Jermall Charlo versus Sergiy Derevyanchenko breakdown

This is the hardest fight for me to predict this weekend as it really is so even and a real 50/50. Jermall Charlo hasn’t been fighting the best competition since moving to 160 due to politics in boxing and hes looked average versus the people he has fought for various reasons. Sergiy Derevyanchenko has been fighting the top guys at 160 for the last few years but in his two big world title fights hes come up just short.

Jermall Charlo doesn’t throw a lot of punches but is accurate with what he throws. He seems to have good power though its not as significant at Middleweight as it was at 154. He can be made to miss sometimes but most of the time hes very accurate. He has good uppercuts and a good right hand which he uses in a variety of ways. He’s got decent defence but he isn’t hugely hard to hit though he’ll make you pay when you hit him. He’s got good stamina and comes on strong late in fights which he needs to do because hes sometimes a slow starter.

He has a nice jab which he pulls back quickly and can fight on both the front and back foot. He has a good chin and has never been dropped as far as i’m aware. I think he’ll be very motivated for this fight and will probably perform better than his other fights at middleweight because hes finally getting a big fight.

Sergiy Derevyanchenko has decent power himself though I think Charlo is more powerful. He’s been caught early in both his world title fights and dropped. I think he is susceptible to the uppercut because of how he likes to get on the inside and keep low which leaves him open for short uppercuts. He does work decently on the inside and has good feints which keeps his opponents guessing and limits their offence. I think he has nice short hooks which he throws to both the body and head. He showed he had good stamina in a hard grueling fight with GGG. He has good pressure and clearly isn’t scared of anybodies power as he went toe to toe with GGG who is a huge puncher. He also has a decent chin even though hes been dropped as he took a lot of shots in the GGG fight and most didn’t seem to effect him.

Sergiy Derevyanchenko

This is a really hard fight for me to predict but i’m going to go with Jermall Charlo by decision because I think he’ll drop Chenko with an uppercut and that may be the deciding factor in an otherwise close fight. A lot of it could be what the judges like, the powerful accurate shots of Charlo or the volume and aggressiveness of Chenko. With Charlo being the home fighter I think they’ll go with him.

Daniel Roman versus Juan Carlos Payano breakdown

While on paper this looks like it could be a semi-competitive fight I personally think its going to be one sided in Roman’s favour.

Daniel Roman is the bigger fighter who has been competing on par with the best fighters at Super Bantamweight and only just lost his world titles in a fight which could have gone either way. Payano on the other hand has been stopped by both of the top guys he’s faced recently and seems to be on the decline. He’s also moving up a weight class which can’t be good at this stage of his career.

Juan Carlos Payano

I think Daniel Roman will win this fight by KO and move on to fight for a world title again shortly afterwards. I still think he’s one of the best 122 pounders in the world and is fully capable of regaining a world title.

Jermell Charlo versus Jeison Rosario breakdown

This is the fight i’m most looking forward to this weekend because its a unification and a match up between the top two guys at Super Welterweight. Jermell Charlo is now a two time champion at 154 and is looking to unify the division and really start to establish his legacy. Jeison Rosario became an unlikely champion after upsetting Julian Williams early this year. He hadn’t looked great in his fights before and looked set to be a solid contender but not someone that would become world champion.

Jermell Charlo doesn’t throw a lot of punches but he is very accurate with them and doesn’t miss often. He has decent power that has effected everybody hes fought at world level which shows its real power. He has good stamina and though he can be out boxed at times I don’t see that being a problem versus Rosario who won’t be looking to box on the back foot. Hes not really a combination puncher and mostly catches people with a 1-2 which he seems to get a lot of power on. He has good defence, decent head movement and catches a lot of punches on his gloves. He doesn’t have many flaws but can freeze up a little and not throw punches when people throw combinations versus him. If they don’t land the first punch of the combination it isn’t very effective however as Jermell will slip and counter with either a right hand or a left to the body. If you can use feints effectively I think you could potentially make him miss and with his low output this could be quite effective. He has a good chin which has held up well even at world level.

Jeison Rosario is very powerful but doesn’t seem that hard to counter and this feeds into my view of him being a bit of a glass cannon. He throws really good hooks to the body and just in general works well to the body. Hes more active than Charlo but isn’t as accurate and some of his hooks can be quite wide in my opinion. A bit of his game people don’t talk about is how hes not bad at countering himself. In the Julian Williams fight he was doing it often and the shot that hurt Williams was a counter when the two were exchanging. He doesn’t have great head movement but its not completely static. He has an average jab which he gets countered over the top with quite often. Hes big for the weight and I have a feeling his stamina isn’t great. His chin seems decent and the only time he was stopped was more due to exhaustion rather than having a bad chin. he doesn’t have much big fight experience especially compared to Jermell Charlo.

Jeison Rosario

I think Jermell Charlo will win this fight by knockout because he has the better defence and is much more accurate with his punches. I think if they exchange he can come out on top. He should be able to counter throughout the fight and won’t struggle to land on Rosario who lacks good head movement. While Rosario seems to be a good fighter I don’t think hes consistently proven at world level like Charlo is and beyond the Williams fight has really struggled with guys that aren’t world class.

Bakhram Murtazaliev versus Manny Woods breakdown

This fight was put together as part of a step aside deal for Murtazaliev so that Jermell Charlo and Jeison Rosario can unify. It’s expected that if Murtazaliev wins this fight he will fight for the IBF title next whether it becomes vacant or not.

