Michael Katsidis to be trained by Johnny Lewis

By Boxing News - 01/01/2013 - Comments

katsidis223By Jason Kim: The struggling former interim WBO lightweight champion Michael Katsidis (28-6, 23 Ko’s) will now be trained by Johnny Lewis in order to try and revive his sinking career, according to sunshinecoastdaily.com.au. Lewis previously trained Jeff Fenech as well as Kostya Tszyu.

Katsidis, 32, is hoping he can eventually win a world title at lightweight. It’s going to be awfully tough for Katsidis because he’s not currently ranked in the top 15 in the lightweight division and he’s lost four out of his last five fights. Granted, Katsidis has lost to some very good fighters in Juan Manuel Marquez, Robert Guerrero, Ricky Burns and Albert Mensah, but it’s going to be really tough for him to move up the ranks and beat the current champions.

Katsidis already lost to Burns by a fairly lopsided decision, so that’s not a doable situation. I wouldn’t like Katsidis’ chances against WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner. That has knockout written all over it no matter how good Katsidis is fighting. Broner is simply too good right now for even for a prime version of Katsidis to best him. Katsidis would also have problems against IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez, who at 5’10”, would be too tall for Katsidis and would out-box him.

The World Boxing Association lightweight title is currently open but Richard Abril and Sharif Bogere are about to fight for the vacant title on March 2nd, and either of those guys would be more than I think Katsidis can handle at this point in his career.

The only possibility I can see for Katsidis is if he moves down to super featherweight or even featherweight. Those divisions have a couple of weak champions that Katsidis could likely beat if he can get down that far. I don’t know if he can but if he wants to have a chance of success, Katsidis needs to make that move.



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