The ABAs and who looked good....

[calzaghefella]

I don't know how many of you lads watched the ABA finals on Setanta this year but I thought there were some really good looking prospects.

At Featherweight we had the pick of the bunch in my view in the winner Ian Weaver.

Ian Weaver looks like a pure quality boxer, nice jab which he even slipped some hooks off, some sharp counters and he controlled the distance and slipped shots well and has very good ring craft for a young lad. Despite being a bit upright at times this lad also throws some mean body shots. A true podium quality boxer and maybe one for 2012.

At middleweight Hosea Burton looked terrific as well. A confident looking tall kid with terrific hand speed that will give lots of fighters fits. What was especially nice to see was fast long straight punches and putting a mean straight cross right off the back of long straight jab.....This kid is great at distance but in the final against a good tough pressure fighter in Kirk Garvey we also got to see that he was good under pressure, seemed to think his way throught rh fight and not just react and he could also trade when forced to.....again another cracking prospect from Jimmy Egans Gym.

At light heavyweight we had a fantasticly controlled performace from
Obed Mbwakongo. This is a very awkward customer with an unorthodox defence and fighting style. He carries his lead low in order to try and draw his opponent onto a cross. He is a speedster switch hitter with good quick feet and fast hands. The guy was like a big awkward super fast Chris Eubank Haha very complex weird character that came across in both the fight and the post interview. This was his second ABA title and he strolled it. His opponent had very slow feet and just couldn't get any shots off, but some of the credit for this has to belong to to Obed's control over the distance and the threat of counters he was clearly threatening with. This kid has a chance for 2012 also.....the only concern is maybe over confidence and and getting caught with something with his gloves moving all over the place and not covering up. A lot of people thought this fight was dull and it was, but it was one of the most controlled performaces of the night.

Two lads at Cruiserweight gave us a good fight, maybe the best of the night.

Wayne Adeniyi from Ellesmere Port came into the ring looking like a mini Mike Tyson and he was certainly a very game powerful pressure fighter and he through an overhand bowling overhand right that was pretty frightening. His opponent from Banbury Robert Evans was tall and athletic but looked a little lacksidasical in the first round and looked to try and use his height and reach advantage to maintain distance and control via the jab which he did, despite nearly being taken out by a few wild overhand rights.. The first round impression was that the Evans wasn't going to keep the distance and control over 3 3s and that the Ellesmere port lad might start getting to him. To his credit the Banbury fighter offered some nice right hand counters and boxed his way into a decent lead and despite being deducted points that levelled the contest, he came into his own when the two fighters exchanged shots and had a tear up at the end of round 3.

This Robert Evans can box and trade then and he looks a decent lad who might end up a decent fighter..

Loads of other good fighters but my pick of the bunch from this years ABAs in order would be;

Ian Weaver
Hosea Burton
Obed Mbwakongo
Robert Evans