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By Erik Schmidt: Last Saturday night, German welterweight prospect Oliver Guettel (14-1, 8 KOs) defeated Felix Lora by a 4th round TKO to defend his WBC World Youth welterweight title at the Mittellandhalle, Barleben, in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. I’ve seen Guettel, 23, fight on several occasions and this was by far the best he’s looked in either of the three fights. Usually, Guettel has a nasty habit of charging forward with his head like a Billy Goat, ending up ramming his head to the chest or head of his opponents resulting in quite a few clash of heads.

This time, though, Guettel fought in a much more disciplined manner, keeping his distance, throwing jabs and refraining from his head-ramming of his opponent. His hand speed is nothing to get excited about, but his foot movement and jab are quite excellent. He reminds me a little of Sebastian Zbik and Felix Sturm, only without their good right hand power. However, at twenty-three, Guettel may improve with his right hand power in time and be even better fighters than either Sturm or Zbik.

By Adam Laiolo: Hype is cruel, no doubt about that. It can build you up, unjustified, to the point where your bark becomes worse than your bite. And the fall from grace seems a lot higher when you’ve been hyped up for so long. Some people deal with it, don’t let it affect them in anyway. Others either believe it, or crumble under it. Believing your own hype is a dangerous move, especially when you should be able to be honest with yourself first and foremost.

Kelly Pavlik is just this. I’m not going to rant and rave about how poor Pavlik is, that’s not right, I’ve just got a few things to point to our American friends over the pond who sometimes live in a mental state bordering on delusional. Just why Kelly Pavlik has gone from nobody to THE best in the world in no time at all is down to one thing, American hype. The sheer size of the media can out do any other country. Let’s look at the facts. Record: 34-0 (30 KO’s) is an outstanding record with no blemishes and a high knockout rate, not bettered by many at this time. A quick scan down Pavlik’s undefeated record shows only two fighters of any kind of class, Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor.

By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, promoter Don King is interested in bringing back former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis out of retirement to face new WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. According to news sources, King is willing to pay €35million to get Lewis and Vitali back in the ring for a rematch of their June 21st, 2003 bout, in which Lewis stopped Vitali on cuts. It’s been five years since that date, and Lewis retired shortly after that bout and hasn’t stepped foot in a ring since that date.

Through the past few years, Lewis has shown little interest in returning to the ring. However, with Vitali making a comeback after four years and defeating Samuel Peter last Saturday in a 8th round stoppage, Lewis may have a change of mind. Vitali looked good in beating Peter, but he didn’t look unbeatable, especially when it would come to a fighter with as much skills as Lewis. In their prior fight, Vitali fought well for the first four rounds, using his jab and short right hands to score points. He didn’t load up on his shots and instead looked to just connect to the head of Lewis. However, in the 5th round, Lewis started taking control of the fight, hammering Vitali with uppercuts.

By Nate Anderson: Undefeated light heavyweight prospect Tony Ballew (7-0, 4 KOs) put in a good performance on Friday night, defeating the iron-chin Jevgenijs Andrejevs (8-24, 2 KOs) by a four-round decision at the Everton Park Sports Centre, Liverpool, in Merseyside. Bellew, 25, a former three time ABA heavyweight champion, fought well throughout the four-round bout, using his 6’2” height and reach advantage to control the distance over the shorter Andrejevs. However, in the 4th round, Ballew was knocked by a left hand to his chest, which caught him off balance, knocking him to the canvas.

Ballew was unhurt, however, and finished strong, continuing his mastery over the slower, limited Andrejevs. Ballew controlled the first round using hard right hooks to the midsection and long jabs. He tended to load up on his shots, making big exaggerated moves when going to the body. Early in the first round, Andrejevs ran forward trying to throw a big haymaker left hand but missed and fell into the ropes. Bellew then tagged him with two rights while he was helpless for a moment. Bellew continued fighting well in the 2nd round, jabbing Andrejevs repeatedly and throwing hard shots to his midsection with both hands.

By Manuel Perez: Middleweight contender David Lopez (37-12, 23 KOs) put in an impressive performance on Friday night, defeating Colombian Samuel Miller (18-3, 15 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision at the Desert Diamond Casino, in Tucson, Arizona. The southpaw Lopez, 30, controlled the bout from the outset, walking Miller down and hitting him with sharp combinations to the head and body.

By Manuel Perez: Former WBC featherweight champion Kevin Kelley (60-9-2, 39 KOs) was defeated by David Rodela (11-1-2, 6 KOs) by a eight-round split decision on Friday night at the Desert Diamond Casino, in Tucson, Arizona. Kelley, now 41 and fighting as a lightweight, fought well enough to have received a draw, but a split decision loss is also quite acceptable considering he did so little in the first four rounds of the fight.

