By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like Tyson Fury’s promoter Mick Hennessy couldn’t land him the fight he was looking for against former WBA World heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (30-2-1, 19 KO’s) that Fury was hoping to get for December. #3 WBA Chagaev is now fighting unbeaten Cuban Mike Perez (18-0, 12 KO’s) on December 1st at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Dusseldorf, Germany.

I guess the money must not have been good enough for Chagaev to face Fury. It really doesn’t matter because I see the Ireland-based Perez as a better heavyweight than Fury anyway and if Chagaev can beat him it’ll really help out his career in a big way getting him closer to another world title shot. Beating the 6-foot Perez won’t be easy, though, because he’s like another Mike Tyson, a fighter with a good power a high work rate.

Perez has a lot of skills and might go far in this game if he can start getting a little busier. Perez hasn’t fought at all in 2012, and the fight against Chagaev will be his only fight this year. That’s not how you go about trying to get a title shot, is it? Perez was going along real well last year, winning the PrizeFighter tourney in May of 2011.

Perez then beat tough journeyman Zack page by an eight round decision in November, and then defeated Friday Ahunanya by a 10 round decision last December. But that’s when Perez last fought and it’s too bad he didn’t fight this year before this because he lost a lot of time.

Chagaev, 34, has won his last three fights since losing to Alexander Povetkin by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in August in an attempt at trying to win the vacant WBA World heavyweight title. Chagaev previously lost to IBF/IBO/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by a 9th round stoppage in June of 2009 when he stepped in to replace an injured David Haye for that fight. Chagaev hasn’t fought a good heavyweight since his loss to Povetkin.

This is going to be a really tough fight for Chagaev and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Perez beats him. The southpaw Chagaev has the power to beat Perez, but I’m not so sure that he can keep up with Perez’s fast pace style of fighting. It might be too much for Chagaev at this point in his career.