Although the sporting week has been dominated by the London 2012 Olympic games it doesn't mean that all other sports are off. In Mexico this coming weekend boxing fans will get a chance to see IBF Light Flyweight champion John Riel Casimero (16-2, 10) defend his title against unbeaten Mexican Pedro Guevara (18-0-1, 13).
Filipino Casimero infamously claimed the Interim title earlier this year in bout with Argentinian Luis Alberto Lazarte, which ended in a riot after Casimero stopped the controversial Argentinian. The fall out from that bout saw Casimero hit with chairs and needing to hide under the ring before Lazarte was given a life ban by the IBF. Since then however Casimero has found his Interim title being upgraded to the full version of the IBF title due to the inactivity of Ulises Solis, despite not having fought himself since February.
Casimero, a youngster at just 22 years old has been mixing in world company for over 2 years and has fought a number of respected names in the lower divisions including Cesar Canchila (TKO11), Ramon Garcia Hirales (L-SD12), Moruti Mthalane (L-TKO5) and the aforementioned Lazarte (TKO10) gaining valuable experience against some genuinely excellent little fighters. So despite having less than 20 fights he has been fighting at a very high level and he has also been fighting away from home regularly having already fought in Nicaragua, Mexico, South Africa and Argentina. Going to Mexico to face Guevara really shouldn't bother the talented youngster.
Whilst the champion is a known quantity who has mixed with excellent competition (with varying degrees of success) the challenger is a little bit less well known. Over his first 13 fights Guervara faced no one of note, in fact the most well known fighter that Guervara faced early in his career was Mexican journeyman Charly Valenzuela, who's record boasts almost as many losses as wins. In recent fights however Guevara has stepped up well and scored slightly more notable results whilst claiming both the WBC Silver Light Flyweight title and the NABF title at the same weight. The most notable result of Guevara's is a controversial 12 round draw against fellow Sinaloa resident Mario Rodriguez, a former world title contender himself.
Just going on records alone the unbeaten record of Guevara is relatively weak with only a handful of solid fights whilst Casimero, although suffering losses has fought at a much, much higher standard for a much longer time. With this in mind it's fair to say that Casimero is a more proven fighter, but how about in the actual ring?
Guevara, like most Mexican's appears to be quite in your face, a fighter who likes to try to prove his machismo. He has stinging punches but not the sort of killer shots that he perhaps needs for his style, however he does appear to take a huge number of shots against much lesser skilled fighters than Casimero. Guevara's fight with Valenzuela saw Guevara just breaking down the journeyman whilst taking a number of right hands himself, I'd worry for him if he wanted to use that sort of strategy against Casimero who is very tough himself.
Like Guevara, Casimero can go to war as he did with Canchilla, though he's actually a very solid boxer when he's got his boxing head on allowing him to either box or brawl. Having shown more to his game than Guervara and having shown he can go toe-to-toe with hard punchers we've really got to favour the young Filipino.
Whilst I can't currently find any bets on this bout I do fancy Casimero to score a KO in the later half of the fight which I expect will be a very, very enjoyable action bout. Casimero's extra experience against top fighters will the difference for me whilst Guevara's 0 is pretty much a paper 0.
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