By Nate Anderson: British light middleweight prospect Matthew Hall (20-1, 13 KOs) destroyed Ciaran Healy (8-9-1, 2 KOs) in the 3rd round of a scheduled eight-round bout on Friday night at the Everton Park Sports Centre, in Liverpool, Merseyside. Hall, also known as “El Torito” (Little Bull), put in a Mike Tyson-like performance, knocking Healy, 33, down three times before the bout was finally put to a halt by referee Phil Edwards at 1:56 of the 3rd round following the third knockdown of Healy.

Hall, 24, dropped Healy with brutal left hooks to the body in the 1st and 3rd rounds and looking a lot like Ricky Hatton as well in delivering the hard shots. Healy, who previously was stopped by a number of good fighters like Andy Lee, Anthony Small and Jamie Moore, was in serious trouble seconds into the first round when Hall went after him with a fierce body attack, banging him repeatedly with left hooks, hurting him and then knocking him down. Healy, however, got up and showed great courage in making it out of the round despite being pounded to the body and continuing to be hurt by Hall until the bell signaling the end of the round. In the second round, Healy came out fast, attacking Hall with right hands.

By Nate Anderson: Lightweight Jon Thaxton (34-8, 19 KOs) resurrected his floundering career on Saturday night with a 3rd round stoppage over Juan Carlos Diaz Melero (36-2, 19 KOs) to win the vacant EBU (European) lightweight title at the Norwich Showground, in Norwich, Norfolk. The win, as good as it is, only whets the appetitive of the 34-year-old Thaxton, who would like to get a shot at one of the lightweight champions in 2009 or at least be able to fight for the chance at the WBC title, currently held by Manny Pacquiao, who will probably be vacating it shortly.

Thaxton was in good form against Melero, knocking him out with a single right hand in the 3rd round. After dropping him with a tremendous fight hand, the fight was almost immediately stopped by referee Robin Dolpierre, who officially stopped the bout at 2:29 of the 3rd round with Melero still on his back on the canvas. The ringside medical team was quickly brought into the ring as precaution and Melero was examined just in case there were any potential lingering serious problems as a result of the knockdown. Thaxton, who was stopped on cuts in the 6th round by Yuri Romanov in April, looked altogether a different fighter out there on Saturday night, attacking the Spaniard Melero like a Pit Bull in the first round, and hitting him with big left hand shots to the head.

By Ben Taafe: Undefeated Canadian light welterweight prospect Dierry Jean (15-0, 10 KOs) destroyed journeyman Fabian Luque (21-8-4, 12 KOs) in a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night at the Montreal Casino, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Jean fought in a relaxed pace in the first round, focusing on landing mostly jabs and pinpoint combinations until the latter part of the round when he opened up with some hard body shots. In the second round, Jean hit Luque with a big right hand, and then pulled him forward with both hands and nailed him with a short left-right combination sending him to the canvas with one minute to go in the round.

After he got up, Jean threw a wild left hook that missed by a mile and then while attempting to land another shot, his feet got tangled up with Luque and when he threw two more shots, both of which missed, Luque fell down because of his feet being tangled with Jean. The referee, however, missed it and called it a knockdown when in reality Luque had never been touched at all. Luque sat on the canvas for a few seconds looking at the referee in bewilderment and then got up at the count of eight and continued fighting. Jean then went after him and landed three left hooks to the body, missing three rights along the way, and then planted him with a right to the body followed by a right to the head. This time, after Luque got up the referee Alain Villeneuve stopped the bout at 2:55 of the round.

By Nate Anderson: Five years after failing an attempt to win the BBBofC British cruiserweight title in a losing effort against Mark Hobson in September 2003, Robert Norton (30-4-1, 19 KOs) finally won the elusive title on Saturday night with a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision over Micky Steeds (12-3, 3 KOs) at the Meadowside Leisure Centre, Burton-on-Trent, in Staffordshire. Norton, a ripe 36, knocked Steeds down once in the fight, dropping him with a cuffing right hand in the 6th round. The knockdown, however, appeared illegitimate as it was more of a push than a punch and Steeds was off balance due to him rushing forward at the time.

Besides that one glaring bad call in the fight, Norton dominated the entire fight, using his two inch and enormous five inch reach advantage to control the shorter Steeds and win an unusually easy decision. The fight was fairly boring, with few real hard punches landed in the entire fight.