First Division from USA 

#Joe Mesi (19-0) - The pride of Buffalo took a big step up the ladder with the win over the Cuban Jorge Gonzalez.  Mesi is a small, mobile heavyweight with rather fast hands and decent power. Mesi also got a lot of experience from the amateurs (a win over world champ Hasim Rahman for example). His chin and defence hasn’t really been tested yet but I guess the next opponent Razor Ruddock can do that for us. If Mesi can take a big punch he’s definitely a man for the future.

#Gerald Nobles (20-0) - 30 years old and don’t look so well trained, but I think he’s got some fast hands, good reflexes and good power. Nobles has been a “semi-prospect” for a couple of years and I think he has improved his boxing skills over the years too. When he first made some noise he was a wild banger, but in his latest fights he actually showed some technical skills. He outboxed Sedrick Fields in his last fight for example. Nobles hasn’t been tested yet and why not put him in against someone like Jameel McCline to see what both of them are made of.

#Jameel McCline (23-2-3) - The 30-year-old New York boxer looked very impressive in his last KO-win over King Ipitan. He hasn’t looked so good in some of his previous fights. He struggled and drew with Ron Guerrero and Sherman Williams for example. But McCline is a big guy who’s quite mobile and got a big punch and he seems to improve with every fight, so maybe he could surprise us in the future.

#Faruq Saleem (23-0) - Saleem is a huge heavyweight who usually fights on the same cards as Vaughn Bean. And it seems that they fight the same kind of opposition too. The toughest tests so far has been two 10-rounders against Mo Wilson and Abdul Muhaymin. 

#China Smith (20-0) - China is a 22-year-old, fast and powerful heavy from Florida. He’s been dropped a couple of times and very carefully matched, so I guess his chin must be questioned and it also sounds like his team knows Chinas weakness. But he fought a tough 12-rounder against Derrell Dixon in his latest fight.
 

First Division from Europe

#Danny Williams (22-1) - It seems that that he’s a much hotter prospect now since the more flamboyant Pele Reid disappeared as a prospect. And Williams is also one of those boxers who according to the rumours are much better in the gym than he has showed in a real fight so IF it’s true, he hasn’t showed us all his potential yet I guess. Rumoured to fight boxers like Ray Mercer and Kali Meehan in the future. But I guess that he first want to fight the only man who beat him- Julius Francis.

#Luan Krasniqi (17-0) - Krasniqi is probably the best German at the moment. His style reminds me a little bit of Zeljko Mavrovic. A boxer with good allround skills, but without something spectacular in any department. 

#Georgi Kandelaki (17-0) - The former amateur world champ hasn’t looked spectacular as a pro, but he’s undefeated, so I guess it’s to early to count him out. A fight against Krasniqi would be interesting.

#Sergei Lyakhovich (14-0) - Lyakhovich is 24 years old and from Belarus. A Don King-fighter who beaten Sedrick Fields in his latest fight. Was a good amateur and it sounds that he has developed into a rather decent pro. Perhaps the most promising fighter from the “eastern bloc” behind the Klitschkos.

#Attila Levin (19-1) - The 24-year-old Swede has all the right tools. He’s got fast hands, great power and good mobility. But he´s lack of the most important thing- ...a tough chin. I hope my countryman can go far anyway.
 

First Division from the Rest of the World

#Friday Ahunanya (15-0) - This 29-year-old Nigerian/Kenyan (different sources says different things) has come a little bit from behind. Ahunanya has been a regular on Don King-undercards the last year but it was first in his last fight he brought some attention to his name. I think Mr. King saw Ahunanyas opponent Nate Jones as the one with the future, but Ahunanya surprised him and the rest of us by taken the decision over the former Olympian. The question is if he can go so much further in the division. He didn’t look spectacular against Jones, but the win may have given him the self confidence to challenge the top 20 in the division. Time will tell.

#Kali Meehan (22-0) - Meehan has beaten all of the top10-fighters home in Australia. Rumours says that he’s not so far away from a fight with Danny Williams and such a fight will tell us more about his qualities. So far, all good for Meehan but nobody has given him the big test. 
 

