Wednesday 15 August 2012

Alberto Rossel

When we talk about "world champions" in boxing today we do have a number of really unknown fighters, few however are as unknown as Peruvian veteran Alberto "Chiquito" Rossel (31-8-0-1, 13), the current WBA "interim" Light Flyweight champion who is perhaps, only known, by the most hardcore, of the hardcore.

The 34 year old Rossel first made his name fighting as an amateur fighter in the mid 1990's where he competed not only at the 1995 Pan American games but also the 1996 Olympic games. At the Pan Am games Rossel would defeat Nicaraguan Adonis Rivas, a fighter who went on to become a 2-time world champion as a professional. Following the win over Rivas however Rossel would lose to Puerto Rican José Juan Cotto. At the Olympics however Rossel was less fortunate and he was actually beaten in his opening contest as he was out pointed by China's  Yang Xiangzhong defeating him 16-7 in the preliminary round.

Following his amateur career Rossel turned professional and debuted in March 1998 scoring a 2nd round KO victory over Michel Vargas. Rossel would later add 2 more victories throughout the year to end 1998 with a record of 3-0 (3). The following year Rossel would add 3 more victories (1 by KO) to move to 6-0 (4) with all of his fights to this point taking place in Lima, the capital of Peru.

In 2000 Rossel faced his first notable opponent as he traveled from his homeland to face the then 24-0 Colombian Daniel Reyes, who like Rossel had made an appearance at the 1996 Olympics. Reyes would simply have too much for the inexperienced Rossel who was stopped in the 4th round and suffered his first defeat as a professional. Soon after this fight Reyes would go on to fight for the IBF Minimumweight title losing by close decision to Roberto Carlos Leyva, however Reyes would eventually go on to claim the title and gain revenge over Leyva.

Although Rossel bounced back from his first loss by traveling to American and defeating Adeniji Washington his career would struggle and he lost his following two bouts, including a 6 round decision loss to future Minimumweight great Ivan Calderon.

Rossel started to rebuild his career once again after seeing his record fall to 7-3 (4) and scored two decision wins over nondescript opponents before facing the then unbeaten Brian Viloria. The bout with Viloria ended disappointingly after a clash of heads in round 3 left Rossel unable to continue. Thankfully the two men were able to rematch just 4 months later and Rossel gave Viloria one of the toughest bouts of Viloria's early career, taking the unbeaten American to a razor thin majority decision in a battle for the NABF Flyweight title.

Following his loss to Viloria, Rossel faded away somewhat and went back to Peru to fight, running up 7 low profiled wins (6 in Peru, and 1 in the US) over the following 4 years. Rossel would next surface in a major contest as he traveled to Argentina to face the difficult Argentinian Luis Alberto Lazarte. Rossel, like many after him, would find Lazarte more than a little bit tricky as the Argentinian claimed a clear unanimous decision over him.

Following the loss to Lazarte Rossel would defeat Chilean Guillermo Dejeas (KO5) before traveling to South Africa and facing Vusi Malinga in a bout for the WBC International Bantamweight title. Malinga would prove to be too powerful and too big for Rossel, stopping the Peruvian in 5 rounds. This loss, like many Rossel suffered, forced Rossel back to Peru though it was whilst back home the Rossel would pick up his first professional titles. The first of which was the lightly regarded UBC Intercontinental Flyweight title, that Rossel won by stopping Edwin Ortega Santa Cruz. A little over a year later Rossel had added both the WBA Fedebol Flyweight title and the WBA Fedelatin Flyweight title to his collection.

Having moved up the WBA rankings thanks to the regional title that he had won, Rossel managed to earn himself his first world title fight as he took on the very talented Hugo Fidel Cazares. Cazares proved not only too good but far too strong and far too powerful as he scored 3 knockdowns en route to a 9th round TKO victory. Rossel simply couldn't match Cazares in anyway at all, as he was out powered, out sized and out skilled, though he did put on a brave performance against the very under-rated Mexican.

Having seen his record fall to 25-7-0-1 (11) and with father time catching up with Rossel, who was just months short of his 33rd birthday many who followed him thought that the Peruvian would retire and hold his head up high for having faced so many excellent opponents. Instead Rossel continued his career and dropped down in white to Light Flyweight, a weight that suited his diminutive, 5'2" frame much better than the Super Flyweight division.

After scoring 3 low profile wins at his new weight Rossel was offered a chance to fight for the WBA "interim" Light Flyweight title, the problem however was that he would be facing the young and unbeaten Mexican Jose Alfredo Rodriguez (who was then 28-0, 17). In a huge surprise result Rossel managed to out point his Mexican rival by jabbing and moving as he claimed the title and became the first ever Peruvian to claim any form of a major world title.

Rossel will made the first defence of his WBA "interim" Light Flyweight title by decisioning Colombian Karluis Diaz (17-4, 13). As a result of this victory Rossel became the first Peruvian to ever make a successful "world title" defence. (Note-A full write up of that fight can be found here). He has since defended that title against Walter Tello and Jose Alfredo Zuniga to have a run of 3 defenses.

Whilst we doubt Rossel's title reign will last long it's a title reign that will hold it's place in history and will hopefully help fans remember that boxing champions can come from any country, even the ones that aren't typically seen as "boxing countries.

To me it's amazing to think that Rossel's has faced a relative who's who of the lower weight divisions in recent years with Daniel Reyes, Ivan Calderon, Brian Viloria, Luis Alberto Lazarte and Hugo Fidel Cazares having all held a world title in either the Minimumweight or Light Flyweight divisions.

The video below is thanks to oswaldito24

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