This coming Friday international fans have a few things to look forward to.
In Argentina we get the most notable fight of the day as the heavy handed Argentinian slugger Victor Emilio Ramirez (22-2-0-1, 17) takes on Britain's likable Ovill McKenzie (25-12, 13) in a bout for the IBF Cruiserweight crown. McKenzie got the bout at late notice, following the pull out of Yoan Pablo Hernandez, who was supposed to fight Ramirez before announcing his shock retirement recently. It's going to be a huge ask for the 35 year old Brit, however he has been dubbed the “Upsetter” and may well pull out the performance of his life against the very aggressive Ramirez. Another major bout on Friday comes from Germany where female star Susi Kentikian (34-2-0-1, 17) looks to defend her WBA female Flyweight title against Mexican challenger Susana Cruz Perez (17-6, 8), who is coming into this one following a shock win over Anne Sophie De Costa. Coming into this one Kentikian is in form and has won 5 in a row, following back-to-back losses in 2012 and she'll be hoping to prove she is still one of the best female boxers on the planet. The Mexican on the other hand is in her biggest fight to date, though not her first world title bout.
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Whilst usually the main action of a weekend of boxing is on a Saturday night this weekend really is 50-50 with a lot of really good fights coming on Friday as well as Saturday. The first set of bouts come from Russia where there is a really mouth watering card featuring a number of world class fighters and a main event that could end up being the fight of the year. On paper the weakest bout on the Russian card is a Light Heavyweight bout between Dmitry Bivol (1-0, 1) and Konstantin Piternov (18-6, 9). This 6 rounder however is an amazing test for the unbeaten 24 year old who will be fast tracked if he can look impressive here. This is the sort of match making we love and it's a shame we don't see more of it. In a 10 round Heavyweight bout we will see former Heavyweight world title challenger Manuel Charr (27-2, 16) take on the very capable Johann Duhaupas (31-2, 20) in a really good bout to see where both men are heading. The loser here likely falls off the radar somewhat whilst the winner should be moved towards a major bout, perhaps a Europe title fight or a world title eliminator. A second 10 round is set to take place at Cruiserweight as former world title challenger Rakhim Chakhkiev (21-1, 16) takes on former WBA “interim” champion Valery Brudov (42-5, 28). This should be a straight forward win for Chakhkiev, though we suspect he needs to do more than just “win” and instead he needs to look fantastic, if he wants his team to push him towards a world title bout later in the year. Another fringe level Cruiserweight on this card is the monstrously hard hitting Dmitry Kudryashov (16-0, 16) who will be hoping to continue his run of destruction and retain the WBA International Cruiserweight title as he battles former world title challenger Francisco Palacios (23-2, 14). Palacious has never been stopped and twice ran Krzystof Wlodarczyk close, though is now 37 years old and has certainly seen better days. We see another unbeaten puncher in action at 140lbs where Eduard Troyanovsky (20-0, 17) will be taking on the once beaten Aik Shakhnazaryan (15-1, 6). Shakhnazaryan lost his unbeaten record last time out when he was upset by the unheralded Abner Lopez and for some reason his team are really throwing him to the wolves here with Troyanovsky being a devastating puncher. This could be over quickly. In the main event we will see the tough, exciting and heavy handed Denis Lebedev (26-2, 20) defending his WBA Cruiserweight title against the free swinging Youri Kayembre Kalenga (21-1, 14). This has the potential to be something very special and we'd be shocked if this was anything short of breath taking. Both guys have their limitations but both have styles that should gel to give us a engrossing war of attrition. Staying with Cruiserweights we also get a brilliant match up in Argentina where the heavy handed Victor Emilio Ramirez (21-2, 17) takes on the highly skilled, though sometimes lazy, Ola Afolabi (21-3-4, 10) for the IBF interim title. This is probably not going to quite catch fire like the other bout but it should be equally as engrossing and we'd not be shocked if this was a brilliant back-and-forth bout between two men who are eager to score a bit win. In the US there are two cards of note. The most interesting of those is on ESPN where fans get the semi-finals in this years Boxcino tournaments. In the Light Middleweight tournament we'll see the very promising Stanyslav Skorokhod (9-0, 7) battle against John Thompson (15-1, 5) in a bout that looks good on paper. We've got to back the unbeaten Ukrainian here, especially considering how good he looked in the quarter final, though it's still a very solid match up. The other semi-final at 154lbs will see the exciting Brandon Adams (16-1, 11) take on US based Armenian Vito Gasparyan (15-3-5, 8) in what looks like a much more competitive match up than the other one. We favour Adams for this semi but Gasparyan is better than his record indicates. The other tournament is at Heavyweight where we again see two interesting looking bouts. One of those will see veteran Andrey Fedosov (26-3, 21) battle against Lenroy Thomas (19-3, 9). In their quarter finals Thomas just sneaked past Jason Estrada after a tie-breaker round whilst Fedosov battered Nat Heaven in 173 seconds. It's fair to say Fedosov is the big favourite but it's a good for Thomas to make a name for himself. The other bout will see Razvan Cojanu (13-1, 7) battle against the big hitting Donovan Dennis (11-1, 9). Cojanu also needed an extra round to get through his quarter-final, narrowly out pointing Ed Fountain, whilst Dennis stopped the previously unbeaten Steve Vukosa in 4 rounds. Of these two bouts it's the Cojanu Vs Dennis bout that holds a lot more intrigue than the other semi-final. On the other card there will be prospects galore as Showtime do one of their most interesting Shobox cards in recent memory. In the most notable bouts we get Middleweight action with one of the two most notable match ups being a bout between the the hard hitting Ievgen Khytrov (9-0, 9) and fellow unbeaten Aaron Coley (9-0-1, 6). Khytrov, who famously beat Ryota Murata in the 2011 World Amateur Champions final, will be expected to destroy Coley but that says more about Khytrov than it does about Coley. If we're being totally honest Khytrov looks like the best Middleweight prospect on the planet and is going to be a nightmare for anyone but the truly elite. The other Middleweight bout will see Sergiy Derevyanchenko (4-0, 3) battle the once beaten Alan Campa (13-1-0-1, 9). Whilst we think Khytrov is the better prospect it does seem like Derevyanchenko is being moved a bit faster, at 29 years old however he's not got a year or two to waste and at his current pace he'll be fighting to titles by the end of 2016 at the very latest. On paper this looks like a test but we can't see Campa lasting 8 rounds with Derevyanchenko. Another notable prospect in action here is Frank Galarza (16-0-2, 10) who will be up against Sheldon Moore (13-2-1, 9). Galarza had a sensation 2014 with 5 wins, including an excellent KO against the then 14-0 John Thompson. Moore shouldn't be too tough for Galarza but could make for an interesting match up for the with the unbeaten power-puncher. |
InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
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