Juan Carlos Burgos: A Champion In Most Eyes

0
1139

Juan Carlos Burgos is a paper champion, but not that kind of paper champion – not the Chad Dawson or LaMont Peterson kind of paper champion and he is certainly not the Lexxx Rugger type of Paper Champion as well. Burgos is a paper champ by the fans standards; he legitimately beat Rocky Martinez on nearly everyone’s scorecard except the judges that mattered as Burgos stood shocked looking at his camp confused that he did not win the fight. It was the type of look that only one who sincerely felt screwed over could make, it was the look of a civil injustice gone awry as Burgos had the look of man who did nothing wrong whom was being punished. Maybe these examples are tad dramatic, but nonetheless Burgos should be super feather weight champion yet he isn’t and after one of his best performances every all he has to show for it is a show that hardly anyone outside of Northern California knew was coming.

It’s the sad side of boxing that occurs a bit more often than one would wish yet not nearly as much as though who can’t stand the sport claim it happens. Burgos is still rated highly as he is the rightfully still the WBO #1 contender and on Friday he will take on Yakubu Amidu of Ghana, but resides out of Los Angeles, CA. Amidu has the that terrible unflattering quality that fighters coming off a robbery of a decision tend to hate, Amidu is tough, game and is coming to win. Burgos can’t have any sympathy for himself in his training camp since he will be under false pretenses as Amidu has the power of an ox winning all, but two of his 20 bouts via knockout. Then there is the big red flag for Amidu, he lost to Ji-Hoon Kim whom is about as slick as a bag of bricks, yet styles make fights and for Burgos he can’t pretend to be something he is not meaning that if he is to box Amidu he should win, but the fact that now that Burgos has gone from premium cable television to standard cable television may change elements of his fighting style to get back to where he was in January.

Burgos and Amidu ironically both are coming off of split decision losses that many people feel they both won and though a regional belt is on the line, WBO Intercontinental  Jr. Lightweight Title, it has a feeling as though  it ought to be for the outright WBO title and the winner more than likely should get a crack at the belt, but more than likely not next since Mikey Garcia has all , but made it clear that his intentions after missing weight against Juan Manuel Lopez was  to move up to Jr. Lightweight leaving both fighters in the main event potentially out of luck and hoping to get a shot at the IBF title if Argenis Mendez can make can make quick work of Arash Usmanee in New York late next month. Then there is the risk reward carrot of Javier Fortuna, who tried going down in weight, but couldn’t and will now be back at Jr featherweight – the big question will be any fighter fight him before he has a title or vice versa, will Fortuna fight anyone before he gets a crack at the belt?

Then there is also the possibility of the undercard fighters who are also fighting for another regional belt, WBO Latino super featherweight title, in Miguel Gonzalez and Josenilson Dos Santos, making a bid at the winner of the main event and potentially fighting the winner. When you have two fights with the same weights featured it tends not to be on accident and for Dos Santos, a fighter who has fought mainly in Brazil, this is his chance to prove that he is not fighting taxi drivers and bartenders and make an impression that merits him back on television. Nonetheless, one thing is for sure the better fights tend to take place at the lower weight classes as a general to a degree since for one reason or another things such as clinching just do not occur as often.

Juan Carlos Burgos takes on Yakubu Amidu live on Friday July 26th in Lincoln, CA at the Thunder Valley Casino and Resort with a press conference and weigh in occurring on July 25th at the main stage at the casino floor which is open to the public. For those watching at home the fights will begin at 9:00pm EST/ 6:00 PM PST on ESPN2.