January 25, 2008
January 25, 2008
TOKYO, JAPAN
WBA minimum champ Yutaka Niida (22-1-3, 8 KOs), Japan, will defend his belt against Venezuelan ex-Olympian Jose Luis Varela (14-3-1NC, 7 KOs) in Tokyo, Japan, on March 1. It was announced by his manager Mitsunori Seki of Yokohama Hikari Promotions on Thursday.
Making his seventh defense, Niida, 29, whose capricious character is notorious, promised that he would show a good performance this time. The shortest and smallest of our five world champs, standing only five feet one inch and a half, showed his big mouth, as usual, predicting a KO victory, though he had never decked a defense by knockout despite his once-evaluated hard-punching ability. Niida is a good boxer, but he hasn’t fully displayed his potential in previous title defenses against Juan Landaeta (W12; split), Jaewon Kim (W12), Eriberto Gejon (TW10; split), Ronald Barrera (W12), Katsunari Takayama (W12; split) and Gejon (W12).
Jose Luis Varela, a 29-year-old Venezuelan, reportedly scored an amateur mark of 260-20, and participated in the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, though losing in the first contest. Having registered eight wins in a row, Varela acquired the WBA Bolivian 105-pound belt by defeating Miguel Telles in Venezuela in 2004. The Venezuelan, dubbed “El Olimpico”, had an ambitious crack at the WBO minimum belt against fast-moving Puerto Rican Ivan Calderon, losing a unanimous verdict (118-109 twice and 119-108) in Colombia in October 2006.
Varela, a game boxer-puncher, revenged himself on Carlos Melo in a rematch and captured the WBA Fedelatin belt via 10-round decision in Venezuela in 2006. But the Venezuelan veteran yielded his newly acquired regional belt to up-and-coming KO artist Roman Gonzalez (now 17-0, 16 KOs) by being annihilated in the first round in the challenger’s home turf, Nicaragua, last May. Since then, Varela scored a unanimous decision over Freddy Canate and fought to a technical draw with Oscar Martinez in the previous year.
The WBA champ’s manager is Mitsunori Seki, then a perennial top feather contender in 1960’s and ex-Orient champ who kept his title twelve times to his credit, said, “I hope Niida, this time, will show a good fight.” Seki was an unfortunate uncrowned champ, having failed to win the world throne no less than five times as he lost to Pone Kingpetch (flyweight), Ultimino Sugar Ramos, Vicente Saldivar (twice) and Howard Winstone. Seki, however, is said to be fortunate as manager, since he cultivated a couple of world champs in dual-division champ Takanori Hatakeyama and Niida.
But Niida is such an enfant terrible (terrible child) that no one can tame, nor control. Seki suffered from a fearful headache when Niida abruptly decided to renounce the WBA belt just after winning it by dethroning Chana Porpaoin in 2001. The naughty and notorious kid capriciously returned to the ring warfare and directly challenged then WBA ruler Noel Arambulet, losing a hairline split verdict (114-115 twice and 116-114) after an eleven-month hiatus in 2003. This setback, his one and only defeat, might become a good medicine for him, as he regained his throne by beating Arambulet and has kept fighting even if his performance was fluctuating with his diarrhea, failure to smoothly make the weight, catching cold, etc. Mitsunori Seki has a tougher time handling such an uncontrollable world champ than squaring off against such a formidable champ Sugar Ramos at his prime.
(1-25-06)