Khabib Allakhverdiev vs. Breidis Prescott on March 30th

By Boxing News - 02/10/2013 - Comments

khan63569By Chris Williams: WBA World light welterweight champion Khabib Allakhverdiev (18-0, 8 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his title on March 30th against 2nd tier fighter Breidis Prescott (26-4, 20 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The Allakhverdiev-Prescott fight will be the co-main event on the Mike Alvarado vs. Brandon Rios card.

Prescott was previously mentioned to be facing fringe light welterweight contender Victor Cayo, but it looks like Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wanted him more to give some credibility to his new champion 30-year-old Allakhverdiev.

Prescott, 29, was beaten two years ago by Mike Alvarado in a 10th round TKO loss in a fight that Prescott was ahead of in the 10th round. Poor stamina was his undoing in that fight as he ran completely out of gas in the 10th round and was taken out. However, he was stopped, Prescott gave Alvarado a terrible beating and pretty much exposed him as a limited slugger. Alvarado would then get stopped by Rios two fights later in a 7th round TKO last year in October.

Prescott made something of a name for himself by destroying the highly hyped Amir Khan in a 1st round knockout five years ago in 2008. Prescott knocked Khan down viciously twice in the first round before the fight was stopped. It’s interesting to know that Khan and his management never attempted to avenge the loss to Prescott, and instead just moved on and made the excuse that Prescott had lost to other fighters afterwards as their reasons for not fighting him again.

Since his win over Khan, Prescott has lost to Kevin Mitchell, Miguel Vazquez, Paul McCloskey and Alvarado. The loss to McCloskey was controversial. Prescott isn’t the same fighter he was back in 2008 since moving up in weight, but he can still bang for five or six rounds before he typically gasses out. You would have to give Prescott a good chance of knocking Khan out again if they were to fight a rematch simply because he’s still got power, and it would be tough for Khan to take those kinds of big shots for five or six rounds without getting blasted out.

Allakhverdiev has good hand speed and a really nice left hand. He may not be in the class of the top fighters at 140 like Danny Garcia, Khan and Lucas Matthysse, but he’s not far behind them. I wouldn’t favor against any of those guys, and he might have problems against guys like Lamont Peterson as well, but for now he’s the WBA champion.

If Prescott can land one of his big shots, we could see Allakhverdiev hit the deck. This isn’t going to be an easy fight for Allakhverdiev because he can be hit, and the 5’11” Prescott will have a three inch height and a four inch reach advantage over him. Prescott has a much better jab, and Allakhverdiev is going to get hit a lot when he comes plodding forward looking to land his cast combinations.



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