Earlier this year Russian Evgeny Gradovich (17-0, 8) announced himself on to the world stage by claiming the IBF Featherweight title courtesy of a decision over Australia's Billy Dib (36-2-0-1, 21). That bout, way back in March, wasn't a particularly fun to watch fight but it did see the massively over-hyped Dib losing his claim of being a "world champion".
Just over 8 months after their first meeting the two men collide in a rematch as one of the chief support bouts to the mouth watering clash between Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios. Whilst it may be boxing's equivalent to an appetiser I can't help but feel that this is a second serving I don't much want.
Since their first meeting Gradovich has seemingly become a better fighter. Sure he's not a shadow in the ring, but he's growing in confidence and experience fighter after fight. At the moment there is still some way to progress though he's still a 100 punch a round fighter who looks to beat up, grind down and defeat foes with constant work-rate and pressure.
If there is a clear issue with Gradovich it could be that he lacks fight ending power, and as a result his own physical demise may come quicker, though so far he has appeared sturdy and the sort of fighter who will give anyone headaches. In fact I'd go as far as to say that Gradovich is the type of guy who will give opponents cluster headaches due to sheer volume.
Whilst I feel Gradovich is improving I also feel the reverse is true when it comes to Dib. The once promising Australian really seems to have gone backwards since the first meeting with Gradovich. What was once a promising skilled fighter now appears to be a crude spoiler with little in terms of power, true boxing skills and although he still possesses some speed he's not looking world class.
Unfortunately for Dib he seems to have been a man who believed in his own hype. Now fighting after the loss to Gradovich he seems to be a man lacking either the confidence to be world class or the fire to compete at the top level. Whatever it is it's going to effect him again here and what should be a tale of revenge will just be a further step backwards for Dib.
With Gradovich lacking world class power I just see this being a bit of a 1-sided but messy decision for the "Russian Mexican" who will likely be hoping this is the last he has to do with Dib who is a frustration to many, including myself.
Prediction-Gradovich UD12
Showing posts with label Australian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian. Show all posts
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Daniel Geale v Darren Barker
The Middleweight division in recent months has really managed to grab people's attention. Of course when a division has some serious punchers that's what happens and with Gennady Golovkin, Peter Quillin and Curtis Stevens the division has a trio of big punchers.
Outside from the 3 big bangers however the division has pretty much everything else you can ask for in a division. It has boxers, swarmers, pressure fighters and plenty of exciting match ups, including this Saturday's IBF Middleweight title fight between the defending champion Daniel Geale (29-1, 15) and challenger Darren Barker (25-1, 16).
Australian champion Geale is one of the sports nice guys. A humble, hard working fighter who wasn't blessed with power, speed, reflexes or any other special quality other than dedication to become better. This dedication has seen him develop one of the sports bests engines and a true fighters mentality not afraid to fight on the road or against good fighters.
"Real Deal" Geale may well have fought 28 of his previous 30 contests in his native Australia but has twice traveled to, and won in, Germany taking on fighters with a reputation of getting favourable decisions their way in the shape of Felix Sturm and Sebastian Sylvester. Against both of the German based fighters Geale traveled away and worked relentlessly to take decision over hometown fighters in impressive performances.
Like the champion "Dazzling" Darren Barker is a genuine and honest professional. He was born with more natural talent than Geale and often looks incredibly classy in the ring against the lower tier fighters which make up many of his 25 victories, though when he's stepped up he has generally been able to move up a gear.
Although Barker is best known for his "dull" performance en route to a loss to Sergio Martinez he has taken that loss on board and developed as a result. His usually reserved technical boxing skills are still there though he's added some killer instinct to his fighting and has scored stoppage victories over both Kerry Hope, a former European champion, and Simone Rotolo. Although Rotolo officially retired with an injured hand it was obvious that Barker was going to stop him sooner or later with the offensive mindset he had.
As mentioned already Barker is the better technical fighter. His career has been plagued by injuries to various body parts but his talent is clearly there. When fighting Geale however you need more than just technical skills. Geale is a faster moving fighter who throws in bunches, in fact he can throw in bunches of bunches. If you try to out box him with singles, as both Sylvester and Sturm did, you'll simply be outworked by quite a margin.
To beat Geale you don't necessarily need to match his amazing work rate but you do need to either be busy or have the power to blast him out, which nobody has been able to do this far, and maybe only Golovkin could actually do it. As a result Barker will need to be busier than usual, he'll need to show the aggressive streak which has been evident in his last few fights and hope that his tank holds up for 12 rounds, something that has been a question mark over Barker since he struggled over the line against Affif Belghecham.
