Historic bout in Latvia sees Breidis conquer Perez threat
IT was a relatively quiet weekend in terms of boxing action last week with only one high profile bout taking place in the unlikeliest of places.
This when the Cruiserweight Super Eight Series completed its quarterfinal leg, with Mairis Breidis taking his clash against Cuban Mike Perez all the way to Latvia.
Yes Latvia, which had never hosted a world boxing fight before.
The reigning WBC super champion used all sorts of tricks, including underhand ones to frustrate Perez, and escaped with a unanimous decision to advance to the semi-finals.
Perez, who still has the stigma of being responsible for the current vegetative state of Russian boxer Magomed Abdusalamov following their tragic heavyweight clash four years ago, has dropped down to the cruiserweight to maximise his chances of winning a world title.
But he could not muster it against Breidis, who beat him fair and square to set up a semi-final clash against series favourite Olexander Usyk.
Uysk is well known to the SA boxing scene, having beaten at least four of our boxers in Danie Venter, Daniel Bruwer, Johnny Muller and Thabiso Mchunu.
The WBO champion was the first to book his ticket in the last four when he scored a nine rounds stoppage of German Marco Huck last month.
Outstanding now is the winner between Krszysztof Wlodarczyk and Murat Gassiev, who clash on October 21 for the latter’s IBF title defence.
Due to the dearth of boxing action Breidis will win Boxing Mecca’s Boxer of the Week award.