Sergey Kuzmin vs. Amir Mansour this Monday

Boxingnews24.com

By Sean Jones: This Monday night, Sergey Kuzmin (11-0, 8 KOs) and #13 WBO Amir Mansour (23-2-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting for the vacant WBC International heavyweight at the Luzhniki in Moscow, Russia.

Despite the age difference between the two fighters, it should be a very competitive fight. Kuzmin, 30, is a big puncher from Russia with an excellent amateur background. Unfortunately for Kuzmin, he got off to a late start in his pro career at 27 due to the time that he spent fighting in Amateur boxing in Russia. Kuzmin is being fast tracked to the top due to his age. He can’t afford to be brought along slowly like most fighters.

Kuzmin hasn’t had a lot of time to prepare for the 45-year-old Amir Mansour, as he was originally supposed to be fighting Lucas Browne. He pulled out of the fight because he has a possible option of fighting for a world title against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker if he fails to make a fight with IBFWBA champion Anthony Joshua. So, both Kuzmin and Mansour haven’t had much time to prepare for each other.

Kuzmin has past wins in the amateur ranks over Joe Joyce and Roberto Cammarelle. Of course, that was in the amateur ranks, and it doesn’t mean anything now that he’s in the pros. Kuzmin has looked decent as a pro, but far from unbeatable. He’s going to need to raise his game considerably for him to beat the likes of Mansour.

Kuzmin will have the following advantages on Monday night when he gets inside the ring with Mansour: Age, height, weight, youth and hometown.

Mansour is a southpaw, and he does well against slow, plodders that come straight at him. Kuzmin fits that description to the tee. He’s slow, moves in straight line, and tends to throw a lot of wild roundhouse power shots. Kuzmin doesn’t defensive skills to get out of the way of big shots, so he’s going to be there for Mansour to hit on Monday night. Mansour looked good in winning his last fight against Travis Kauffman by a 12 round majority decision last March in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Kuzmin has never fought anyone as good as Mansour during his time as a pro. The best guys Kuzmin has fought were back in his amateur days years ago. Kuzmin’s physique looks nothing like that heavily muscled Mansour. Kuzmin looks kind of chunky, like someone that doesn’t always train hard when he’s not fighting. We’ll have to see if Kuzmin is in good enough condition for him to handle going toe-to-toe with Mansour on Monday night.