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Headlines -  Eddie Chambers in a title eliminator in Germany July 4th! ESPN coming to the Arena on July 10th! Steve "USS" Cunningham in IBF title eliminator July 11th! Kaseem Wilson gets a big fight in Newark! Ken Hissner asks "is it time for a boxing czar?"

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Eddie Chambers preparing for WBO Heavyweight title eliminator fight for July 4th in Germany!                       photo by Brady Dillsworth   Top rated Philly Heavyweight contender “Fast” Eddie Chambers (34-1, 18 KOs) has taken his training to the Fernwood, Pocono's in preparation for his fight against the WBO #1 ranked heavyweight Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0, 19 KOs) on July 4th in Germany. Chambers, riding a 5 fight winning streak, most recently beating the world rated Sam Peter. This time, he is looking to erase the memories of his only loss, which also came in Germany in a subpar effort against Alexander Povetkin. The winner of this fight will be the mandatory challenger to Ring Magazine champion Wladimir Klitschko. The fight headlines a “Universum Champions Night” card at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg. More info to come soon. Until then, read Rick Sharmberg's from FightNews piece on Fast Eddie Talk about it on the forum http://phillykeith.com/fightforum/index.php?topic=815.0      Big changes for July 10th, ESPN now coming to The Arena! In a sudden turn of events, ESPN2 Friday Night Fights will come to The Arena Philly on July 10th  as big name promoters (Burchfield & DiBella) had contracts to two important fights and a locked TV date but were in need of a place to call home. After considering options in remote places like West Virginia, the show was rightfully brought to the best fight town on earth, Philadelphia! The card is being piggybacked  by an upstart boxing outfit called Shalite Promotions who are putting on their first ever fight card. The newcomers are off to a good start and this is one of those situations where everyone wins. Now, the fans can see 11 fights with the TV portion featuring twp very fights that are extremely important to each contestant. The main event is a 12 rounder with Connecticut's Matt Godfrey defending his NABF Cruiserweight championship against the undefeated Shawn Hawk. The co-feature will be a Light Heavyweight match between surging Shaun George and established Chris Henry in a scheduled ten round affair. Though none of these guys have any local connections, both main event and co-feature are evenly matched which should make for a good contest. The fight this page cares about is the one between North East Philly undefeated Lt. Heavyweight Tony "Boom Boom" Ferrante (7-0, 4ko's) challenging California's Billy Bailey (8-3, 3ko's) for the WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight title on July 10th. ESPN should make this the swing bout because it is a good fight although both are relatively unknown on a national level. Ferrante has the hometown following and climbed the ladder in these parts, slowly but surly improving his game. After some early career decision wins, Boom Boom has knocked out his last 3 opponents. On the other hand Bailey was thought to be easy pickings when he first came to this town earlier this year as the last second B side replacement in a fight with this minor title at a stake. Like a Fishtown burglar, he took the hardware in less than 5 minutes and got out of dodge fast, leaving many to believe he would never been seen or heard from again in this area. Now he is back to the scene of the crime, will this be a fatal mistake or will be able to escape with Ferrante's most prized possession, his 0! Local Jr. Middleweight Derek Ennis (17-2-1, 12ko's) has also been added to the card. He will take on John Mackey (11-3-2, 5ko's) of Albama who is said to be a pretty decent fighter. Ennis has had a few bumps in the road but remains on the cusp of an important fight in a solid but unsettled division. Mackey has never been kayo'ed in his losses and has gotten jobbed by the judges a few times fighting in someone else's hometown. Returning Super Featherweight Isaac Suarez has just been added to the card though no opponent has been found as of press time. Expect a tune up type fight as there are hot rumors of a Suarez - Anthony Flores fight signed for the Spectrum September 24th. Jackie Davis, 1-0 (1ko), a protégé of "Mighty" Ivan Robinson will take on Rachel Clark (2-1, 2 KO’s) of Colombia, South Carolina in a four round ladies only Welterweight bout. The very Popular Olivia Fonseca (2-2-2, 1 KO) of Philadelphia returns after a ten month hiatus when she takes on the capable Lisa Bolin (2-2, 2 KO’s) of South Carolina in a four round Welterweight bout. Middleweight Derrick Webster (1-0) of Glassboro, New Jersey looks to follow up on a good debut when he takes on Roger Locklear (1-2) of South Carolina in a four round bout. In a battle of pro debuting Heavyweight, Kareem Harrison of Philadelphia takes on Winston Thorpe of North Carolina. Also making his pro debut will be Angel Ocassio in a four round Lightweight bout. Talk about it on the forum here http://phillykeith.com/fightforum/index.php?topic=840.msg6106#new USS Cunningham eyes rematch with Adamek, must beat Braithwaite on July 11th to get it! For half a year now, former IBF Cruiserweight champion Steve "USS" Cunningham's boxing career has boiled down to just one word.....REMATCH!!!! The fans want it, he wants it, his team wants it. It has been well documented that Cunningham lost his belt by split decision in a thriller against Tomas Adamek back in December. Since that controversial night in December when USS hit the deck three times but rose to his feet and seemingly out boxed his opponent every other round, he has been calling for a chance to avenge this loss. Adamek's camp high-tailed it out of Newark that night and have been deflecting all talk of another date with USS ever since, instead taking matches against much easier opponents. While the sanctioning bodies have no ordered a rematch, they have given the Southwest Philly native and former naval officer the opportunity to get his rematch the old fashioned way, by winning an eliminator bout against another highly rated contender. So to get his gloves on the Polish sensation, Cunningham (21-2, 11ko's) must first get past Wayne "Big Truck" Braitwaite (23-3, 19ko's) on July 11th in Sunrise, Florida for a scheduled 12 rounder to determine who will officially become the IBF's #1 contender and mandatory challenger. This assignment is no easy one by any means as the 6 foot tall Ghana man has gone deep rounds with some of the divisions best, though never mustering up enough offense to come home with a W. Like the old saying goes "you can run but you can't hide". If USS gets the win here like I think he will, Adamek will have