By Scott Gilfoid: Tonight’s card in Hamburg, Germany was a rather disappointing one due to the lack of competitive fights from the top to the very bottom of the card. In the main event, former WBO light heavyweight champion Jurgen Brahmer (37-2, 30 KO’s) came back from 21 long months out of the ring to defeat a fighter named Jose Maria Guerrero (29-3-1, 11 Ko’s) by a 4th round TKO at the Grand Elysee.
Darnell Wilson
Weights: Chakhkiev-Kotlobay, Boytsov-Wilson, Chagaev-Manswell, Brahmer-Guerrero, More!
By Jim Dower: Tomorrow night former WBO Jurgen Brahmer (36-2, 29 KO’s) returns to the ring against Jose Maria Guerrero (29-2-1, 11 KO’s) in a stay busy fight on card stacked with big named fighters at the Grand Grand Elysée Hotel in Hamburg, Germany.
Denis Boytsov vs. Darnell Wilson on 1/28
By Eric Thomas: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Denis Boytsov (29-0, 14 KO’s) takes a tiny step up in class against journeyman Darnell Wilson (24-13-3, 20 KO’s) on January 28th at the Grand Elysee, Rotherbaum, Hamburg, Germany.
Boytsov, #4 WBO, #4 WBC, #5 WBA, #6 IBF, has been pushed slowly by his German promoters after he piled up a lot of impressive amateur experience. However, they’ve been reluctant to put Boytsov in against better fighters for some reason and it’s disappointing that after eight years as a pro, Boytsov, 25, is still fighting B level fighters like Wilson.
Denis Boytsov vs. 37-year-old Darnell Wilson in a card filled with mismatches on
By Jim Dower: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Denis Boytsov (29-0, 24 KO’s) takes on 37-year-old journeyman Darnell “Ding-A-Ling Man” Wilson (24-13-3, 20 KO’s) in a scheduled eight round bout on January 28th at the Grand Elysee, Rotherbaum, in Hamburg, Germany. This is a slight step up for the 25-year-old Boytsov, #4 WBC, #4 WBO, #5 WBA, #6 IBF, but not the kind that many boxing fans were hoping he’d take.
Drozd Stops Wilson
By Erik Schmidt: In a fight marred with fouls between both fighters, once beaten cruiserweight contender Russian Grigory Drozd (32-1, 24 KO’s) stopped Darnell Wilson (23-9-3, 20 KO’s) in the 10th round on Thursday night at the Sport Complex Krylatskoe, in Moscow, Russia. The bout was stopped moments after the 10th by referee Viktor Panin due to injuries that Wilson had sustained in the fight to his right eye, which was nearly closed.
Arslan Decisions Wilson
By Chris Williams: Making his first defense of his WBA cruiserweight title, Firat Arslan (29-3-1, 18 KOs) won a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision over American Darnell Wilson (23-7-3, 20 KOs) on Saturday night at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, in Stuttgart, Baden-Wuttemberg, Germany. It was thought that Wilson, 33, might have a good chance at beating the talented, but limited Arslan. However, Wilson seemed hampered by the over-sized gloves that he was wearing, which were huge looking, obviously meant more for defense than for offense.
It was immediately clear that Wilson was going to have problems landing his shots, one because of the high guard that Arslan was holding in front of his face, protecting himself from the heavy shots of Wilson, and two because Wilson’s hand speed was very poor. That’s not to say that Arslan’s was much better, because he too has dismal handspeed. However, in Arslan’s case, he’s mostly an arm puncher, almost unable to put his body behind his shots for some reason. Not sure why, because he looks as if he could punch a hole through a wall with all his muscles, but in this case, his muscles seem to prevent him from throwing hard shots instead of working in his favor. Indeed, Arslan didn’t even try to punch hard, mostly throwing jabs for the entire fight.
Flores Decisions Wilson
By John Dower: Unbeaten cruiserweight contender BJ Flores (21-0-1, 13 KOs) won an unimpressive 12-round unanimous decision over Darnell Wilson (22-6-3, 19 KOs) in an International Boxing Federation title eliminator on Friday night at the Dover Downs Hotel and Casino, in Dover, Delaware. The 6’2″ Flores, 29, built up an early lead using his five inch height and reach advantage to jab the shorter Wilson from outside. However, Flores faded badly by round eight, spending the final four rounds running exclusively to try and avoid Wilson’s power shots. The crowd, naturally, booed the action hoping that it would spur Flores to want to fight more. It didn’t work, as he did little in the last four rounds of the fight. I have the fight scored a draw based on Flores’ lack of offensive in the 2nd half of the fight. However, the judges’ scored the fight 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110 for Flores.
In round one, Flores, a former 2001-2002 National amateur champion at 201 lbs and 1997 National Golden Gloves champion at 187 lbs, controlled the round using his long jab to keep the much shorter Wilson bottled up on the outside.