News – Lorenzo and Sylvester battle for vacant IBF middleweight title on Sep 19th; Foreman III vs. Burrage on July 31st

By Boxing News - 07/16/2009 - Comments

By Erik Schmidt: With the recent move by former International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham to vacate his title and move up to the super middleweight division, it leaves his IBF title open for top contenders Sebastian Sylvester (31-3, 15 KO’s) to fight it out with Giovanni Lorenzo (27-1, 19 KO’s) on September 19th for the vacant middleweight crown in Sylvester’s home country of Germany.

Sylvester, 29, ranked #5 in the IBF, recently defeated American Lajuan Simon by a 12-round unanimous decision. The scores, like many of the fights that occur in Germany, were way out of touch with what actually took place in the ring. Sylvester did appear to win the fight but only by a razor thin margin of one round rather than the scores that were handed down. Sylvester was defeated by Felix Sturm in a 12 round unanimous decision loss in a failed attempt to capture Sturm’s WBA middleweight crown.

Sylvester has good power and an excellent jab, but he’s kind of mechanical, doesn’t move well around the ring and is very predictable in what he does. Sturm took advantage of this by giving Sylvester a boxing lesson in November 2008. Beyond the Sturm fight, Sylvester’s biggest win of his career came against Amin Asikainen, whom he stopped in the 11th round two years ago in June 2007. Sylvester also has a 12th round TKO victory over former WBA middleweight champion Javier Castillejo in April 2008.

Lorenzo, 28, ranked #1 in the IBF, was shockingly defeated by 38-year-old Raul Marquez in a 12 round decision loss in June 2008. Lorenzo fought with little enthusiasm and energy in that fight and ended up losing by a narrow decision. Lorenzo hasn’t fought too many good fighters during his seven year pro career with the best wins coming against Sherwin Davis and Archak TerMeliksetian.

Based on his lack of quality opposition fought, Lorenzo appears to be ranked a little too high at this time and would probably be better served by being placed at the bottom 15 rather than number #1. Having seen his poor performance against Marquez, Lorenzo will probably have a lot of problems against Sylvester on September 19th and might wish later on that he had taken more time to fight better opposition before fighting for a title.

Foreman III to fight Burrage on July 31st

Undefeated heavyweight prospect George Foreman III 1-0, 1 KO’s) will return to action on July 31st against George Burrage (0-5) in a four round bout at the Pan America Center, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Foreman III, 26, is the son of former boxing great George Foreman. Following his father’s foot steps, Foreman III turned pro and defeated his first opponent Clyde Weaver in a 1st round stoppage last month on June 6th.

Foreman III knocked the over-matched Weaver down a couple of times before the bout was stopped. However, Foreman III looked nothing like his famous father, appearing much slower than big George and not nearly as powerful. Many of the younger Foreman’s punches were arm shots and he seemed unable to get a lot of power into the punches.

Due to his lack of hand speed, Foreman III is going to need to develop his power in a big way or else he’s going to have problems finding success in the pro ranks. His father always had incredible power even early in his career while fighting as an amateur, but thus far Foreman III still has yet to show the same kind of power.



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