Light Heavyweight Sleepers: Isaac Chilemba and Cornelius White

[Tmann400]

This guy has very good and polished skills IMO, and I think has a good chance against the top LHW's. He's not a huge puncher but he has respectable enough pop to his punches. He fought to a draw with Oosthuizen when he was still a SMW, then he moved up and has had some good success against fighters like Miranda and Vlasov. He has a good jab, throws good combinations, controls range and distance well and is a bit crafty as well.

Cornelius White. White has surprised me tremendously in his recent outings, I expected him to get utterly destroyed by Despaigne given how bad White looked against Don George. He had a rocky start, but then Despaigne was cut, and White dug down and poured it on, and earned a workmanlike decision. That surprised me.

Then he fought Sukhotsky, I definitely thought he was going to lose that fight, because Sukhotsky is a good well rounded fighter with very heavy hands, and he also came within a centimeter of knocking out Braehmer. I haven't seen the fight yet, but according to the official scorecards, White dominated the fight winning 10-2 on one card, 11-1 on another card, and a whopping 12-0 on the final card.

If those cards truly reflect the way that fight played out, White is definitely WAY better then I thought he was. White, not to mention, has extremely heavy hands himself. And is less of a boxer when compared to Chilemba, but all in all may be just as good but with a different style.

So, both these guys, IMO, could make some serious noise in the LHW division, so keep your eyes open folks. IMO, these are the heavily sleeping dark horses of the LHW division that no one really knows about. Just my two cents people, feel free to add yours as well, peace.

[SixFootGiant]

Never heard of these guys, but i'll definitely check them out. Are any of their fights on YouTube to check out?

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

Ive heard of Chilemba and his name always catches my eye cause I guess it sounds funny? But never seen him. As far as Cornelius White, dont get too carried away with the Despaigne fight. He's nowhere near what he used to be and I think it's safe to say he's past it. The fight vs Ismayl proved it.

Doesn't Chilemba have a fight coming up?

[dan_cov]

Agree with all of that. I had money on White to beat Despaigne just because of the odds and felt he may have a punchers chance, never did I think he'd be able to outbox Despaigne and take a clear cut U.D

I am yet to see the Sukhotski fight but again he was a huge underdog, may be some hometown cooking involved but tbh with you, I am quite surprised he lasted the distance let alone won because I did feel Sukhotski himself was quite the prospect.

He may very well be a darkhorse & I'll be sure to check him out especially the Sukhotski fight.

[Tmann400]

Agree with all of that. I had money on White to beat Despaigne just because of the odds and felt he may have a punchers chance, never did I think he'd be able to outbox Despaigne and take a clear cut U.D

I am yet to see the Sukhotski fight but again he was a huge underdog, may be some hometown cooking involved but tbh with you, I am quite surprised he lasted the distance let alone won because I did feel Sukhotski himself was quite the prospect.

He may very well be a darkhorse & I'll be sure to check him out especially the Sukhotski fight.

Agreed. I can't find the Sukhotsky fight, but I'm a member of some boxing torrent sites that I can't mention the name of, so if I find the fight I'll see what I can do. The thing is though, the fight took place in Las Vegas, and White is from Texas, so I don't know. But, if White clearly beat Sukhotsky either way, that's pretty impressive. Because Sukhotsky is a very solid fighter.

But, I've been dissapointed in Despaigne, I think he maybe able to turn it around if he works hard enough, but I don't know. He was a tremendous amateur, and had some great fights with Korobov and Golovkin. He also beat the brakes off of Pascal with relative ease, and he beat Dirrell once and then lost to him once by 1 point. I thought he was looking good at first, his performance against Hall really early in his career on short notice was really good. Then in his fights with Paines and Sillakh all of the sudden he just looked.....Different, like he lost a step.

Then in the Miranda fight he looked more focused and I thought he might be getting into his groove, then that disaster against White happened, and he was utterly outclassing White at first, to the point he was toying with him, and then he was cut, and the fight completely turned around. Despaigne has been a bit of an enigma. But, last I heard he was in the gym working really hard so I don't know.

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

It's over for Despaigne, he's already 32 years old. The thing with Cuban boxers is, living in that type of poverty over there it's kinda hard to focus once you get here. Plus he pissed me off with his showboating vs Sillakh so I could careless for him anymore.

[King_]

Chilemba has a fight on September 29th on HBO against Zsolt Erdei, former titleholder......who many people forget was supposed to fight Tavoris Clous last december on Showtime. Unfortunately he got injured and withdrew, and this is his first fight back. I've been saying this for a couple of weeks now, this is a very underrated fight. The winner of this could be in line for a big fight in the LHW division.

[BattleAxePurist]

Chilemba is a good fighter and his fight with Erdei is one i'm looking forward too though Zsolt has been inactive and has gotten up there in age he knows how to fight and if he had come to the states when he was younger he could of hung with the names of the division but Chilemba should be a bit too m uch for the cagey vet and then he should be in line for a title shot.


White is ok and his fight with Sukhotsky he won but didn't really do much to stamp himself as a real threat and he did get bombed out by Don Freaking George in 1 round can't shake that image he did look good against the cuban so maybe there's something there
if only he could fight Sillakh after a tuneup bout by the Ukrainian

[Tmann400]

Just watched the White-Sukhotsky fight for the first time. And, by NO means whatsoever was it hometown cooking. The early rounds, Sukhotsky was game, but down the stretch Cornelius dominated, and outclassed him behind the jab, and by the championship rounds, White had Sukhotsky's face beaten to a swollen bloody pulp, and White was really beating the living hell out of him, and I thought he just might get him out of there. But, Sukhotsky was game, very tough, and he even did some good work of his own at times throughout the fight, but his punches seemed to have NO affect on Cornelius White, whatsoever, and whenever he landed a punch, White came back with a 3 or 4 punch combination.

I had the fight scored 117-111 for White. White REALLY impressed me with this performance. Because, Sukhotsky, is a good solid well rounded boxer with very solid power and a hell of a chin as well. And, White really outclassed him down the stretch. Not to mention, the things that surprised me the most in this fight, was the fact that Sukhotsky's shots were not bothering White at all, so White proved he has a good chin and that the George fight must of been a fluke. And, what else surprised me was the fact that White boxed very nicely, he stuck behind a very effective jab, controlled range and distance and used the ring with superb intelligence, he looked very good and like a much more well rounded, and overall better boxer than he used to, and his defense has improved a lot too, even since his fight with Despaigne.

I would so far as to say that he has more then a very good chance to beat the winner of Cloud-Pascal, which evidently his fight with Sukhotsky was an eliminator for. White showed everything in this fight, ring generalship and ring intelligence. Improved, but still somewhat leaky defense. Impressive combinations. Good speed and counter punching with a diverse punch arsenal. Also, as I said before, he showed a very good chin given the fact Sukhotsky's best punches didn't faze him. Also, his workrate was through the roof, I don't have the official stats but he was throwing tons of combinations consistently with no let up through the whole twelve rounds. So, his stamina isn't in question. So, I'm definitely keeping my eye on him in the future.