On March 22nd, undefeated knockout artist Michael Katsidis (23-0, 20 KOs), the World Boxing Organization lightweight champion, will be going up against WBC lightweight champion 36 year-old Joel Casamayor (35-3-1, 21 KOs) at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. It’s a make a break fight for Casamayor, who is coming off of a very controversial 12-round split decision victory over Jose Armando Santa Cruz on November 10th.
In that bout, Casamayor looked like only a shell of his former self, getting beaten to the punch for most of the bout, and getting knocked down in the first round. Though he seemed to regain his composure after getting knocked down, he still was outworked by the lanky 5’10” Santa Cruz. Casamayor will have his hands full against the young Katsidis. However, I still think that Casamayor has enough left to pull off an upset of Katsidis, mostly because of Casamayor’s good chin and his counter-punching ability.
I think he’ll be able to withstand Katsidis’ early barrage of punches and last long enough to either stop him with a hard shot or on cuts. It’s already been shown that Katsidis has a weak chin, as he was on the verge of being knocked out by the light-hitting Graham on a number of occasions in their bout last February. All Casamayor has to do is remain standing until the 5th round, and then open up on Katsidis when he wears himself out.
As for Katsidis, he’s been getting a lot of good press in the media, along with a tremendous amount of praise from the fans, some of whom see him as another Kostya Tszyu. However, I’m not in agreement with the fans or the media on the talent level of Katsidis, as he’s shown nothing special in the last two bouts against Graham Earl and Czar Amonsot.
Frankly, I see Katsidis as being very lucky to have escaped his bout with Amonsot with a win, for the bout should have been stopped much earlier due to the massive cuts and bruising around both of Katsidis’ eyes.
Certainly, Katsidis looked good in the earlier bouts in his career, almost invincible in dispatching almost all of his opponents. However, the type of opposition he was up against was nothing special to say the least, and most good lightweights would have stopped many of them. Katsidis does hit hard for a lightweight, and his power is perhaps the best in the division, but he doesn’t have very good stamina, and generally loses his power very quickly in his fights from punching himself out.
I’ve noticed that he’s unable to throw punches from a distance due to his lack of height (only 5’7”) and reach, both of which require that he get in close to land his short, compact shots. This is going to be a problem for him against Casamayor, who likes to keep his opponents at a distance where he can jump in and out depending on when he sees an opening. For Katsidis to be successful, he absolutely requires that his opponent stay directly in front of him so that he can land his punches. He’s going to find out that Casamayor is much too skilled to fall into that trap.