Although the Cruiserweight division will always be the "bastard division" of boxing it has, in recent years, been one of the most exciting with major bouts and hardcore action on a regular basis. We expect that to continue this coming weekend as Cuban Yoan Pablo Hernandez (27-1, 13) defends his IBF Cruiserweight title for the third time.
Hernandez, the Ring magazine and IBF champion is a man who is widely regarded as one of the truly elite Cruiserweights. A giant in division at 6'4" with genuine knockdown power, solid speed, devastating reach and very impressive skills he does look like the real deal at times. Unfortunately for all the strengths that Hernandez has he does have a number of issues. Notably his finishing skills are less than average, his work rate can be very poor, his mental strength is questionable, his chin is suspect and most worryingly he has been inactive.
At his best Hernandez would genuinely hold his own with any of the other top Cruiserweights such as Marco Huck, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk or Ola Afolabi. At his worst however he'd struggle with any of the top 10-15 Cruiserweights, as shown last time out when he was very, very fortunate to defeat Troy Toss.
That's the problem with Hernandez. He's skilled but can be discouraged and is very much a flat track bully who can't seem to be able to dominate against an opponent willing to take a shot and fight back.
Hernandez's challenger this time around is Russian power puncher Alexander Alekseev (24-2-1, 20) who was thought of as a nailed on future champion when he turned professional back in 2006. Unfortunately Alexseev has similar mental traits to Hernandez. Although a very different fighter Alexseev is another who is a bit of a bully in the ring and doesn't seem to have the mental toughness to back up his impressive talent.
At his best Alekseev is somewhat a Wladimir Klitschko style fighter with solid and powerful straight punches. His jab and straight are both excellent, powerful, fast and fluid. Unfortunately when fighters get inside he seems to really struggle and this was certainly shown against Firat Arslan.
What Alexeev needs to be concerned about here isn't so much the inside action but his chin. If Hernandez tags him clean on it we could well see a very early ending here.
With the ring rust of Hernandez, who has been out of the ring for more than a year, I do give Alexeev a chance, though in all honesty it's half a chance. Unfortunately for the Russian I cant see him standing up through Hernandez's fire power for 12 rounds and after Hernandez shakes some of the rust I see him stopping Alekseev.
Prediction-Hernandez TKO5
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