I can see Geale getting to set the pace of the bout and after it's incredibly hard to see him losing just because of his work rate. Barker will have his moments and rounds due to his very classy work but the busy action of Geale will see him over the line safely.
Prediction-Geale UD12
Outside from the 3 big bangers however the division has pretty much everything else you can ask for in a division. It has boxers, swarmers, pressure fighters and plenty of exciting match ups, including this Saturday's IBF Middleweight title fight between the defending champion Daniel Geale (29-1, 15) and challenger Darren Barker (25-1, 16).
Australian champion Geale is one of the sports nice guys. A humble, hard working fighter who wasn't blessed with power, speed, reflexes or any other special quality other than dedication to become better. This dedication has seen him develop one of the sports bests engines and a true fighters mentality not afraid to fight on the road or against good fighters.
"Real Deal" Geale may well have fought 28 of his previous 30 contests in his native Australia but has twice traveled to, and won in, Germany taking on fighters with a reputation of getting favourable decisions their way in the shape of Felix Sturm and Sebastian Sylvester. Against both of the German based fighters Geale traveled away and worked relentlessly to take decision over hometown fighters in impressive performances.
Like the champion "Dazzling" Darren Barker is a genuine and honest professional. He was born with more natural talent than Geale and often looks incredibly classy in the ring against the lower tier fighters which make up many of his 25 victories, though when he's stepped up he has generally been able to move up a gear.
Although Barker is best known for his "dull" performance en route to a loss to Sergio Martinez he has taken that loss on board and developed as a result. His usually reserved technical boxing skills are still there though he's added some killer instinct to his fighting and has scored stoppage victories over both Kerry Hope, a former European champion, and Simone Rotolo. Although Rotolo officially retired with an injured hand it was obvious that Barker was going to stop him sooner or later with the offensive mindset he had.
As mentioned already Barker is the better technical fighter. His career has been plagued by injuries to various body parts but his talent is clearly there. When fighting Geale however you need more than just technical skills. Geale is a faster moving fighter who throws in bunches, in fact he can throw in bunches of bunches. If you try to out box him with singles, as both Sylvester and Sturm did, you'll simply be outworked by quite a margin.
To beat Geale you don't necessarily need to match his amazing work rate but you do need to either be busy or have the power to blast him out, which nobody has been able to do this far, and maybe only Golovkin could actually do it. As a result Barker will need to be busier than usual, he'll need to show the aggressive streak which has been evident in his last few fights and hope that his tank holds up for 12 rounds, something that has been a question mark over Barker since he struggled over the line against Affif Belghecham.
I can see Geale getting to set the pace of the bout and after it's incredibly hard to see him losing just because of his work rate. Barker will have his moments and rounds due to his very classy work but the busy action of Geale will see him over the line safely.
Prediction-Geale UD12
Thursday, 20 June 2013
Sakio Bika v Marco Antonio Periban
One of this weekend's most promising, though most overlooked bouts, see's multi-time world title challenger Sakio Bika (31-5-2, 21) facing off against Mexican power puncher Marco Antonio Periban (20-0, 13) in a bout for the recently vacated WBC Super Middleweight title.
The division, one of boxing's best with the likes of Andre Ward, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler and Robert Stieglitz has been one of the sports most interesting over the past few years and this bout, whilst a "low level world title bout" again has the feeling of "interesting" about it.
Of the two men Bika is by far the more well known fighter. In a 38 fight career he has faced a genuine who's who including (but by no means limited to) Sam Soliman (twice), Markus Bayer, Joe Calzaghe, Lucien Bute, Peter Manfredo Jr and Andre Ward. Although he's only beaten Soliman and Manfredo from that list no one has had an easy night with him (with Ward having one of his toughest fights against him).
The reason no one has an easy night with Bika is because he's teak tough, very wild, throws punches from bizarre angles and doesn't mind being dirty. He's crude, clumsy, hard hitting and built like a rock. In fact the only time I remember him ever being down was when Jaidon Codrington dropped him in an excellent opening round in the final of "The Contender" season 3.
Born in Cameroon though based in Australia, Bika is a man who really should be avoided by fighters wanting to make a name for themselves. He has impressively won 9 of his last 11 bouts and of 6 of those have come by stoppage. His 2 losses in that run have come against Ward and to Jean-Paul Mendy, with the loss to Mendy being a case of Bika getting himself disqualified with a stupid punch when Mendy was down.
Aged 34 however and with just a sole fight (a 12 round decision win over Nikola Sjekloca) in the last year, Bika certainly isn't a fighter in his peak. He has only fought 3 times in the last 30 months and whilst that may help his longevity there are questions about how much he has left in the tank. He did look to have been technically improved against Sjekloca but Sjekloca himself looked limited (but brave).
