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By Nate Anderson: Commonwealth (British Empire) featherweight champion Paul Truscott (12-0, 1 KOs) defeated Alex Miskirtchian (13-2-1, 3 KOs) by a narrow eight-round decision in a non-title bout on Friday night at the Meadowside Leisure Centre, in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Truscott, 22, won by a 78-75 score but the bout appeared to be closer than that. Truscott, who won the Commonwealth (British Empire) featherweight title in May with a decision over Osumanu Akaba, fought well in the first four rounds, but then began to take a lot of punishment from the harder-punching, more aggressive Miskirtchian and appeared to lose rounds five, six and seven.

In the eighth and final round, however, Truscott dug deep and outworked Miskirtchian, and hit him with some really nice uppercuts on the inside as well as some stinging hooks to the head. Truscott’s better movement was the telling factor in the final round as he chose not to stand directly in front of the shorter Miskirtchian like he had in the previous three rounds of the fight. However, despite getting the win, looked very beatable throughout, taking a lot of shots from a fighter with little power and one that he should have been able to beat handily given his perceived better boxing skills.

By Scott Gilfoid: Alex de Jesus (19-0, 13 KOs), a former 2004 Olympic representative for Puerto Rico, easily defeated Cuban Jose Antonio Izquierdo (17-4-1, 14 KOs) by an 8th round TKO on Saturday night at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot, in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. De Jesus, 25, knocked Izquierdo down three times in the fight, once in the 3rd, 6th and 8th, and after the final knockdown, the fight was stopped at 1:20 of the round by referee Ramon Pena. The fight perhaps should have been stopped in the 6th after Izquierdo got flatted by a big right hand at the end of the round, because he looked for the most part like he didn’t want to be there, as if he were frustrated and just going through the motions.

De Jesus, ranked # 6 in the WBO, looked good for a change, much better than he did in his last fight, a 12th round stoppage over Adrian Navarrete in August. In that fight, de Jesus fought in a listless, safety-first style for most of the fight, and was roundly booed by the Puerto Rican boxing fans in the Arena, who perhaps are more used to their stars engaging more and fighting with much more energy than de Jesus showed.

By Ben Taafe: Undefeated Canadian knockout artist David Lemieux (11-0, 11 KOs) continued his perfect streak of knockouts with a 1st round TKO over Lance Moody (4-7-2, 3 KOs) on Saturday night at the Montreal Casino, Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. Moody, 23, like virtually all of the light middleweight Lemieux’s opponents thus far in his short pro career, was badly overmatched before the fight ever started and had little real chance of competing with the unbeaten Canadian prospect.

However, in contrast to some of Lemieux’s other opponents, he was able to throw at least a few smart looking punches before being quickly dispatched by a big left hook at 2:15 of the round. Lemieux dropped Moody twice in the round, both with enormously powerful left hooks which were thrown with a lot of speed as well. Moody was still slightly stunned from the first knockdown earlier in the round when he walked into a perfect left hook by Lemieux, which sent Moody crashing to the canvas. There was no way he was going to make if off the canvas after this knockdown, and the fight was stopped seconds later as Michael Griffin called a halt to the fight at 2:15 of the round.

By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten super featherweight prospect Brandon Rios (18-0-1, 12 KOs) fought to a disappointing 10-round majority draw with Manuel Perez (12-4-1, 2 KOs) on Friday night at the National Western Complex Arena, in Denver, Colorado. The final judges’ scores were 95-95, 95-95 and 94-96, for Perez. Rios, 22, came into the fight as one of the top prospects in the super featherweight division and a fighter that a lot of boxing fans had been looking at as a potential future world champion.

However, he struggled after getting off to a good start in the first two rounds of the fight, taking a lot of shots from the more aggressive, and believe it or not, the harder punching Perez. Rios came on in the end and turned what looked to be a win for Perez into a draw, but it wasn’t pretty.

Rios looked good in the first round, showed good form with his jabs and left hooks to the body of Perez. If the fight had stopped right here, one would have thought that Rios was destined to be a future champion.

By David Lar: A fighter to keep an eye on in the near future in the middleweight division is undefeated Fernando Guerrero (10-0, 9 KOs) who pounded out an impressive eight-round unanimous decision last night against Tyrone Watson (7-1, 3 KOs) at the Wicomico Civic Center, in Salisbury, Maryland. Guerrero, 21, a former 2007 U.S amateur middleweight champion, showed good skills – a high work rate, sharp combinations and a good endurance in dominating the previously unbeaten Watson. Fighting in front of a large home crowd, Guerrero went after a badly over-matched Watson from the get go, hitting him nonstop to the body and head, trying desperately to take him out.

