It's been a while since we've seen Panamanian Anselmo Moreno (33-2-1, 12) in the ring, 9 months in fact, though this Saturday he returns to action and defends the WBA "super" title at Bantamweight as he faces Colombian challenger William Urina (24-2, 20).
The last time we saw Moreno in action he suffered his first career defeat in a over decade as the highly talented Abner Mares claimed a very impressive decision over him up at Super Bantamweight. It's shocking to actually say he's fighting at Bantamweight for the first time since stopping David De La Mora last April, some 16 or so months ago.
At Bantamweight many regard Moreno as the #1 guy, his loss at Super Bantamweight really doesn't effect that. In fact losing to Mares, who now holds a title at Featherweight, is no great shame at all.
Moreno's resume at Bantamweight is genuine exceptional. He holds wins over Volodymyr Sydorenko, twice, Rolly "Matsushita" Lunas, Mahyar Monshipour, Nehomar Cermeno, twice, Lorenzo Parra, Vic Darchinyan and De La Mora.
It's not just the resume that has made "Chemito" stand out in the eyes of the hardcore fans but also his style of fighting. He is one of the truly elite pure boxers. He's as slippery as they come, has an accurate jab, is an outstanding counter puncher and uses the ring as good as any fighter not named "Mayweather" or "Rigondeaux".
I'll admit I was shocked by the way Mares beat Moreno though in all honesty it says more about how good Mares is than how bad Moreno is. I honestly cannot see any fighter at 118 doing the same to Moreno as Mares did, and that's despite the fact I think Shinsuke Yamanaka is an exceptional fighter.
Colombian challenger Urina is 27 and surprisingly only around 6 months younger than the champion. Despite the relatively close age of the two men in terms of raw years, the challenger is easily the younger man in terms of ring years. Moreno has fought 36 bouts and a combined 268 rounds, including more than 10 world title bouts, Urina has fought just 26 bouts for a combined 108 rounds and has just 1 world title bout behind him.
It's the previous world title bout of Urina's that is by far the most interesting bout of his career. In that bout he went to Argentina and was widely out pointed by Omar Narvaez in a bout for the WBO Super Flyweight title.
Against Narvaez, Urina tried hard and had some success though was widely outclassed by the talented and oft-overlooked Argentinian. Despite the loss he had impressed some with his desire to win and he has improved on the back of that loss.
In terms of his style Urina is a bit of the "typical Colombian". Hits hard, especially against the C grade opponents, is some what limited and seems to have little success out of his homeland, he is 0-2 outside of Colombia.
To me this bout is much less about Moreno defending his title but actually looking good and Urina has been selected as an opponent because he is made to order for Moreno. He'll come forward all night, he'll throw plenty and he'll give Moreno a lot of chances to counter and make him look stupid. Sure Urina may take a round or two early as Moreno shakes off the ring rust but for the most part he'll be chasing shadows and getting hitting by sharp shots through out the 12 round contest.
Prediction-Moreno UD12
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