With Bika being a clear "world level" fighter this will be the first big step up for Mexican Marco Antonio Periban, a fighter many haven't really seen.
Periban is a rare Mexican Super Middleweight and one who does have genuine power (despite his record "only" showing a 65% stoppage rate). He's been slowly climbing the rankings since 2008 and although he has scored victories over several "known names" they aren't known on the world stage. In fact the best victory on his record is probably Francisco Sierra (who was stopped by George Groves) or Samuel Miller (who had been beaten by Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez and Alex Theran in his 2 of his 3 previous bouts).
Although Periban has got lights out power he's a very slow fighter who often waits too long to let his hands go, has poor footwork and pretty weak defense. He can certainly be outboxed very easily by a proper boxer and he has been hurt in the past by lesser punchers than Bika.
Despite being just 28 Periban seems to have stopped improving in recent bouts and this is a bit of a worry when he's not making the step up to world class.
With both men having power this will likely be an explosive contest. I'd expect the odd head clash though with Bika being a tough so-and-so it's hard to go against him. Bika will almost certainly be willing to force a war with Periban and if that does happen there's only one winner.
For Periban to win he needs to be able to hurt Bika and control the pace of the bout, it's hard to imagine him doing either of those. I'd imagine that Bika will walk through Periban's slow but hurtful shots whilst ping his own wild hurtful hooks around the side of the head of the Mexican and eventually force a stoppage.
Prediction- Bika by stoppage TKO7
The division, one of boxing's best with the likes of Andre Ward, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler and Robert Stieglitz has been one of the sports most interesting over the past few years and this bout, whilst a "low level world title bout" again has the feeling of "interesting" about it.
Of the two men Bika is by far the more well known fighter. In a 38 fight career he has faced a genuine who's who including (but by no means limited to) Sam Soliman (twice), Markus Bayer, Joe Calzaghe, Lucien Bute, Peter Manfredo Jr and Andre Ward. Although he's only beaten Soliman and Manfredo from that list no one has had an easy night with him (with Ward having one of his toughest fights against him).
The reason no one has an easy night with Bika is because he's teak tough, very wild, throws punches from bizarre angles and doesn't mind being dirty. He's crude, clumsy, hard hitting and built like a rock. In fact the only time I remember him ever being down was when Jaidon Codrington dropped him in an excellent opening round in the final of "The Contender" season 3.
Born in Cameroon though based in Australia, Bika is a man who really should be avoided by fighters wanting to make a name for themselves. He has impressively won 9 of his last 11 bouts and of 6 of those have come by stoppage. His 2 losses in that run have come against Ward and to Jean-Paul Mendy, with the loss to Mendy being a case of Bika getting himself disqualified with a stupid punch when Mendy was down.
Aged 34 however and with just a sole fight (a 12 round decision win over Nikola Sjekloca) in the last year, Bika certainly isn't a fighter in his peak. He has only fought 3 times in the last 30 months and whilst that may help his longevity there are questions about how much he has left in the tank. He did look to have been technically improved against Sjekloca but Sjekloca himself looked limited (but brave).
With Bika being a clear "world level" fighter this will be the first big step up for Mexican Marco Antonio Periban, a fighter many haven't really seen.
Periban is a rare Mexican Super Middleweight and one who does have genuine power (despite his record "only" showing a 65% stoppage rate). He's been slowly climbing the rankings since 2008 and although he has scored victories over several "known names" they aren't known on the world stage. In fact the best victory on his record is probably Francisco Sierra (who was stopped by George Groves) or Samuel Miller (who had been beaten by Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez and Alex Theran in his 2 of his 3 previous bouts).
Although Periban has got lights out power he's a very slow fighter who often waits too long to let his hands go, has poor footwork and pretty weak defense. He can certainly be outboxed very easily by a proper boxer and he has been hurt in the past by lesser punchers than Bika.
Despite being just 28 Periban seems to have stopped improving in recent bouts and this is a bit of a worry when he's not making the step up to world class.
With both men having power this will likely be an explosive contest. I'd expect the odd head clash though with Bika being a tough so-and-so it's hard to go against him. Bika will almost certainly be willing to force a war with Periban and if that does happen there's only one winner.
For Periban to win he needs to be able to hurt Bika and control the pace of the bout, it's hard to imagine him doing either of those. I'd imagine that Bika will walk through Periban's slow but hurtful shots whilst ping his own wild hurtful hooks around the side of the head of the Mexican and eventually force a stoppage.
Prediction- Bika by stoppage TKO7
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