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jameel mcline who has not looked good in his comeback. he hammered a can, then lost to harold sconiers & squeaked out a narrow decision vs livin castillo. he is done & should retire again. mccline is not broke. he has done very well outside boxing & he wanted to give it 1 more shot. he has failed in my opinion. francois botha has had a good fighting career. he has several Kick boxing fights & has had a great boxing career. he has fought the best over the years & made lots of money. he has had agreat fight vs michael grant & was game against carlos takam but he came up short. he is 43 & has been knocked out in his last 2 fights. one of my all time favorites & never ducked anyone but i don't want to see him get hurt. bert cooper is fightiong chauncey welliver soon & it's not hard to see how that will go...
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By James Slater - Two veteran heavyweights, who once fought on the big stage, were in action last night. 43-year-old Frans Botha fought in France, against the much younger Carlos Takam of Cameroon. The ageing “White Buffalo” was stopped in the 11th-round.
While in New Jersey, former four-time heavyweight title challenger Jameel McCline squeaked out an eight-round split decision win over Ecuador’s Livin Castillo.
Botha, now 48-7-3(29), has now lost three of his last four outings, all by stoppage. Last night’s loss, in a fight for the WBO Africa belt, proves that the once-formidable warrior has next to nothing left. Takam, 25-1(20) who has fought all his bouts in either France or Belgium, was simply too young and too strong for Botha. If he has any sense, Botha will now hang up the gloves on what has been an eventful career to say the least.
As for “Big Time” McCline, the 41-year-old is now 41-11-3(24) overall and 2-1(1) in the comeback he launched after his loss to Chris Arreola.. Castillo is a cagey southpaw, and hard to look good against, so maybe McCline’s razor thin win can be excused. But how much does the New Yorker have left to offer? It’s also not clear how much, if any, of his old power McCline has retained. After all, Castillo, 16-12(10) has been stopped some nine times.
McCline has spoken of a possible fight with Tomasz Adamek. With “Goral” also on the comeback trail following his painful stoppage loss to WBC heavyweight king Vitali Klitschko, this match-up would perhaps prove interesting.
Speaking of heavyweight veterans, Boxrec has a curiosity of a heavyweight fight down as taking place this coming Thursday (April 5th) in Missouri. The one and only “Smokin’” Bert Cooper will, according to the invaluable web site, face “Hillyard Hammer” Chauncy Welliver in a bout that will contest the WBC Continental Americas title.
46-year-old Cooper is 38-23(31) and he has not fought since being crushed inside two-rounds by Cuban star Luis Ortiz last April. Welliver is a streaking 28-year-old with a 52-5-5(20) record. Welliver has won his last 17 and he has been steadily working his way up the rankings. Cooper looks to have next to no chance in this one.
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