Oosthuizen vs. Yannick on Saturday

By Boxing News - 02/29/2012 - Comments

Image: Oosthuizen vs. Yannick on SaturdayBy Eric Thomas: IBO super middleweight champion Tommy Oosthuizen (17-0, 12 KO’s) will be making his fourth defense of his International Boxing Organization title on Saturday night against 29-year-old Australian Serge Yannick (14-1, 7 KO’s) at the Emperor’s Palace, Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa.

The 23-year-old South African southpaw Oosthuizen has looked reasonably good in defending his IBO title in his last three fights, beating William Gare, Aaron Pryor Jr. and Francisco Sierra. However, Oosthuizen lacks power and hand speed, and seems to depend far too much on his size and slick fighting style to get wins. He’s doing well against the level of oppositions he’s facing right now but we saw Oosthuizen struggle badly when he was put in with Isaac Chilemba in November 2010, fighting to a controversial 12 round draw.

A lot of boxing fans that saw that fight had Chilemba winning handily, as did I. Oosthuizen needs to develop punching power, because he’s not going to get any quicker than he is now. His power is the one thing that he possibly can build on if he works on strength training and using better form when he punches. Oosthuizen, #7 IBF, is still a guy that is improving and will need a lot more work before he’s ready to contend for a major title. He reminds me of a weaker version of middleweight Andy Lee.

Yannick, 29, ranked #13 WBA, has fought mainly in Australia against 2nd and 3rd tier opposition. He recently beat Jamie Pittman and beat well known fighter Shannon Taylor before that. He’s a decent fighter and should give Oosthuizen some problems, but I expect Oosthuizen to come out on top but not without a lot of hard work.



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