For those of you in North America who heard about a brash young fighter named Michael Katsidis issuing statements of intent to fight Manny Pacquiao at some point in the future but have yet to see the man fight I offer you this advice. Do yourself a favour and view his fights with Graham Earl where he claimed the interim WBO World Lightweight Title firstly and then track down his first defense against Czar Amonsot (on the Hopkins-Wright undercard) and you will discover a fighter who has displayed the courage of Arturo Gatti (he cuts just like him too), shown the ability to throw a lot of power punches in Aaron Pryor-like style and seems to want to win his fights in the most exciting fashion possible.   

    Since Kostya Tszyu lost his IBF 140 pound title to Ricky Hatton over two years ago, I have been looking for another exciting fighter who I just couldn’t wait to see fight again. Little did I realize that I would be lucky enough to see such a fighter come out of my native Australia. I must admit that my passion for boxing had stalled over the last couple of years, especially with fighters from Down Under falling just short in world title bouts or performing not so well in most cases on the world stage and I let Michael Katsidis slip under my radar. It was not until he won the WBO Lightweight Interim World title stopping Graham Earl in 5 of the fiercest rounds you are ever likely to see that I sat up and took notice.

    Michael Katsidis possesses excellent power, the ability to throw a lot of punches with this power for a 12 full rounds, superb fitness, a reasonable chin and reasonable boxing skills (he’s not a mindless slugger). Oh, and I might add his punching technique is great too! He throws short, sharp and accurate punches and twists his weight through his punches nicely too. 

    Katsidis' bout with Graham Earl started out fairly fast with not much of a feeling out process. Earl started slower and Katsidis was scoring the cleaner, harder shots and dropped Earl with about 20 seconds left in the first round with a single short right hook. Earl was clearly dazed and took 8 seconds recovering before attempting to get up. In the  second round Katsidis continued to land big bombs on Earl’s chin with regularity but the fact I found so impressive was that Katsidis threw his punches with extremely good technique, very straight and well measured. Another right hook to the head dropped Earl early in the 2^nd round and the writing looked to be on the wall.

    Earl climbed back up and Katsidis swarmed him with a series of power punches; Earl’s corner threw in the towel and the referee kicked it out of the ring not accepting the surrender. Katsidis claimed later that this distracted his focus and he walked into a big right hand that dropped him into a squatting position, not what you would call huge knockdown, but a correct ruling by the referee. The rest of the fight was a bit more competitive but Earl was taking 2-3 times more punches than Katsidis and considering the fact that Michael’s punches carried so much more impact and weight it was just a matter of time before the fight ended.

    The end did come in the 5th round as Earl’s corner realized their man was taking far too many heavy shots and they did the right thing by retiring their fighter before he was seriously hurt. The British press were saying that this was fight of the year material, probably not quite competitive enough for that type of praise but the bout did have intense action at times that reminded me of Hagler-Hearns, Benn-McClellan and quite a few of Arturo Gatti’s most exciting moments. 

    Michael Katsidis didn’t waste any time after winning the interim title; a high profile opponent was found in Joan Guzman and the pair were due to fight in May this year only Guzman apparently suffered an injury and the bout was cancelled. Oddly enough, Guzman had arranged to fight a new opponent some 3-4 weeks later, but that is another story!

    Katsidis then found himself facing a lower profile opponent by the name of Czar Amonsot on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright bout. Amonsot may have been a lower profile opponent but for a 21-year-old he sure had some ability, a good chin, a ton of heart and very tough skin. For the first 10 rounds the Katsidis-Amonsot bout was an all out war! Both men were very confident and game, throwing and landing a lot of punches. In the 2^nd round Katsidis countered an over-extended Amonsot with a beautiful right cross that dropped the Filipino for the 1^st time in the bout, although it was Katsidis who went back to his corner at the end of the 2^nd with cuts and bruises around his eyes.

    Katsidis later admitted he had fought from the 2^nd round onwards with vision in one eye only. The action continued to be fierce, with Katsidis landing more punches and the heavier punches but strangely enough, he was the fighter looking the worse for wear. By no means was Amonsot out of the fight; he was landing plenty of decent shots himself, although he wasn’t winning the majority of the rounds. At the end of the 9^th round the ringside doctor advised the officials he was giving Katsidis one more  round despite his damaged eye and all the blood. Michael then launched a tremendous assault in the 10^th round, not wanting the bout to be stopped due to his cuts, he hurt Amonsot with a big right hand and then followed up with 10-15 unanswered punches to drop the Filipino for a 2^nd time.  Katsidis continued to lad big shots on Amonsot for the remainder of the round but was unable to force a stoppage. Rounds 11 & 12 Katsidis wisely kept his distance and moved away from Amonsot as he was well ahead on points. It was an anti-climax to such an exciting bout but when you know that you are ahead on points and only the skin of your teeth away from being stopped on cuts, you don’t want to give the officials any reason to end the bout. 

    Before Katsidis had signed to fight Graham, he had been chasing a mandatory shot at Acelino Freitas for the WBO Lightweight for well over a year. Freitas had retired, then came out of retirement and then decided to fight Juan Diaz in a WBA-WBO lightweight unification bout instead of facing the undefeated Australian. Diaz ended up stopping Freitas in 9 rounds and after watching that bout, it was clear for me to think that Katsidis would have forced a stoppage of Freitas much earlier and in more spectacular fashion.

    I am very much looking forward to the Juan Diaz-Julio Diaz bout on 13^th October as the winner of this bout must come to terms to face Michael Katsidis within 10 days of this bout as stipulated by the WBO. Juan Diaz has already agreed in principle to fulfill his obligation to face his mandatory. I just hope whomever wins doesn’t relinquish the WBO Lightweight Title or wriggle out of a fight with Katsidis because their promoter doesn’t want to take the risk of putting his man in with him. The good thing is Katsidis is well liked by HBO after the Amonsot bout, so one would expect any fight involving a world title and Mike Katsidis at lightweight would make financial sense. I’ll be much happier by the time November comes around, things should be clearer then.