After The Fight

KALI Meehan lost the WBA final eliminator in Rostock to Ruslan Chagaev on a 12-round points decision. The Uzbek southpaw is a decade younger than 40-year-old Meehan. Chagaev won by five, six and eight points on the judges' cards. Michigan trainer Stacy McKinley and Mark Janssen’s cousin Seb worked Kali's corner. In a probable boxing first, Magic Mark back in Australia watching Foxtel kept a telephone line open ten thousand miles for the hour of combat to pass Seb directions. Meehan was not troubled to face a southpaw – he’d put three knockouts on Colin Wilson. But the 21 months that passed since his last combat blunted his edge.

Keen Kali Mean for history

Australian fighters have won fistfuls of world boxing championships in the course of more than a century.

From Bantamweight, Jimmy Carruthers, to Light-Heavyweight, Hitman Harding, undisputed champs of the 20th century.

But we have not won the World Heavyweight Title - not since Bob Fitzsimmons downed Gentleman Jim Corbett with his solar plexus rip in the 19th century.

This weekend could rewrite history. Our New Zealand-born, Australian citizen, Kali Meehan meets Ruslan Chagaev for the WBA Heavyweight Title in Rostock, Germany on May 22.

The World Boxing Association was the original world body.

Kali Meehan had his first shot at a heavyweight title five years ago. He ran Lamon Brewster to a split decision over 12 rounds in Las Vegas. A great bout, not a great title. The WBO (World Boxing Organisation) crown.

Kali Meehan won the now long-delayed opportunity when he pushed DaVarryl Williamson off #1 rung in the WBA with a smashing six-round knockout word for word at Madison Square Garden back in October 2007.

Kali's last fights were knockouts, the last two in Germany.

They give him a certain evenness to the German crowd with Ruslan Chagaev. Ruslan is an ex-Soveiter, Uzbeki, now living in Hamburg.

Chagaev has a KO loss (to Wlad Kitschko) against 17 KO wins in 25.

Preparations for the big European's south paw stance has been provided to Kali by Don King, co-promoting with a German Entrepreneur.

King would get rewards from an Aussie as champion rather than Uzbeki.

Magic Mark Janssen, Australia's craftiest trainer from Queensland, is in Rostock preparing 'Checkmate' Kali for a victory that would startle an Australian press ill-informed on boxing.

He recently changed the nickname from 'Checkmate' to 'Mean Hands'.

Magic Mark means Meehan to fight a mean style to make history.

--Mike C Ryan

Three big bouts
To be made

Commonwealth Titles used to be big boxing box-office. They were even bigger before that, called Empire titles.

Dave Sands and John Famechon won world attention by winning Empires.

A keen promoter could revive that forgotten banner attraction in the middleweight division here right now. Commonwealth Ratings based on BoxRec statistics place the actual titleholder Darren Barker only #5. Anthony Mundine is #1, Daniel Geale #2, a French Algerian called Hassan N'Dau 3, and the European and British champion Matthew Macklin 4th among Commonwealth middles.

Current Commonwealth middleweight titleholder Darren Barker made four KO defences, among them the Aussie Ben Crampton, all of which leave him rated only #5 with BoxRec. Our Sam Soliman was Commonwealth middleweight champ in 2000; he still rates #6.

Now here's a tasty brew for an elimination tournament.

Mundine v Macklin. A Birmingham drawcard in Sydney or Melbourne for the cities' ex-Midlands fans. When Macklin beat Rafael Soto Pintos recently the loser reckoned "Mac the Knife' was as good as Anthony Mundine (who also beat Rafael on points).

Geale v Barker. Our Daniel is dead even with ‘The Man'. Barker recently stopped Wayne Elcock in three rounds for the British belt and Amin Asikainen in a round for the Europe crown.

The television producers would sink their teeth into these serious shows after years of pushover opponents from South East Asia.

It would do our game great good.

Feathers to fade away

The featherweight division is to be struck out of amateur boxing after a century.

Amateur world body, AIBA, will abandon the 57 kg class in September, cutting international divisions from eleven to ten.

Way back in Young Griffo's era the feathers were an established marker on the nine-stone class. Small shifts were made to suit the key contestants.

Now, for the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur, the key contestants are -- females.

The International Olympic Committee already limited the number of contestants in boxing.

To make room for women's boxing at the London 2012 Olympic Games, AIBA is introducing three female divisions called flyweight to 51 kg, lightweight to 60 kg and middleweight to 75 kg.

So men's boxing loses 28 places.

The men's weights remain unchanged in the seven divisions, lightweight to super-heavyweight. Upped are the mini-fly 49 kg, flyweight 52 kg and bantamweight which at 56 is close to the expelled feather mark.

WBA calls Kali

Meehan's second world shot … five years on.
To meet Ruslan Chagaev for title

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.—The World Boxing Association annual convention in Medellin, Colombia, ordered an interim heavyweight championship between WBA No. 1 mandatory challenger Kali Meehan and former WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev.

Meehan earned the WBA No. 1 position in October 2007 by scoring a sixth-round technical knockout over DaVarryl Williamson at Madison Square Garden, and he has been patiently waiting to fight for the WBA heavyweight championship ever since.

"I am grateful Don King has maintained his faith in me, and I will become the WBA interim heavyweight champion," Meehan said.

"I look forward to meeting and defeating Ruslan Chagaev and then facing the winner of David Haye versus John Ruiz."

The WBA confirmed that the winner of Meehan-Chagaev will face the winner of Haye-Ruiz.

Meehan's promoter, Don King, said he's relieved Meehan will finally get the match he was promised.

"Kali has been very loyal and committed to the WBA and their problems while waiting over two years to appear in the world championship match he earned," King said. "He understood their problems and has been patient, going along with them to keep the WBA in good standing."

The World Boxing Association is the original of the many world boxing organisations.

Meehan's pilot, Magic Mark Janssen said: "Kali will have Australia and New Zealand behind him when he steps into the ring."

LOOKING back five years, Meehan went within a whisker of taking the World Boxing Organisation heavyweight championship from Lamon Brewster.

At Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, on September 4, 2004, Kali took Brewster to a 12-rounds split decision. Lamon was making the first defence of the WBO crown he won from Wladimir Klitschko by KO 5. – Alan Hopper.

Hard Rock Plus

They previewed it as "New Zealand's Fight of the Century" last weekend, October 10, when current heavyweight Shane Cameron took on latterly inactive David Tua, at Hamilton.

Tua brought 42 KOs in 49 wins against Cameron.

Tua dumped Cameron twice in round one and finished him at 20 seconds of round two.

Tua, coming up 37, had some gems in his record – a rugged title 12 rounds with Lennox Lewis; stopped sometime heavyweight champions Michael Moorer (in 30 seconds!), Oleg Maskaev (in 11th) and Hasim Rahman (in 10th). Himself never knocked out.

New Zealand's historic heavy was Tom Heeney. Billed the Hard Rock from Down Under, he reached the 11th title round against Gene Tunney.

Chunky Tua is certainly his superior.

Kali in DK camp

Another New Zealand-bred heavyweight is Kali Meehan, resident in New South Wales but grounded as amateur in NZ (come to think of it, so was Ruby Bob Fitzsimmons, far more anzac than product of Cornwall, England, as the Brits claim).

Kali and Mark Janssen are hard at work in Don King's training camp in Orwell, Ohio.

Kali is booked to fight on December 18. Formerly known as ‘Checkmate' he now sports the cognomen 'MeanHands' Meehan. Mark Janssen says Australia's best modern heavyweight will soon be ranked #1 again by the WBA.