Promoter Joe DeGuardia threw a curveball and maybe took some folks aback when he signed heavyweight Carlos Takam to the Star Boxing fold.
The fighter, from Cameroon, is a top ten-twenty heavyweight, and was rumored to be meeting Oleksandr Uskyk in October, in Chicago. Now, maybe not.
DeGuardia told NYF that options are being sifted, and a first fight for Takam under the Star banner is being planned.
Yes, he agreed in that a Takam (36-5-1 with 28 KOs, has been stopped three times) isn’t a typical Star signing. “He has tremendous potential,” DeGuardia said. “Basically all the fights he lost were on like a few days notice. And now he’ll finally have US-based training, etc.”
Now 38, Takam had dropped two straight, to Anthony Joshua, and then Dereck Chisora before rebounding in December against 17-1 Senad Gashi.
He was more than respectable against AJ, and then right hands hurt him versus Chisora.
Handled right, he could be a rough diamond acquisition for DeGuardia.
Founder/editor Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the then-impregnable Mike Tyson.
The Brooklyn-based journalist has covered the sport since for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Bad Left Hook and RING. His journalism career started with NY Newsday in 1999.
Michael Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live, since 2017.