The Second Division from USA

#Eric Kirkland (11-0)- Kirkland was criticized for his “bad” performance against journeyman Willie Chapman in his latest fight, but it was at least a good experience for him to box 8 rounds and KO the opponent in round 8 as he hasn’t fought more than 4 rounds before. Kirklands hasn’t got an amateur career to talk about. Despite his lack of experience Kirkland already got some good wins on his record. The first round knockout over Charles Hatcher must be considered as the best win so far. The thing I like about Kirkland is his willingness to fight boxers at the same stage of their career as himself. He beaten Nick Nurse in his debut. Nurse was (1-0) at the time and had a decent amateur career behind him. In his second fight Kirkland outboxed Shafi Abdulmumin who also was (1-0) at the time and like Nurse got a decent amateur career behind him. In his fourth fight he beat Damon Saulbury who also was a good amateur (with a win over Lamon Brewster for example). Another notable win was over Tony Thompson (another good amateur), who himself had a couple of good wins after the loss to Kirkland. Kirkland has showed fast hands, quick feet and a rather tricky style in his previous fights. So even if he didn’t look good against Chapman, the 23-year-old New Yorker is someone I at least will follow with curiosity in the future. He’s scheduled to fight Adolpho Washington in June. I guess that that fight will tell us more about the qualities of Kirkland and I hope that Lou Duva knows what he’s doing. Kirkland is still very green and got a lot to learn before he’s ready for the top of the division. Washington might give the inexperienced Erik “Stone Kold” Kirkland a lesson the hard way. We have already seen two undefeated fighters without experience as amateurs (Cliff Etienne and Albert Sosnowski) being stopped by boxers who knows the basics.

#Ray Austin (15-2) - Austin is also a fighter without any big amateur experiece, but he has improved a lot as a pro. He lost his first profight against Charles Hatcher and I guess that nobody thought that the big fat Austin was going to be a man for the future then, but since then he has moved down in weight and improved his speed and power a lot. 1999 was a really good year for Austin with two good KO-wins over Cisse Salif and Ron Guerrero as peaks. It seemed that he took the year 2000 off a little. He beat some “opponents” and he finished the year with a loss for the first time since his debut against the tough journeyman Harold Sconiers. Austin dropped Sconiers a couple of times but run out of ideas when Sconiers came back every time. I guess that Austin wouldn’t have been so frustrated if he had seen Sconiers fight with Ruddock before he stepped in with the iron chinned Sconiers. But Austin came back with a good win over Falamoe a couple of weeks ago. I really like what I’ve seen of him so far. He’s big, mobile and powerful. But without any amateur experience and already 30 years old, he doesn’t have so much time on his side. 

#Kelvin Davis (14-0) - Davis is a 22-year-old boxer who must be one of the shortest heavyweights around (5.8). But he’s very fast and powerful, so the comparison to a young Tyson doesn’t sound completely out of order. Davis is not tested yet but Davis has the tools to prove that size isn’t everything. Maybe a “Sam Langford” for the future.

#Derek Bryant (10-0) - Bryant from Philadelphia has been rather inactive lately, but he looked really good when he KOd Kelvin Hale a couple of years ago. Derek Bryant stopped Nick Nurse in September in his latest fight.

#Cedric Boswell (17-0) - Boswell is another fighter who has been inactive lately. He looked very promising a couple of years ago when he was compared to Evander Holyfield in style. I hope that he will came back and continue where he left.

#Willie Palms (8-0) - Palms is 28 years old and he seems to be better with every fight. He stopped the tough Stacy Frazier in his latest fight. Notable wins before that was over the huge Andre Kopilov and decent Damon Saulbury. 

#Dominick Guinn (9-0) - Guinn is a 25-year-old Main Event-boxer with a lot of amateur experience on top level. He hasn’t been tested as a pro so far. The biggest wins must be considered the wins over the respected journeymen A.J Moore and James Lester. He stopped Lester in the first round. Dominick Guinn is a fast boxer with a really good jab and absolutely someone to follow in the future. 
 