However, Watson, 28, showed an excellent chin and took all the punishment that Guerrero could dish out, and even returned fire on rare occasions when Guerrero would leave himself open defensively. The final judges’ scores were 80-72, 80-72 and 80-71. Guerrero, a southpaw, came after Watson hard in the first round, following hi around and landing mostly one punch at a time to the body and head. He mixed up his punches well in the round, but seemed to lack power on his shots. To this, he seemed to try and compensate by throwing more punches in an effort to get Watson out of there. Watson, though, did a good job covering up, blocking many of the shots, and the ones that got through didn’t seem to bother him much because of Guerrero’s marginal power.

By David Lar: Undefeated welterweight prospect James De La Rosa (18-0, 12 KOs) won a hard-fought 10-round unanimous decision over Tim Coleman (14-1-1, 3 KOs) on Friday night at the Wicomico Civic Center, in Salisbury, Maryland. Although De la Rosa, 20, an outstanding amateur with over 100 amateur bouts, got the final judges’ decision by the scores of 96-94, 96-94 and 96-94, I personally had the fight a draw. In fact, I thought Coleman, 24, looked to be the better prospect and the one with the better overall potential than the 20 year-old De la Rosa, who was the one that was much more hyped coming into Friday night’s fight.

Coleman, reminding me of a smaller, younger, faster version of Steve Forbes with a lot of good skills, dominated the first three rounds of the bout. He tagged De La Rosa often with hard right hands, lefts to the body and thudding jabs to the head. He was much faster than De La Rosa, and much the better in terms of defense. De La Rosa, the taller fighter at 5’10” compared to the 5’7” Coleman, made it easy for Coleman by standing in close and trying to beat him at what he does best which is fighting on the inside.

By Jim Dower: It’s been four years since Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) last saw action in the ring, and on October 11th he’s going to try and accomplish what rarely has been done before by winning a title after years of inactivity, without one warm up match in between when he challenges WBC champion Samuel Peter in Germany. Klitschko, the older brother of IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, recently said, “I don’t need warm-up for fights.” However, that’s probably just a convenient excuse on his part to avoid a risky tune-up fight from which he would very likely end up hurting himself for the umpteenth time, and end up having to cancel the fight. Tune-up fights are important, no matter what he says.

Peter, probably the hardest puncher in all boxing at this time, is a one-man wrecking machine with explosive power in each fist, and who has more than enough strength to put down the aging Klitschko even with a glancing blow. Although Peter isn’t infallible, and has only passable boxing skills, his power makes him one of the best in the division, if not the best. He’s matured a lot since being defeated by Wladimir Klitschko in a 12-round decision loss in 2005, and has worked on his glaring weaknesses – his stamina, defense and lack of a jab.

By Sean McDaniel: Super featherweight Ricky Burns (24-2, 5 KOs) won an impressive 12-round unanimous decision over Osumanu Akaba (11-5, 8 KOs) on Friday night to win the vacant Commonwealth (British Empire) super featherweight title at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London. The final judges’ scores were 116-113, 117-112 and 116-112. With WBO super featherweight champion Nicky Coo watching the fight at ringside, Burns, 25, pounded out a tough decision over Akaba, 31, from Ghana. Using a three inch height and reach advantage, Burns jabbed the shorter Akaba from the outside and tagged him with precise combinations. Akaba fought wildly much of the time, rushing forward and throwing big haymakers and missing often.

Although Akaba kept the fight close with his aggressive attacks, he appeared to lose every round except for the second, fourth and sixth. Burns, who twice previously had been defeated (once by Carl Johannseson and another time by Alex Arthur) when challenging for a title, finally got the title he was looking for against Akaba.

By Nate Anderson: In a bit of sad news that will surely upset the boxing world, the talented former WBU middleweight champion Gary Lockett (30-2, 21 KOs) has announced his retirement. A devastating puncher who recently was stopped in three brutal rounds by WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in June, Lockett, only 31, said “the desire isn’t there anymore” in terms of his career. A very talented fighter, Lockett had wins over Ryan Rhodes, Lee Blundell and Yuri Tsarenko.

However, he seemed to undercut his career by ending it so suddenly. With knockout power in each fist, Lockett was one of the hardest punchers in the middleweight division. And although he waited until the end of his career to finally compete at the world stage, he gave a good account of himself in his fight with Pavlik, hitting the American fighter with some good shots before being taken out. With as much talent and power that Lockett possessed, he could have very easily have continued fighting for three to four more years and picked up a title or two in the UK, and very possibly a title in one of the weaker divisions like the super middleweight class if he chose to.