Wallace back in winning form
With Joe Bridges
Jamie Wallace, having his second bout in a month showed good form from the more regular action in taking a narrow win from Les Crowe of Queensland at the Playford Civic Centre, Elizabeth on July 20th.
Before a packed house in a Terry Fox/ Chris Yates promotion, Jamie showed there are still a few fights left in him yet. Over the years, Jamie has answered many promoters call at very short notice, consequently not being 100% fight ready he has been on the wrong end of some decisions. Jamie weighed 186 pound to Les Crowe's 180. It was an eight rounder.
Jamie is very popular in Elizabeth and is now training with Terry Fox. Also having his first bout for some time, Dianever Orcales drew with Eric Anaba. Staying in Australia after the Commonwealth Games, Tanzanians, Karimu Matumla and Oman Kimweri both won their four round pro debuts.
Trained by Rod Davis, Karimu outpointed Amel Barricuatro while Omari won his four rounder over Emanuel Micallef. This programme sent the fans home happy which is hard to do in Adelaide so hopefully the promters will build on this success.
Rising star in Adelaide
With Joe Bridges,
A former well performed amateur, Ivan Kolar had his first bout on Saturday, March 10, as a pro boxer when he was matched with Sydney kick boxer, and fist boxer, Khalid Kobeiss on a fine show prompted by Fox Boxing (Adelaide’s Terry Fox)
Before a packed venue, Ivan won by KO in round five to get his career under way. After a rather quiet first round with few punches landing or being thrown, Ivan started to get on top and avoided most of the Sydneysider’s rather wild swings.
The bout continued on the same pattern until round four when Khalid went down from a body blow. From then on it was just a matter of time and Ivan caught up again in the fifth round with his body blows, dropping Khalid for the full count in 53 seconds.
It was an ideal test for Ivan as he had to be wary of the big lunging rushes of the NSW boxer, however he handled him well.
An amateur card filled the preliminaries. SA heavy weight champion. Mostyn Neiman won an exciting four rounder by unanimous decision over SA super heavy champion, Royce Lolesio. Royce weighed 96kilos, Nieman, 87kilos. Mostyn, only 18 is a red hot prospect. Matched judiciously he could become a big star in SA.
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Two titles for Action Jackson
With Joe Bridges
National featherweight champion, Jackson Asiku is in rather an unusual position. He holds two National titles, the Featherweight in two different Nations. Having captured the Australian title twice, he recently also returned to his birthplace and won the African Boxing Union title in Kampala, Uganda.
This bout on the 18th of June saw him KO his opponent, Saulus Kaunda in round three to capture the title. I believe it was also for the All Africa Inter Continental title as well.
Staying in Australia after the 2000 Sydney Olympics and living in Adelaide, Jackson has had to travel a fair bit to get fights, boxing being dead in Adelaide once again. In fact there are only two active pros in Adelaide, Jackson and Nermin Savonic who must be fast reaching retiring age.
So far this year, Jackson has had a pretty quiet time fistically, having had only one other bout on a kickboxing promotion back on the 11th of March when he outpointed Thailand boxer, Patiphan Simalay at West Beach, an Adelaide suburb.
However, life has not stood still for him. British promoter, Frank Warren, got wind of how good he was and flew him to England for a first hand look at his skills and potential. At this time, Jackson made a break with his trainer since the Olympics, Austin Taylor.
He is now trained by Rod Davis, former Tasmanian, now living in Adelaide. The Brits kept him in England for several weeks where he did intensive training with Jack Rever and it was from there that he was taken to Uganda and won the title.
As this is being written, he has been flown to Brisbane to provide last minute sparring for Chris John who is defending his world title against Tommy Browne before you will read this. Then a couple of weeks later he is going to Sydney to provide top sparring for Nadel Hussein in preparation for his !BO Super featherweight bout against Mick Shaw.
Why is Jackson traveling so much to spar with these guys? Well I’ve kept the best until last!
Warren has arranged for Jackson to fight for the vacant WBF title in France on October 7th against an opponent yet to be named as this is written.
Now we all know the WBF titles do not carry a lot of weight or prestige compared to the big three, as quite often they are vacant when a title holder has stepped up to one of the other bodies.
But for Jackson it is a big moment and a chance for him to get recognition on the world scene.
The former Ugandan man is a wonderful example to all the aspiring boxers who train with him in the Aboriginal Sobriety gym in the city. He is extremely polite and well mannered and willing to help with complete novices.
Rod’s young amateur Harry Watson is showing plenty of improvement after working with Jackson. However he is wise to take to the air to get some top class sparring from seasoned pros which he can’t get in Adelaide in readiness for his biggest moment in the hempen square so far. |