The Second Division from Europe

#Sinan Samil Sam (8-0) - The 26-year-old Sam is the former amateur World champ from Turkey and he belongs to the same stable as the Klitschko brothers in Germany (Universum). He stopped durable Brad Rone a couple of fights ago and also got a win over “spoiler” Willie Chapman on his record. Sam hasn’t really been tested but I think he’s now ready for a fight with someone like Willie Fischer or Rene Monse. Samil Sam could be a boxer for the future. 

#Balu Sauer (11-0) - Like Samil Sam is Sauer fighting for Universum. He’s 23 years old, from Russia and without any big amateur experience. But Sauer is improving all the time, so even if Universum got bigger hopes for Samil Sam it could be worth it to keep an eye on Sauer in the future.
 

The Second Division from the Rest of the World

#Owen Beck (8-0) - Owen Beck has some good win as an underdog on his record. First he went to Don Kingland and beat the home favorite Derrell Dixon and then he went to Cedric Kushner and beat the CK-heavyweight Taurus Sykes. In his latest fight he stopped the dangerous (ask Attila Levin) Ramon Hayes. Beck has good boxing skills and a decent amateur career behind him. Besides that, you must like a Jamaican heavyweight with the nickname "What the heck". For Lee Perrys sake I hope that “What the heck” is making some success in the division.

#Arthur Cook (6-1-1) - Arthur Cook is the Canadian who beat Sosnowski a month ago. Cook surprised Sosnowski then, but Sosnowski wouldn’t been so surprised if he had looked at Cooks amateur record. Maybe a man for the future as he’s still very young.

#David Defiagbon (14-0) - Defiagbon won a silver medal for Canada in Atlanta 96, only losing to Felix Savon in the final. But the procareer has progressed rather slow for this cautious Canadian. He’s a good “boxer”, but may have a lack of the killer instinct.

#Duncan Dokiwari (15-1) - This Nigerians only loss came to Oquendo more than two years ago. He won a couple of fights after that but have now been inactive for a while. Dokiwari is a big powerful boxer, so I hope that we haven’t seen the last of him as a boxer. 

#J-F Bergeron (9-0) - Bergeron is a Canadian boxer with a good amateur background. He hasnt done anything special as a pro yet, but he seems to be a rather complete boxer.
 

The Third Division from USA

#Malik Scott (3-0) - Scott was a succesful amateur and got a good win over Maurice Wheeler in his last profight. He’s only 20 years old and looks very mature for a boxer at his age, so he has all the time in the world to develop into a succesful pro. 

#Calvin Brock (4-0) - Brock was the American superheavy in Sydney. Didnt succeed then, lets see if he has better luck as a pro. One notable win so far was over unbeaten Mexican heavyweight Benjamin Garcia. Garcia was a decent amateur back in Mexico. Brock also stopped Jeff Ford. Ford was the first man to expose Tye Fields with a first round knockout. So we shall maybe forget Brocks performance in Sydney and concentrate on what he can do in the pro ring instead.

#Michael Bennett (3-0) - He lost to Savon in Sydney, but has looked great as a pro so far. Maybe he’s the one of the heavy American Olympians to follow. Notable first round knockouts over not so bad Andrew Hutchinson and Billy Zumbrun so far.

#Kevin Montiy (5-0) - The 25-year-old Montiy is the only man who has beaten Arthur Cook as a pro. Montiy had a good amateur career behind him and is described as a fast mobile boxer with good power. All sounds good so far, but he’s still fighting 4-rounders so it’s to early to predict how far he can go in the division.

#T J Wilson (3-0) - Wilson was a successful amateur who just missed the boat to Sydney. Wilson is described as a big guy, with a big punch.

#Adam Richards (2-0) - Promoted by America who has big hopes for this 20 years old, hard punching fighter who is already compared to Tyson. Was a good amateur too.
 