lock horns with Cunningham or forfeit his belt. Let's hope these two follow up their initial fight which got strong 2008 Fight of the Year consideration. Time will tell but first we must stay focused on the topic at hand. Cunningham will have to overcome ring rust as he hasn't fought since that night in Newark. To formulate the proper game plan, word on the street is that Team USS has hired the very highly regarded Naazim Richardson to serve as his trainer. Unfortunately, the big-wigs at Showtime will not air this fight on TV even thought it is on the undercard of a televised show. If any sort of internet stream becomes available, I will let you know. Talk about it here on the forum http://phillykeith.com/fightforum/index.php?topic=706.0   Kaseem Wilson inks a big fight for July 11th in Newark, Mike Jones vs. Larry Mosley set for August 8th @ Bally's! Rewind back to October 18, 2006.... On the corner of 25th & Brown in the Fairmount section of the city, it was announced that  Hall of Fame promoter J. Russell Peltz made a move to replenish his aging stock of fighters. On this day he agreed to promotional deals with five area boxers, all but one had less than fifteen pro fights under their belt. Each fighter inked that day were serviceable but it was crystal clear that the crown jewels of this batch were a shifty 20 year old southpaw named Kaseem Wilson who was a former state amateur champion and  a lanky 23 year old welterweight Mike Jones who was not a great amateur but captivated fans imaginations early in his pro career due to his exciting knockout power. Both young men's record stood somewhere around 5-0 at the time. Out of the two, most boxing insiders dubbed Wilson as the one who would be the better pro. Three years later, there is one one loss between the two but both careers are football fields apart. Anyone who knows anything about the recent state of Philly boxing knows that Jones (17-0, 15ko's) has become the clear cut #1 active prospect in this city with his foot on the door step of being a certified contender in a deep Welterweight division. Wilson sports a very good record himself at 12 -1 but that one loss was the result of an awful outing in 2007 "step-up" fight which led Wilson going on a year hiatus, in turn causing many to jump off the bandwagon. The man who goes by the ring name of "The Nightmare" quietly returned to the ring in December of '08 and has reeled off three consecutive wins, most recently an uncharacteristic one round starching of 21 win veteran Louis Lejia of Texas. The wins are adding up but the stink of his loss is still lingering in some peoples noses. But like the wise boxing man once said, "a fighter can learn more from one bad loss than they can from 10 easy wins". On July 11th, Kaseem Wilson puts that statement to the test and show what he is all about when he challenges the highly regarded Henry Crawford (21-0, 11ko's) in Crawford's backyard of Newark, NJ. It's a must win for both Welterweights as Crawford is fighting for a world rating while Wilson has an opportunity to show that he is for real. Russell Peltz went on the record to say "This is a spot for Kaseem to step up to the plate and make some noise. He knows I'm his biggest critic but that's only because I want him to fight up to his potential. When he and Mike Jones turned pro in 2005, gym guys told me Kaseem was the better prospect. Things did not turn out that way but Kaseem is still young. He was getting by early on talent without putting in the time and his out-of-the-gym lifestyle left a lot to be desired. His performance against Russell Jordan was a disappointment--not that he lost but the way he lost. He's says he's changed. Crawford is not the biggest puncher in the world and I don't really care that the fight is in Newark, NJ. Good fighters don't let those things bother them. When the house lights go down and the ring lights go up and the ref says "seconds out" it will be simply Kaseem Wilson against Henry Crawford in that space. Wilson has the talent to win the win--now let's see if he has the grit and the drive and the mental strength to get the job done." It's definitely an interesting fight, stay tuned for more info on this one. As for Jones, his continuously postponed match-up against Larry Mosley (15-3-2, 6ko's) of LA has found a new date, August 8th at Bally's casino in Atlantic City. This marks the third try to get this rumble on as Mosley has to pull out once due to a back injury and Jones had to pull in the latest try with a bicep injury. If it does go off as planned, Jones will look to improve his rank in three major sanctioning bodies and win over a new audience. This will mark Jones second defense of the NABA Welterweight title that he won in Philly back in November of 08. In his first defense, Jones blitzkrieg'd Columbia's Dario Esalas who lasted a mere 2 rounds at The Blue Horizon. Larry Mosley is well rounded fighter with a resume of good competition over this years but hasn't never been able to get over the hump as a pro. More info to come on this as well. For tickets to either event call 215-765-0922   Ken Hissner makes a case for Dave Tiberi to be boxing czar Philly boxing fossil Ken Hissner is fed up, and in this piece he asks the question “Is the time right for a boxing Czar to be appointed?” and then states a case for Delaware native Dave Tiberi to be the man in charge if it is. In Hissner's 40 some odd years on the circuit, he feels that boxing is headed down the toilet and falling far behind in the fight for fans with the MMA. There are many sides to this argument and I can't say that Philly Keith Sports agrees with all of the views you are about to read. But this is America and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Click here to read Hissner's side of the story for why the time might be right to appoint a boxing "Czar" and why Dave Tiberi is the right man for the job.... Miguel Cartagena strikes again in Denver!   "Miguel did it again" says Javier Varella, head of the Philly Rumblers Boxing Club when he called to inform me that 16 year old amateur Miguel Cartagena won the USA Boxing nationals at 106 lbs with a 7-5 win over Hawaii's Garen Rabellizsa. This marks the second national tournament that North Philly's Cartagena has won in the past month. He took the national Golden Gloves in May with an impressive showing in Salt Lake City Utah. There is no stopping now because The Philly Rumblers are headed to Milan Italy to capture a world championship at the end of the summer. Congrats to the Cartagena's, trainer Varella and the entire Philly Rumbler BC team down at B & Allegheny on putting together one of the most impressive amateur runs in recent memory. Bernard Fernandez also gives Miguel a shout in the 6/18 issues of the Daily News http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/boxing/20090615_Philly_s_Cartagena_wins_national_title.html

