Chapman (UD 12). He also had a IBF world championship eliminator
fight when he faced Jeff Lacy in 2004, but the fight was a “No
Contest” due to a Tsypko cut caused by a headbutt.
The technically well-schooled Ukrainian, who is also able to knock
his opponent out, is one of Europe’s prospects for the next
generation in this division. He is actually ranked at number 5 with
the WBA, 9 with the WBC, 12 with the IBF and 4 with the WBO. He wants
to fight for a world title at the end of this year or in spring 2006.
But first of all he has to struggle with the experienced Brit.
Unbeaten Arthur Abraham who comes to the ring in a ‘Smurf’ hat is
next for Michael’s thoughts:
Together with Jermaine Taylor and Felix Sturm, Arthur Abraham is
supposed to be one of the future rulers of the middleweight division.
The 25-year-old Armenian who started as a sparring partner of Sven
Ottke is hitting extremely hard. Only the young Canadian prospect Ian
Gardner could go the distance with him.
Under his KO victims there are guys like Hector Javier Velazco,
Roberto Mario Vecchio, Nader Hamdan and Branko Sobot who lost in a
title fight against the ruler of the super-middleweight, Joe
Calzaghe. And there are many who already compare Arthur with the
young Calzaghe. Sinan Samil Sam once said that Abraham hits like a
heavyweight.
The fight versus the Battersea Bomber on Saturday will prove whether
Arthur is ready for a title fight. Howard Eastman will have to show a
top performance to win this fight. Will his experience be enough to
stop the young knockout specialist?