Thomas Oosthuizen vs. Serge Yannick on March 3rd

By Boxing News - 01/27/2012 - Comments

Image: Thomas Oosthuizen vs. Serge Yannick on March 3rdBy William Mackay: Unbeaten International Boxing Organization (IBO) super middleweight contender Thomas Oosthuizen (17-0, 12 KOs) will be defending his title against Serge Yannick (14-1, 7 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout on March 3rd at the Emperor’s Palace, in Kempton Park, Guateng, South Africa.

Oosthuizen, 23, is looking to keep moving up the boxing ranking so he can get a title shot against one of the champions. He’s currently ranked #9 by the IBF and still needs a lot of work before he’s ready to take on the very best in the division. Oosthuizen didn’t look all that impressive in his last three fights against William Gare, Aaron Pryor Jr. and Franciso Sierra.

Although Oosthuizen won all three of those fights, his power isn’t as good as it’s needs to be and his technical skills need a ton of work. He reminds me a lot of a weaker less technically skilled version of middleweight Andy Lee. Oosthuizen, 6’4”, is a little taller than the 6’2” Lee, but doesn’t have Lee’s excellent right hook or straight left.

Oosthuizen tends to slap a lot and even when he’s loading up on his shots, he lacks power that you see in the better super middleweights in the division. He also lacks the hand speed of the faster guys like Andre Ward and the Dirrell brothers, Andre and Anthony.

The southpaw Oosthuizen was held to a 12 round draw against Isaac Chilemba in November 2010, and is mighty lucky he got that because I thought he deserved to lose that fight. Oosthuizen also went life and death with Gare (27-14) last year in June in an unimpressive 12 round decision.

Oosthuizen tends to come forward, hit and then back away a lot like IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. However, he’s not powerful like Bute and is more of a Paul Williams slapper from what I can see. He doesn’t have Williams’ high work rate, though, and doesn’t try and slug the way that Williams does. It’s a good thing that Oosthuizen doesn’t because he might have major problems if he fought like that.

Oosthuizen should take care of Yannick with no problems. This isn’t a dangerous opponent for him and he should win it by at least four rounds. Oosthuizen isn’t someone that’s going to win a lot of lopsided decisions because he gets hit too much and when he gets hit, he gets hit cleanly.



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