On November 27 th , Nedal ?Skinny? Hussein will challenge Oscar Larios for the WBC Super Bantamweight Title, on the undercard to the Barrera vs Morales show at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas Nevada
The 26 year old Hussein, who is trained by Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech, brings a record of 35-1 to the fight with 21 KOs and is unbeaten in the last four years. In fact the only loss of his career has been to explosive Filipino Manny ?Pac Man? Pacquiao in October 2000, a fight in which Hussein managed to drop Pacquiao early before losing on a cuts stoppage in the 10 th
On paper this is an impressive record, but since the Pacquiao fight Hussein has fought opposition of limited quality, a consequence of the lack of boxers in the lighter divisions in Australia and the difficulty of tempting better credentialed opponents to our shores. In the last four years, Hussein’s most impressive win has probably been a unanimous points decision over 10 rounds against current Australian Featherweight Champion Jackson Asiku in October 2002.
So Larios represents a significant step up in class for Hussein. The 27 year old Mexican champion is 53-3-1 and will be making the 5 th defence of the title he won by knocking out Willie Jorin in November 2002. To make the challenge even tougher for Hussein, he has spent the last three years campaigning at Featherweight and will be attempting to fight at 122lbs for the first time in his last 14 fights.
Also on November 27 th , busy featherweight Garry St Clair (35-3-2) will himself face Manny Pacquiao in Manila in the Pac Man’s first fight since his thrilling draw with Juan Manuel Marquez last May. Again this represents a big step up in quality for the 29 year old Guyanese born fighter who last Friday (10/1) made a successful defence of his WBO Intercontinental Featherweight strap with a comfortable win over Ghanaian Theophilius Quaye.
It’s a brave step for St Clair’s management to take; the enormous jump in quality between fighting Quaye or any of the other 5 opponents St Clair has seen off this year, and a fighter with the destructive power of Pacquiao is hard to over emphasize. Never the less it could be an interesting fight. St Clair is a very slick boxer with lightning fast hands and great ring craft; very rarely does he get caught. His aggression and punching power also seem to have improved since relocating to Perth and joining the stable of up and coming Perth trainer Craig Christian.
He will need all of this and more if he is to trouble Pacquiao but it’s a fight St Clair needs to win, or at least to heavily impress, if he is to be a presence at a global level.
The third fighter to step up to the plate will be IBF #10 Light Heavyweight Jason De Lisle ( 15-2-2 ). De Lisle will travel to England to take on IBF#6 Clinton Woods (35-3-1) on October 24 th in an eliminator for the IBF #2 position. This will be the first time De Lisle has fought outside Australia and should he be able to overcome Woods he’ll be set for a fight against the well credentialed IBF#1 Rico Hoye, or perhaps even champion Glen Johnson. But getting past the tough Woods on his home turf will be no easy task; Woods has the motivation of a fourth and at age 32, probably last, shot at a world championship belt having registered loses to Roy Jones Jr and Glen Johnson and a draw with Johnson in his previous three attempts.
Woods’ camp probably see De Lisle as a relatively simple hurdle to overcome in their quest for another title, but De Lisle has shown plenty of improvement in his last few fights since being knocked out by Super Middleweight contender Danny Green in June last year. And at 32 he also needs to make a move now if he is to make the transformation from fighting on the local to fighting on the global stage.