Two New Philly Top 10 Pound for Pound Lists! National fighters on the big stage & up and comers with less than 21 fights! It has been a while since I put together a Philly top 10 list and in that time it is still pretty obvious who is #1 in the town, that would be B-Hop. But in the past year there has been a lot of activity amongst the rank and file who made moves to get to the top. Some succeeded, some failed, some have rebounded and others are on their way. This time around I give you two lists. First is a national Philly top 10 pound for pound which gives my ranking to those from this area who are either champions, within title contention or TV fighters. These guys are all over the world and are known industry names. The next list is themed "21 & Under" ranking the Philly pros with 21 pro fights or less. These fights can take place anywhere in the world. This list tracks the activity of the young pros who seem to be on their way to making big moves in the boxing circuit within the next few years. These rankings are based on pro performance and potential, not solely on amateur career. This was done as a replacement for the local top 10 list that ranked boxers competing within city limits. There was just not enough activity to compile one. Take a look and feel free to send any feedback to me via email. http://phillykeith.com/nationaltop10April09.htm     Talk about it on the forum here http://phillykeith.com/fightforum/index.php?topic=729.0

Kevin Burke has put together a running spreadsheet of Philly Fighters. This list is updated weekly and is used for tracking progress, activity and rankings of local fighters. All rankings reflect what is posted on BoxRec.

Updated 6/24/09

Click here to read the entire list, ranking all fighters from every division