The LeonMcS I was on BoxRec and I was bored thread

[LeonMcS]

And checking out some records, and you may know how it goes, you see one name, look up another and before you know it, a few hours have passed. Or, you may have a life and are not familiar with what I'm on about.

Anyhoo, check out these (un)amazing facts and ponderings my night has produced.

Darrell Hiles. Remember him? Kostyas first pro fight, a 1st rd ko. Hiles was also Graham 'Spike' Cheneys pro debut (L TKO 10) and Shannon Taylors (L TKO 2) as well. Also some bloke called Dave Nicholls (L TKO 2) who then hung up hes gloves for some reason. Oh well, at least Dave remained undefeated. It wasn't all bad for Darrell though, he did win a 12 rd pts decision against debuting Albert Binoa. 12rds in his first fight? Yeah, bet Albert was thanking his manager for that call. Can you think of anyone else that gave three biggish names their debut fights?

Cliff Samardin. 24-0,(14). Personal favourite of mine, saw him live. A few state titles and an Aus title. How come he didn't go further? His last fight was a 3rd ko win in the States in 95, a fight after beating Lovemore N'dou. Bad management or lack of desire?

Graham 'Spike' Cheney. Olympic silver medallist. Finished with a pro record of 17-3,(11). In Spikes 6th pro fight he faced veteran Alberto Cortes (49-1) whose only loss was to some guy called Julio Cesar Chavez. Spike wins a unaminous 10 rd decision by a wide margin and his future looks good. Cortes will only lose twice more in the next 16 fights, one against some guy called Felix Trinidad and another to some bloke called Ike 'Bazooka' Quartey. But instead Spike racks up four more wins before getting ko'd in the third by veteran Alex Tui (10-9-2 at the time, finishes career with 11-12-2). Spike avenges this loss two fights later with a 4th rd KO. He then fights on before losing to unbeaten Leo Young (10-0 at the time, eventually 15-1-1, his only loss to Kevin Kelly) in a 11rd TD. He has three more fights, losing the last via TKO in the 5th to Viktor Baranov for the WBC International Welterweight title. Good career or missed chance? What happened after such a promising start?

Interesting seeing the same names appear on so many records, Brian Williams, Craig Pevy (who gave great Melbourne hope Scotty Brouwer[20-4-1] his first loss) and some of the fighters I remember following way back when, Brouwer again, Renato Cornett, ****** Rowsell.

Brouwers is a weird story, promoted heavily in Melbourne, he then fought Maximo Silvano in his 19th bout, registering a 10 RD Unaminous decision to take him to 17-1-1. Then for some reason, he fights Silvano again in his next fight, this time losing a 8 RD decision. Silvano would fight four more times, all losses, to finish with a 1-5 record. Brouwer rebounded in his next fight, winning an Australian title against Paul Nasari before dropping his next fight against Michael Ayers (4th RD TKO) for the WBC International Lightweight title. He had three more fights, finishing on a 2nd RD KO loss in New Caledonia to Charles Baou. If anyone knows any more about what happened with Brouwer/Silvano, would love to hear.

So yeah, there you go. I can now justify hours of mindless surfing as research for a thread on ESB. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Dr Gonzo]

nice work - i enjoyed reading all that mate

[MSTR]

And checking out some records, and you may know how it goes, you see one name, look up another and before you know it, a few hours have passed. Or, you may have a life and are not familiar with what I'm on about.

Anyhoo, check out these (un)amazing facts and ponderings my night has produced.

Darrell Hiles. Remember him? Kostyas first pro fight, a 1st rd ko. Hiles was also Graham 'Spike' Cheneys pro debut (L TKO 10) and Shannon Taylors (L TKO 2) as well. Also some bloke called Dave Nicholls (L TKO 2) who then hung up hes gloves for some reason. Oh well, at least Dave remained undefeated. It wasn't all bad for Darrell though, he did win a 12 rd pts decision against debuting Albert Binoa. 12rds in his first fight? Yeah, bet Albert was thanking his manager for that call. Can you think of anyone else that gave three biggish names their debut fights?

Cliff Samardin. 24-0,(14). Personal favourite of mine, saw him live. A few state titles and an Aus title. How come he didn't go further? His last fight was a 3rd ko win in the States in 95, a fight after beating Lovemore N'dou. Bad management or lack of desire?

Graham 'Spike' Cheney. Olympic silver medallist. Finished with a pro record of 17-3,(11). In Spikes 6th pro fight he faced veteran Alberto Cortes (49-1) whose only loss was to some guy called Julio Cesar Chavez. Spike wins a unaminous 10 rd decision by a wide margin and his future looks good. Cortes will only lose twice more in the next 16 fights, one against some guy called Felix Trinidad and another to some bloke called Ike 'Bazooka' Quartey. But instead Spike racks up four more wins before getting ko'd in the third by veteran Alex Tui (10-9-2 at the time, finishes career with 11-12-2). Spike avenges this loss two fights later with a 4th rd KO. He then fights on before losing to unbeaten Leo Young (10-0 at the time, eventually 15-1-1, his only loss to Kevin Kelly) in a 11rd TD. He has three more fights, losing the last via TKO in the 5th to Viktor Baranov for the WBC International Welterweight title. Good career or missed chance? What happened after such a promising start?

Interesting seeing the same names appear on so many records, Brian Williams, Craig Pevy (who gave great Melbourne hope Scotty Brouwer[20-4-1] his first loss) and some of the fighters I remember following way back when, Brouwer again, Renato Cornett, ****** Rowsell.