The Third Division from Europe

#Paolo Vidoz (3-0) - The Italian heavy in Sydney. He lost to Audley Harrison then, but I got a feeling that his style is going to make some success in the pro ring. Vidoz is rather cagey and he’s also a very good bodypuncher. 

#Cengiz Koc (4-0) - Koc was brutally knocked out by the Cuban Rubalcaba in Sydney, but he seems to be recovered from that now. His style is not so far away from David Tuas. But if he wants to copy Tua success he must have the chin and power of Tua, which I doubt. 

#Audley Harrison (0-0)
Maybe the most promising of them all, hasn’t turned pro yet. Cause this 29-year-old Brit has got all the right tools. His combination of size, mobility, handspeed and power is a rarity in the heaviest of divisions. Lets see if he got the stamina and chin for the pros.
 

The Third Division from the Rest of the World.

#Javier Mora (7-0-1) - A 19-year-old Mexican who has been fighting as an amateur in USA. I have read some really good things about him. He´s described as very fast handed and powerful.

#Alexis Mejias (3-0) - Mejias is a 22-year-old Duva heavyweight from Puerto Rico who wants to see himself as a clever boxer more than a huge puncher. He’s young and got a good corner and as it seems like a good year for Puerto Rican-heavies, might Alexis Mejias be one to follow.

#Roger Izonrite (2-0) - He’s Fighting in Australia. One source says he’s the same guy who fought as Peter Samuel in Sydney and another source says he’s the younger brother of David Zion. His Ko-win over decent Australian journeyman Phil Gregory in his first fight was impressive.

#Solomon Haumono (3-0)
Someone told me once that a rugby player is much better suited for boxing than an american football player and the reason was that rugby is much more nonstop than american football. In other words a rugby players stamina is much better. The theory about rugby/boxing seems right if you look at Anthony Mundine and if Mundines not unique, Haumonos chances in the ring should be better than Alonzo Highsmiths was for example. Haumono hasn’t fought anyone as good as the best opponents for Mundine, so it’s too early for some judgment about him. But he has trained boxing all of his life, cause his father was a pro boxer. And so far he has been impressive in the ring. Time will tell if Haumonos is going to repeat Mundines success in the ring and I will follow his future with a lot of curiosity.

#Ray Sefo (4-0) - The story says that the kickboxer Ray Sefo took up boxing after a successful sparring session with his friend David Tua. Sefo is/was a kickboxer from New Zeeland who looked good when he stopped grizzly like Steve Griffin earlier this year.

#Nathan Briggs (3-0) - Briggs has like Sefo and Nathans brother Paul been a kickboxer. Reports say he looked great in a stoppage-win over Zane Aiken some time ago. Now he’s ready for a good test as he’s scheduled to fight Bob Mirovic for the Australian title in June.
 

The Cruisers

Juan Carlos Gomez and Vassili Jirov have been the best cruisers for a couple of years (excuse me Nelson) and they both talked a lot about moving up to the heavier division. In style they´re each others opposites. The 27-year-old Cuban Gomez is the stylish boxer with good pop in his punches. While the 26-year-old Kazak Jirov is the tough and powerful bodypuncher. I can´t see so many heavies with Jirovs evil punches to the body. Against them you can say that Gomez dont punch hard enough for the heavyweights and that Jirov is too easy to hit for competing with the heavy boys. But they will definitely be interesting to follow if/when they move up to the heavyweight division.
 

The Longshots

Many of the fighters above got a big promoter behind them, but maybe the star of tomorrow will emerge from the minor league.

