Lerena ready to roll with heavies
Kevin Lerena will look to follow in the footsteps of Evander Holyfield and Oleksandr Usyk when he officially makes the transition to heavyweight at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.
Romanian Bogdan Dinu will be the tallest and heaviest opponent of Lerena’s career to date, standing 1.96m and weighing 117kg in his last bout, although his normal fighting weight has been a little south of 110kg.
Trainer Peter Smith expects Lerena to come in a little over 100kg, where he’s most comfortable, saying there was no push to make him bigger. “What I need to rely on is his speed over power. If we slow down, it’s going to be a problem. I want to see him agile, skilful and moving.”
Cruiserweights don’t take their power to heavyweight. Holyfield had a stoppage ratio of 78% before dropping to 41% against the big men. Usyk, 75% as a cruiser, is at 33% three fights into the heavyweight class.
Holyfield and Usyk, both Olympic medallists, were never short on skill.
Lerena, with a 50% KO ratio, may find a way to the vulnerable chin of his 35-yearold foe, who has been stopped three times before. He comes off a two-round defeat to 109kg Englishman Daniel Dubois.
Dinu’s other two stoppage defeats, in 2018 and 2019, came against opponents weighing 143kg and 113kg.
An early victory would look good for Lerena. “If Kevin wins this fight by stoppage, then great,” said Smith. “But if Kevin does 12, even better, because I want him to feel 12 rounds with a heavyweight because you’re not going to knock all these heavyweights out.
“The longer Kevin can stand with a big man in front of him and feel comfortable, I’ll be happy. As long as Kevin is not having wars for 12 rounds [but] I think Kevin is going to have way too much skill for this guy.”
Lerena may be a laaitie compared to heavyweights of this millennium, but he is heavier than old-time greats like Joe Louis, 93kg in his prime, and Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano, who were both 85kg at their most vicious.
Dempsey demolished the 111kg Jess Willard and Louis smoked the 118kg Primo Carnera.
Tyson Fury, the world’s top-ranked heavyweight at the moment, has been as heavy as 125kg. Anthony Joshua was nearly 109kg when he was outpointed by Usyk, all 100kg of him. And that will give Smith confidence that there’s space for Lerena in the deep end.
“We are testing the waters,” he admitted. “This is the first fight we’re going to have with a fully-fledged heavyweight ... we’re going to see how we stand in this heavyweight division.
“If Kevin gets past this fight we’ve got a future in heavyweights.”
The tournament will be broadcast on SuperSport Variety 3 from 7pm.