Bakhram Murtazaliev has good power and looks for the knockout rather than being satisfied with going to a decision. I’d say he has a pretty average defence but has decent combinations. He’s not really fought at world level yet but seems to be a decent prospect/contender. He might potentially be fighting the winner of Charlo-Rosario but I believe its more likely he fights for the vacant IBF belt. He has good footwork and can move around and box if he wants to. Hes also a decent counter puncher when people come at him but is also very comfortably on the front foot.

Manny Woods holds a high guard constantly which leaves him very open to looping shots and also means he doesn’t get much of his own offence off. He’s very defensive at this point in his career and I don’t think he really comes to win anymore. I think his punch resistance is gone at this point and he doesn’t have a lot of ambition left and is happy to get a pay check and lose. He’s currently on a three KO loss streak.

Manny Woods

I think Murtazaliev should win by stoppage within four rounds as he has good power and Woods doesn’t have good punch resistance at this point in his career.

Brandon Figueroa versus Damien Vazquez breakdown

I’m not going to sugarcoat this fight and say its great or anything because its not. It’s a tune up fight for Figueroa after he struggled badly in his last fight and got a draw against what to be fair to him was an overweight Julio Cejar. Figueroa looks like he could be a contender at 122 pounds and while he has a secondary WBA title it doesn’t mean anything and he should still be developed as a prospect would be not as a champion which PBC are pretending he is. Damien Vasquez is nowhere near world level and in his only step up fight versus Juan Carlos Payano he was soundly beat. I don’t mind Figueroa taking a tune up fight but I won’t stand for people who are acting like this is at all a good well matched fight. The rest of the fights on this card are well matched apart from perhaps one other.

This is one of the fights where i’m not going to go too deep into their individual skills because I feel it is a major mismatch so theres really not anything Vazquez does better than Figueroa.

Damien Vazquez

Brandon Figueroa has the power,experience and size advantages in this fight. He’s also the better boxer which means the only thing Vazquez has going for him is hes a southpaw and some fighters struggle fighting southpaws. If Vazquez does pull off the upset then he deserves massive credit because everything is stacked against him.

I predict Brandon Figueroa will win by stoppage within 7 rounds because he holds all the advantages in this fight and Vazquez has been brought in as a tune up for him.

Mohamed Khalladi versus Domenico Valentino to take place 25th of September in Italy

This is a sneaky good fight as Valentino was a very good amateur who only came up short against Francesco Patera while Khalladi is having a good late career resurgence right now.

The fight will be for the IBF Inter-Continental title over 12 rounds at Lightweight.

Ali Eren Demirezen, Viktor Vykhryst and Andriy Rudenko pick up wins in Ukraine.

All 3 heavyweights picked up wins today to help progress their careers. None of them were massive victorys which will get international attention but they were solid.

Ali Eren Demirezen won a decision versus Kamil Sokolowski but didn’t look amazing in doing so. He came in close to his career heaviest so I imagine he wasn’t hugely motivated for this fight and it was just about getting ring rust off before getting into bigger fights. Sokolowski is a decent fighter and may be the best win on Demirezen’s record so far.

Viktor Vykhryst

Viktor Vykhryst faced a bit of a step up in Gabriel Enguema but passed the test well. After an opening two rounds in which he dominated he knocked Enguema out cold in the 3rd round with a perfect 1-2. He clearly has good power and skills which means hes one to watch in the heavyweight division. Like a lot of heavyweights he relies on his 1-2 too much in my opinion and very rarely throws other punches though.

Andriy Rudenko

Andriy Rudenko picked up a 10 round decision victory over Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko in what was an entertaining fight. While Rudenko mostly dominated the action Chenko did come back at times and certainly came to win. Rudenko isn’t a big heavyweight and at 37 is coming to the end of his career. I don’t know if this was a retirement bout so that he could go out on a win or whether he wants to continue and fight bigger names. If he does want to continue I think a fight with Ali Eren Demirezen would be a good crossroads fight and also a good test for Demirezen. A win for Demirezen would put him back in the mix at European level and potentially get him a crack at the European title after the Dubois/Joyce winner vacates.

Robeisy Ramirez versus Felix Caraballo breakdown

This is a good step up for Ramirez who is swiftly improving in his pro career. Felix Caraballo was a random fighter until he fought Shakur Stevenson and it looks like he’ll now be given as a test for up and coming prospects.

Robeisy Ramirez was a great amateur and looks to have solid power as a pro. He likes to go to the body a lot which isn’t a good sign for Caraballo.

Caraballo is a solid domestic fighter but isn’t on the level of Ramirez in any way. He was also dropped by Stevenson by bodyshots which won’t bode well for him in this fight.

Felix Caraballo

Robeisy Ramirez will win this fight by knockout or very dominant decision.

Jose Pedraza versus Javier Molina breakdown

This is a really solid fight between two top 140 pounders with the winner getting close to a title shot.

Jose Pedraza is a solid boxer but has been losing the biggest fights of his career. I don’t think hes looked great at 140 pounds and has lost to Jose Zepeda who while being a good fighter isn’t what I would call elite which is what I would call the other fighters Pedraza has lost too. I could go on about how he is a skilled boxer (he is) with decent power but it really comes down to I don’t think hes the same fighter at 140 pounds as he has been during his career.

Javier Molina isn’t better technically than Pedraza and doesn’t have more power but he has the momentum. He is also much more of a natural 140 pounder than Pedraza. Hes also much more hungrier than Pedraza as he hasn’t yet won a world title and needs the money more.

I know this isn’t the most technical breakdown but sometimes with boxing you just have to go with the momentum and how the narrative of the fight looks.