What about the 21-year-old Russian Denis Bakhtov (8-2) who stopped the durable journeyman Alex Vassiliev in his latest fight or Willie Phillips (19-1) who’s been on some of Paul Spadaforas undercards. Maybe the New York-heavy Robert Wiggins (10-0-1) or the Texan-heavy Kevin Petty (7-0) could deliver something good in the future. Wiggins got a couple of good wins over Cisse Salif and Nick Nurse for example and Petty stopped Leroy Berbick in his latest fight. Perhaps Eddie Chambers (4-0) from Pittsburg will surprise us in the future. I guess that his nickname "Fast Eddie" is supposed to describe his style. Tony Thompson (8-1) stopped Lee Alhassan in his last fight and his only loss came by decision to Kirkland so why not. He’s scheduled to fight fellow prospect Chester Hughes (9-0) in his next fight. The mentioned Kevin Montiy got two friends from Detroit who also caught some locally attention. They are the puncher James Smedley (2-0) and the giant (7.1) Julius Long (3-0). Armen Khachatryan (4-1) stopped the Brazilian prospect Marcello Ferreira in his latest fight. Maybe a sign for the future. In Brazil they have some hopes for a boxer named Luiz Santos and in Holland the press have found the Dutch Sonny Liston in Richel Hersisia (3-0). Hersisia got a perfect amateur record (25-0) but I havent heard of him in any big tournament, so I wouldn’t take that record so seriously. In Scandinavia we got Steffen Nielsen (10-0) from Denmark and Johan Thorbjörnsson (6-0) from Sweden to follow. John MacDermot (6-0) is a young boxer from England who already has made some noise in UK. 

And if you go by name only the Algerian boxer Muhammed Ali (1-0) would be champ. Alis name was Muhammed Azzaoui when he went to Sydney hoping to win an Olympic medal. In the first fight he started to dance, jab and showboating with his hands low. He looked great for a round and it was quite easy to see who his idol was. But in the second round the much smaller and much less stylish Jackson Chanet began to cut the ring and after a while he also find his target- Azzaouis chin. And I must confess that I felt a little sorry for the algerian then. He had the stylish look I like and I always seem to fall for that kind of boxing. But the story about Azzaoui didn’t end with a KO-loss in the second round of his first fight in the Olympics. Instead of going home after the games he stayed in Australia and became pro in kickboxing!! Like he was aware of the story of Pele Reid. Pele Reid was also a stylish boxer with a bad chin but before that he was a world champ in kickboxing. Azzaoui must hace thought that if he couldn’t be the Muhammad Ali of boxing he could be the Ali of kickboxing. So Azzaoui started to call himself Muhammad Ali. And after a while he also began a pro career in “real” boxing. A majority decision over some Mark Alexander was the result in his debut. I doubt that he ever will win a big title, but he may catch some attention by his name.

We also got two jailbirds who could be worth to follow. Rickey Womack (9-0)
is 39 years old and has been in jail for the last 13 years so Womack is of course nobody to build our dreams around. But he stopped Curt Paige in his comeback with ease and he looked in good shape, so even if I don’t see him as a future star I will follow the born again Christians upcoming fights with interest. The other jailbird is Joel Scott (19-0) and he was one of the hottest prospect 5 years ago when he was sent to prison. He was even compared to Tyson and the sad thing was that the comparisons were right on target (outside the ring). Now is Scott back to climb the ranking one more time. 
 

What Happened to the New Faces of  Yesterday?

To put the discussion about the possibilities of tomorrow into perspective it could be useful to look what happened to the talked about new faces of yesterday. So I turned the clock back to the summer of 97 to see what untested fighters who were hyped then. And this is what I come up with. I checked the IWBR heavyweight rankings for august 97 and picked a couple of untested talked about names below the top20 and checked what happened to them after that. 

