Despite the fact that 3 of this weekends world title bouts take place in the lower weight divisions, arguably the most exciting takes place in the Light Middleweight division as WBO Light Middleweight champion Zaurbek Baysangurov (27-1, 20) faces the always fun to watch Lukas Konecny (48-3, 23).
The 27 year old Baysangurov will be seeking his second successful title defense since being seeing his interim status upgraded to full champion earlier this year. In his first defense he was less than convincing against the unheralded Frenchman Michel Soro, however he showed his experience late in the bout to take a close but clear decision.
Baysangurov really made his name as an amateur where he excelled in the cadets and juniors winning various national and international titles including the 2001 European Cadet Championships and the 2003 European Junior Championships, before turning professional in 2004. As a young professional he rose through the ranks quickly and claimed various titles including the IBF Youth Middleweight title (in his 11th bout), the WBC International Light Middleweight title (in his 15th fight) and the European Light Middleweight title (in his 16th bout) before suffering a notable upset loss to Cornelius Bundrage in 2008.
Since suffering the sole loss of his professional career Baysangurov has rebuilt well. He has strung together 8 wins (6 by T/KO) however the quality of the opponents is questionable with Soro being the stand out amongst them. Despite the quality (or rather lack of) of Baysangurov's opponents in recent times he has claimed both the WBA Inter-Continental Light Middleweight title and of course, more notably, the WBO world title.
In terms of talent, Baysangurov is a very talented fighter, but I'm not sure I'd describe him as being genuine "world class". He has shown his vulnerabilities in the past, not only suffering the stoppage to Bundrage but also being dropped by Soro and Marco Antonio Rubio (and possibly others) which is quite worrying and probably explains the weak recent opposition he's been facing. Despite this he does hit very hard himself and can hurt almost any fighter if he lands clean.
The challenger, Czech Lukas Konecny has been one of boxing's most over-looked fighters over the last decade and despite not being a really well known name has scored notable victories. Despite being around since 2001 Konecny hasn't really had a defining win, however he does have a number of credible wins including victories over the likes of Siarhei Khomitski, Matthew Hall, Khoren Gevor (twice) and Roman Dzhuman.
Despite having several good wins on his record, Konecny has had 2 issues with his career. The first of those is that he's had to travel to get his most notable bouts. So far in his career he has fought in Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Poland, Russia and the United Kingdom. Sadly this leads to the other issue, when your forced to fight away from home you often suffer some unfortunate losses and that's what happened to Konecny. So far all of his losses have come away from home.With losses coming in Spain (to Ruben Varon, by Split decision), Italy (to Michele Piccirillo by unanimous decision) and in Germany (to Serhiy Dzinziruk by majority decision, with judge Clark Sammartino having a ridiculous card of 118-110).
Whilst Konecny may be described as a journeyman due to his need to travel to the opponents backyard, he is anything but a journeyman in fighting style. He's a very intelligent pressure fighter who throws a lot and generally lands a lot grinding opponents down with a very solid work rate and a determined mindset. Whilst he's not a massive puncher, he is an exciting fighter who has hurtful stinging power on his punches and often refuses to take a backwards step.
So now on to this fight, I really like Konecny and to see him with a world title would genuinely be nice after the career he's had and I'll be honest I think he may just nick this on work rate in a genuinely enthralling fight that ebbs and flows. Baysangurov certainly has the ability to to make life difficult for pretty much anyone at Light Middleweight however I don't think he has that "world class" ability needed to do more than just make life difficult. At 34 years old however Konecny may well just have a slid a bit too much and his work may just lack the snap that it once had.
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