The Heavyweight’s have largely been dominated by The Klitschko’s through out the later part of this decade. I don’t see much change in that this year with Wladimir beating his WBO mandatory Eddie Chambers in March by eighth round stoppage then closing out the year fighting his IBF mandatory Alexander Povetkin who may have a few moment along the way before being stopped in the tenth. Big brother Vitali wont fight until the summer when he’ll take on either Odlanier Solis who’ll win an eliminator against Ray Austin or Tomasz Adamek if he gets past Jason Estrada in February & Chris Arreola in late April. Either way he wont lose. That will set the platform for Vitali to face David Haye who’ll force the stoppage against John Ruiz. After all the jostling for position Vitali will stop Haye who may give the big man trouble early with movement in the 5 with a big KO. Sam Peter to continue rebuilding on Top Rank shows and have a good year. The most noteworthy guy coming through is Russian Denis Boytsov. At just 23 boasting a pristine 26-0(21) he looks to have a bright future which could see him win the European title before the end of the year. The fast rising Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev could also have a good year. He’s fighting once a month at the moment but already beating decent guys with his next appearance due late in January against the vastly more experienced Oleg Platov.
With Tomasz Adamek abdicating his thrown as the top man at Cruiserweight the other will jostle for position. Steve Cunningham will regain his IBF crown when he turns back Matt Godfrey on points in the first quarter of the year. The Philadelphia product has never been the most active of guys and may only fight once more in that calendar year and that may be a road trip North to Canada to fight Troy Ross or even further a field to Europe. Marco Huck looks the future of the division at 25. He managed to win the WBO title in 09 look for him to defend it three times this year all at home one likely foe is Grigory Drozd. It’ll be interesting to see if Zsolt Erdei elects to stay at Cruiserweight i don’t think he will. Leaving Krzysztof Wlodarczyk to beat Herbie Hide for the vacant WBC title. Look for Wlodarczyk to defend at home in Poland before possibly having to go to Germany for a defence where Cuban Juan pablo Hernandez may be dangerous. Guillermo Jones finally got over the hump in 08 when he won won the WBA title after 3 previous shots at various world titles. However he hasn’t capitalised on that having not fought since September 08, time seems to be running out for Jones who turns 38 in May. He’ll either be stripped of at some point have to fight Alexander Alexeev. Either way Alexeev will win come good on his promise to win.
When Danny Green stopped Roy Jones a few weeks back he changed the landscape of the division dramatically. First off we we wont get to see Jones square off with long time rival Bernard Hopkins in a rematch that has been 16 years in the making. That means that Hopkins will have to find a new dance partner. One possible is Danny green who’d love the fight. If the money’s right it’ll happen, just don’t bank on Hopkins going the way of RJJ. Hopkins will be far more studious and out fox Green if it comes off. One fight that it wont set up is Hopkins against Chad Dawson who will instead have to sit out until June when Jean Pascal’s shoulder will hopefully of healed. Dawson will go to Canada and regain his old WBC title with a hard fought points win. With a lack of opportunity’s Dawson will then make a routine defence at home in Connecticut against Chris Henry. It looks as though there will be rematch in the first quarter between WBA kingpin Gabriel Campillo & Beibut Shumenov. This time Shumenov will prevail. Look for him to take his new title back to Kazahkstan and make a few lucrative defences. In 2008 Tavoris Cloud entered the ranks of a contender with a drubbing of former champion Julio Cesar Gonzalez then after a full year without a fight he fought for the vacant IBF crown when he outpointed Clintonm Woods. Since that fight in August he hasn’t fight and has nothing in the works. Hopefully he’ll get back to work and capitalise on being a champion with a couple of defence’s. One could be against Glen Johnson if he gets past Yusef Mack. Jurgen Braehmer became WBO champion when Zsolt Erdei moved upto Cruiserweight. It’s possible that Erdei could comeback to 175 and that fight would be pretty big in Germany. If it happens it’ll pit Braehmer’s power against Erdei’s clever boxing i’d look for Erdei to be a little to clever for Braehmer and take a points win. However if it doesn’t come off there isn’t to much in the WBO rankings to suggest Braehmer will lose. Just outside the world scene Nathan Cleverly of Wales is going the old fashioned way of British, Commonwealth and in January he’ll travel to Italy where he’ll look to add the European title. If all goes according to plan he’ll stay at theat level turning back a few challengers whilst maturing ready for the world stage.
Future fights for many of the top guys at 168 are largely mapped out for 2010 thanks to the Super 6. Which goes into stage two and kicks off when Andre Dirrell will host Arthur Abraham in California in March. It figures to be an interesting fight with Dirrell’s speed putting him and early lead before Abraham comes tearing back even rocking Direll late though Dirrell will hold and get the victory. Then on 17 April Mikkel Kessler will outpoint Carl Froch in Denmark and Andre Ward will score a tenth round stoppage over Jermain Taylor. Also possibly on the same date arguably the best 168er in the world Lucian Bute will fight though across the airwaves on HBO. It was rumoured that possible foes would be WBO Kingpin Robert Stieglitz in a unification or possibly Edison Miranda who was due to meet Stieglitz until he fell ill. Either way it wont matter to Bute who’ll score another impressive stoppage. It has also been rumoured that Sakio Bika may face Allen Green in an elimination fight to decide who would go into the Super 6 if someone pulled out. I look for Green to out box the rugged Bika and campaign for his shot at a place in the Super 6. The final phase of the super Six will take place before the end of the year. It will see Ward face countryman Dirrell in what could be a modern day Jones-Hopkins. With Ward eking out a close chess match. Froch to fight Abraham both coming off loses it’ll be close early. Froch using his speed advantage while Abraham will pick his moments ultimately late on Abraham will enjoy the more success and win a close points decision. Taylor will decide to sit out the final round with Allen Green stepping in to face Kessler. Green will have his moments but Kessler will prevail by unanimous decision. The best two up and comers are Olympic gold medallist James Degale and his compatriot George Groves. Both did well in 09 and will do even better in this year.