#Hasim Rahman was (23-0) in 97 and is (32-2) now
I guess we all know his story.
#Wladimir Klitschko (10-0)/(36-1)
The story of the Klitschkos are rather known too 
#Vitali Klitschko (9-0)/(30-1) 
See above
#Pele Reid (9-0)/(13-3) 
Pele Reid was one the more hyped heavyweights back in 97. And the future looked to be bright for him. And he continued to impress for a while. The firstround KO over then fellow prospect Wayne Llewellyn in June 98 must have been the peak of his career so far. He was the big upcoming star from the same stable as Naz and with the same unorthodox style as him to. But in September he was dropped by journeyman Biko Botawamungu. Pele came back and won the fight, but now people began to question his chin. And  in his next fight he was stopped by Julius Francis. Pele hasnt been the same again after that. KO-losses to Orlin Norris and Jacklord Jacobs followed the Francis-loss
#Gerald Nobles (12-0)/(20-0)
You can say that Nobles value is about the same now as it was 4 years ago. He has been rather inactive.
#Gary Bell (15-0)/(19-3)
Bell was praised by Holyfield then as the next great heavyweight after he sparred with Holyfield before the fights with Tyson. But Bell wasnt the prospect that Holyfield predicted. (4-3) since then talks for itself. The losses came to Robert Hawkins, Art Pendegrass and David Tua.
#Cedric Boswell (12-0)/(17-0)
I guess you can say the same thing about Boswell as we did about Nobles. Inactivity must be his middlename.
#Wayne Llewellyn (14-0)/(21-4) 
We didnt know then, but I guess that the fight between Reid and Llewellyn must have been the most chinless fight ever. Llewellyn never really came back after that. Llewellyn also got losses to Frankie Swindell, Augustin Corpus and Alexander Vassiliev.
#Danny Williams (10-0)/(22-1) 
Williams hasn´t really improved so much in 4 years. He recovered good after the loss to Julius Francis, but he haven´t stepped up to the next level yet.
#Shazzon Bradley (14-0)/(20-0) 
Bradley quit cause of an eyeinjury 99.
#Lamon Brewster (10-0)/(24-2) 
Brewster was maybe the hottest of the american heavyweights from the class of 96. And everything looked good until he lost to Cliff Etienne a year ago. He was also outboxed by Charles Shufford later that year.
#Lance Whitaker (9-0)/(23-1) 
Whitaker is the boxer from the class of 96 mentioned who had have the most success so far. Impressive KO over Maskaev in his latest fight and a good top15-fighter right now.  The only loss came by close decision to Lou Savarese and that was more than 2 years ago.
#Nikolai Valouev (10-0)/(27-0)
The giant 7.2 Valuev is still undefeated and untested. But he must step up in competition if he wants to get rid of the comparisons to Butterbean.
#Derrick Jefferson (10-0)/(24-3) 
Jefferson came up to the top with the brutal KO over Mo Harris, but it seems that he now has left the top15-building with the losses to David Izon, Oleg Maskaev and Wladimir Klitschko.
#Wolfgramm (9-0)/(19-3) 
Wolfgramm showed that hes a decent fighter but not someone for the top15. Losses to Mo Wilson, Wladimir Klitschko and Eliecer Castillo proved that.
#Augustin Ngou (17-0)/(20-1) 
Ngou from Ivory Coast was one of the greatest prospect from Africa a couple of years ago, but then he lost to journeyman Lad Husarik and disappeared from the (prospect)scene
#Monte Barrett (9-0)/(24-2) 
Barrett has done well and knocked on the door to top15. Time will tell if he can come back there after the loss to the younger Klitschko. He also got a close decisionloss to Lance Whitaker.

So if you go by the stats some of the new faces will walk right into the building of topboxers, like Rahman and the Klitschkos and some of them will be decent but nothing special, like Wolfgramm. I guess that someone will retire, like Bradley and others will be brutally exposed, like  Reid and Llewellyn. Some of them will knock on the door and then leave, like Jefferson and Barrett. And some of the new faces of today will not improve at all in the next 4 years, like Valouev (caused by not stepping up in competition) and Boswell (caused by inactivity). 
To predict the stars of tomorrow is a little bit like playing roulette, but I will finish my odyssey among the new faces by picking the 10 names (in order) Ive got the strongest believe in right now, so you can knock on my door 4 years from now and laugh at my hillarious predictions. Ok here we go: 

(1) Audley Harrison, (2) Juan Carlos Gomez, (3) Malik Scott, (4) Eric Kirkland, (5) Sinan Samil Sam, (6) Joe Mesi, (7) Dominick Guinn, (8) Paolo Vidoz , (9) Michael Bennett, (10) Ray Austin 

So any opinions about some of the new faces around? Maybe I forgot someone important. I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the Heavyweight Prospect Forum

Karlo