The Super Featherweight division has been one of the weakest divisions in recent years though the one man who has managed to stand out in the division is Japanese hard hitter Takashi Uchiyama (19-0-1, 16), the current WBA champion.
Uchiyama claimed his title way back in January 2010 by stopping Juan Carlos Salgado and since then then has been the only really impressive fighter in the division with 6 title defenses including stoppage victories over Takashi Miura (the current WBC champion), Jorge Solis and Bryan Vasquez.
Despite being 33 years old the tank like Uchiyama has only fought 126 professional rounds, a little over 6 per bout as his destructive power has seen him repeatedly finishing opponents off inside the distance. In his 20 career bouts only Hero Bando has managed to see out the 12 round schedule.
Although not the fastest fighter in the division Uchiyama is very deliberate, defensively sound, more intelligent than he seems and has ridiculously quick recuperative powers. To date he has only been down once as a professional, dropped by Miura, but got immediately back to his feet and carried on despite being tagged by what appeared to be a fight ending shot.
Whilst Uchiyama is a slow starter he's a fighter who can defeat opponents both mentally by refusing to go away or physically by just battering them, or taking them out with one shot (as he did to Solis). This means he's always dangerous. Even if he can be out boxed early on he he only needs a single chance to land his destructive power.
For Uchiyama's 7th title defense he will be facing the relatively unknown Jaider Parra (20-0-1, 10), the younger brother of former world champion Lorenzo Parra.
Hailing from Venezuela Parra is a fighter than little is really known about. He's unbeaten and 30 years old having fought his entire career in Latin America, in fact all but 4 of his bouts have been fought in his native Venezuela.
From watching footage of Parra we do see a pretty decent technical boxer with nice movement and a good jab. Sadly though his lack of power and relative lack of activity in the ring can be a major issue and whilst his opponents so far haven't made him pay, they've also been of a much lower level than Uchiyama. In all honesty Parra's best opponents wouldn't even be favourites against Uchiyama's worst title defenses, Parramay be able to beat some of the weaker ones but Parra's opponents wouldn't.
Prediction-Uchiyama TKO8
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