March Madness Hits The Junior Welterweight Division
By Peter Lim
History has shown when brutal dictators die or are abruptly deposed of power, his country often plunges into civil war with multiple factions violently vying to fill the power vacuum. The Middle East is a contemporary example of that with civil wars raging in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
Such is the case with boxing’s junior welterweight division. Almost as soon as Terence Crawford consolidated the 140-pound championship last year, he vacated all four titles to move up seven pounds to campaign as a welterweight. It has led to a feeding frenzy that has hit a crescendo in these two weeks. Call it the March Madness of the junior welters.
Fighters from every corner of the globe stepped up to challenge for a portion of Crawford’s undisputed crown. On March 9, American Regis Prograis annihilated Julius Indongo of Namibia in two brutal rounds in what looked on papers to be a dead-even fight. With the win, Prograis punched his ticket fight for the WBC title against the winner of this weekend’s bout between Jose Ramirez and Amir Imam.
The following day, Mikey Garcia captured his fourth world title in as many divisions with a virtuoso performance over Sergey Lipinets of Kazakhstan for the IBF belt. But guess what? That title will soon likely be up for grabs again since Garcia, who also owns the WBC lightweight title, has declared his intention to drop back down to 135 to unify the division.
On the Garcia-Lipinets undercard, Kiryl Relikh of Belarus turned himself into the Energizer Bunny to outwork Rances Barthelemy of Cuba for the vacant WBA belt.
The WBO was the only major title that is not at stake in these two consecutive weekends. That vacant belt will be fought for in London on April 14 between Terry Flanagan on England and Maurice Hooker of Dallas.
Prograis will be in the audience at Madison Square Garden, New York, this weekend to see if it is Ramirez or Imam who advances to fight him for the WBC belt. He has no preference as to who wins.
“I like both fights. I’d fight either one of them,” Prograis said. “Amir Imam, I know he’s slick, big puncher but I feel I can beat him pretty easily.
“And Ramirez, he’s a come-forward Mexican. I feel like I could beat him easily also.”
