Friday world title night

By Peter Wells (@boxingsaddler):



On Friday night world titles will be on the line, from Australia to Japan and to the USA to kick off an insane weekend of boxing.

First up in Australia is the rarely challenged Chris John 48-0-3(22) of Indonesia as he defends his WBA 'Super' and IBO Featherweight titles. Coming off the back of a 3rd round technical draw with Satoshi Hosono, his only contest in 2013 he defends for the 18th time against Simpiwe Vetyeka 25-2(15).

During those 18 defences John has faced Juan Manuel Marquez (W UD 12), Daud Cino Yordan (W UD 12) and Rocky Juarez twice (D 12 & W UD 12). These are the most recognisable names on his resume, but the fact that he has remained unbeaten, only drawing once after 12 rounds - the other two draws were technical draws after 3 & 4 rounds respectively - is extremely impressive, but at 34 years old there is an increased likelihood that he could age over night.

Vetyeka impressed last time out when he stopped Yordan in the 12th round, but his only other contest at the same level came when he lost to Hozumi Hasegawa (L UD 12), albeit there were only 4 and 3 points in that contest.

Vetyeka is a live underdog so long as he doesn't perform in the same manner as he did in his only other defeat to Klaas Mboyane (L SD 8). With Spadafora losing his long unbeaten record - it was 48-0-1, eerily similar to John's - last week it is a reminder to John just how hard it is to remain unbeaten in this sport, especially when fighting at a high level for so long. Still the pick is for John to sneak home with a close decision victory in his toughest fights in recent years.

On the undercard Daud Cino Yordan 31-3(23) will have to produce a top performance to see of Sipho Taliwe 21-3-1(14) to take a victory on points.

In Japan Akira Yaegashi 18-3(9) will have a tough time holding onto his WBC Flyweight title when he faces Edgar Sosa 49-7(29).



Can Sosa(left vs Solis) end a fabulous year on a high

It will be Yaegashi's second defence after stunning Toshiyuki Igarashi in April after moving up from Minimumweight. At the lighter weight class he lost a world title shot in his 7th professional outing, Eagle Den Junlaphan (L UD 12), suffered another setback before building his way back up to a 2nd title shot. This time he won against WBA 'Regular' champion Pornsawan Porpramook (W TKO 10) before losing his title next time out in a unification fight with WBC kingpin Kazuto Ioka (L UD 12).

His challenger Sosa has a rather deceiving record, with 5 of those 7 defeats coming in his first 17 fights and two of those came at the hands of former IBF Light Flyweight champion Ulises Solis (L SD 8 & L MD 12). Then since 2007 he has recorded wins over Brian Viloria (MD 12), Sonny Boy Jaro (UD 12), Pornsawan Porpramook (TKO 4), Ulises Solis (KO 2) and Giovanni Segura (UD 12).

Those final two both came this year and a win against Yaegashi would cap off a very impressive 2013. With his recent form I expect Sosa to do just that, pushing Yaegashi onto the back foot throughout and outworking the home fighter before receiving a wide unanimous decision win.

To cap off a night of world title action, we head to America where Polish WBC Cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk 48-2-1(34) makes his 6th defence when he faces an old rival, Italian veteran Giacobbe Fragomeni 31-3-2(12).

Wlodarczyk's only world title defeat came at the hands of Steve Cunningham (L MD 12) who he had beaten in the fight prior (W SD 12). Wlodarczyk then collided with Fragomeni for the first time in 2009 when the Pole dropped the former WBC champion in the 9th round before the fight was scored a draw. A rematch was set up a year later and this time Wlodarczyk didn't let the Italian off the hook, stopping him in the 8th round. Since then he has routinely worked his way past challengers Jason Robinson (W UD 12), Francisco Palacios (W SD 12 & W UD 12), Danny Green (W TKO 11) and Rakhim Chakhkiev (W TKO 8). His last defence against Chakhkiev saw four knockdowns, three suffered by the challenger.


3rd time unlucky: Fragomeni(left) has a tall order against Wlodarczyk(right)

The 44 year old Fragomeni has done little since that defeat to merit this title shot, but gets it thanks to a draw and a win over Silvio Branco where he picked up the WBC 'Silver' Cruiserweight title.

Fragomeni who also has defeats against Zsolt Erdei (L MD 12) and David Haye (L TKO 9) will likely be stopped again here as fans will hope Wlodarczyk moves on to IBF Cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez or WBO king Marco Huck next year.