By Jason Kim: Super middleweight contender Sakio Bika (30-5-2, 21 KO’s) will be facing 34-year-old unbeaten Serbian Nikola Sjekloca (25-0, 7 KO’s) on February 16th for the interim WBC super middleweight title on the undercard of the Adrien Broner vs. Gavin Rees fight card at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to RingTV.
The Bika-Sjekloca winner will be put in line to face the WBC 168 pound champion Andre Ward. Bika has already faced Ward once during his career, losing by a 12 round unanimous decision in November 2010 by the scores of 120-108, 118-110 and 118-110.
Ward said later that this was by far the hardest fight of his career, as he chose to fight Bika, #5 WBC, on the inside where Bika is very strong inside of boxing him the outside like a lot of fighters chose to do. However, Ward was still a lot better than Bika even on the inside and that was how he pounded out the decision.
Bika has won his last two fights since the loss to Ward, beating Alfredo Contreras and Dyah Davis. Bika hasn’t been as active as he should with his because he only once in 2009, twice in 2010, once in 2011 and twice in 2012. For a fighter that doesn’t hold a title, Bika doesn’t seem to seem to be in a real hurry to get a title shot. For a contender like Bika, he should at least be fighting four to five times a year instead of once or maybe twice.
Sjekloca, #1 WBC, doesn’t have much power and he’s faced largely weak opposition during his seven year pro career. He does have victories over Khoren Gevor and Hadillah Mohoumadi, two tough super middleweights. But Skekloca is going to be taking a big step up against Bika in this fight and it’s going to be tough for him because Bika really brings it.
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