Brouwers is a weird story, promoted heavily in Melbourne, he then fought Maximo Silvano in his 19th bout, registering a 10 RD Unaminous decision to take him to 17-1-1. Then for some reason, he fights Silvano again in his next fight, this time losing a 8 RD decision. Silvano would fight four more times, all losses, to finish with a 1-5 record. Brouwer rebounded in his next fight, winning an Australian title against Paul Nasari before dropping his next fight against Michael Ayers (4th RD TKO) for the WBC International Lightweight title. He had three more fights, finishing on a 2nd RD KO loss in New Caledonia to Charles Baou. If anyone knows any more about what happened with Brouwer/Silvano, would love to hear.

So yeah, there you go. I can now justify hours of mindless surfing as research for a thread on ESB. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
Nice thread mate. I enjoyed reading it. Good to have another poster with a sense of humour.

[left hook 75]

Spike Cheney ended up having problems with the bottle didn't he?Last I remember he ended up having to sell his Olympic medal as well...

[MSTR]

Spike Cheney ended up having problems with the bottle didn't he?Last I remember he ended up having to sell his Olympic medal as well...
Thats pretty sad. Selling your medal is like the ultimate low.

[LeonMcS]

Unfortunately, last report I heard on Jeff Harding he was in a much worse shape. Hope things improve for him. I do remember some stories now about Cheney but seem to recall he turned it around. Its a shame that outside the ring a lot of fighters cant find the stability the need when their career is over.

[Bobby]

victor barabov? i see he fought spike, impretty sure he also came to oz and fought shannon taylor back when taylor was a young powerfull prospect

[LeonMcS]

Spot on mate, it seems Baranovs career didn't exactly explode after beating Cheney. His record after fighting Cheney was a respectable 26-7-3 (7 KOs...ohhh Spike!). He then had another 34 fights, the tally in that period was a not so special 9-24-1 (2 KOs...Sven Ottke anyone?). Taylor flew the flag in Baranovs fourth fight after Cheney winning a close U10 decision by 1, 2 & 4pts on the cards. Still, going through his record, he certainly didn't try to pad his record with nobodys, check out the opponents;

Jan Bergman, Soren Sondergaard, Taylor, Jean Baptiste Mendy, Gianluca Branco, Oktay Urkal, Michael Trabant, Joshua Clottey (!), Chris Barnett, Lawrence Ngobeni, Jason Rowland, Stephanus Carr, Steve Murray, Bobbie Vanzie, Jason Cook, Johnathon Thaxton, Sayan Sanchat, Jan Zaveck, Gary Young, Brunet Zamora, Marco Cattikas...granted, towards the end these guys aren't household names but at worst they've all challenged or held various alphabet soup titles at some stage, some only the inter-continental version but hey its a living.

Viktors last fight is listed as 30/03/06. He may still be out there somewhere. His record currently stands at 35-31-3 (9 KOs...Spike!!!). If Viktor still has all his faculties I have some advice for him.

Mate...for christs sake, lose the manager! Seems ol Vik was a bit of a bully early in his career, giving no less than 13 guys their first pro fight! From these 13 his record is a nicely padded 10-3. He didn't discriminate, gave four blokes their second pro fight for a spotless 4-0, taking him to 14-4.

Now, before we all board the Baranov express, maybe Vik started to feel bad or his manager was shitfaced on Vodka, but Vik has then fought 18 undefeated guys, the least experienced of which had had 5 fights, and only two more of them less than 10! From these 18 bouts, Viks record is a no so healthy 1-14-3.

He also faced another seven experienced fighters who at that stage of their career had only one loss. From those 7, the tally is 1-6.

Thats 2-20-3 against guys who pretty much have had well over ten fights and hadn't lost yet. I wonder if Vik could see a pattern emerging, or did he think his title shot was just past the next hungry young bloke looking for another notch in the W column.

To be fair his management team have gotten him title shots, their was the prestigious attempt at the coveted WBB Welterweight title (L12), the much sought after WBU Light Welterweight title (L12), the six unsuccessful tries at assorted international and intercontinental titles (L12),(L TKO5),(L12),(L12),(L TKO10),(L TKO10).

But wait comrades, it wasn't all doom and gloom for Vik.

He did win four Russian national titles. And when a young Vik surely held that first belt in his hands, maybe he dreamed that he could go higher. He could chase bigger and better titles. Belts from the major organisations. If he trained hard, if he took his chances, maybe Vik could live on in the annals of boxing.



And guess what?


Vik did.


He won that belt that will surely see his name live on. For you see, Vik had a dream. And on the 25th March, 1996, probably a typical March day at the Revesby Workers Club in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

Viktor Baranov won the WBC International Welterweight title in a 5th round TKO of Graham 'Spike' Cheney that broke the heart of a nation, yet gave a humble fighter from Russia his one moment in the sun.


Viktor Baranov, I salute you.







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[ozziebattler]

Cliff simardin(spelling) 24-0???

why did he retire??whats the go there??

[boxa01]

Cliff simardin(spelling) 24-0???

why did he retire??whats the go there??

he dont talk bout it but his brother told me fenech and ellis ripped him off badly so he gave it away but apparently he is making a come back next month not 100% on that but he now trains a good prospect in fred mundraby

[LeonMcS]

That'd be good boxa but surely his best chance has passed. I saw him fight in melbourne and thought he looked head and shoulders above everyone else on the card, his handspeed was incredible. Damn shame if thats true about Fenech and Ellis.