By Eric Thomas: On January 18th, unbeaten #5 WBC, #10 WBO, heavyweight contender Mike Perez (20-0, 12 KO’s) will be fighting for the first time since his tragic bout against Magomed Abdusalamov when he faces Carlos Takam (28-1, 22 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of the Jean Pascal vs. Lucian Bute fight at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
Perez, 28, defeated Abdusalamov in a grueling 10 round fight last November in which Abdusalamov suffered a blood clot on his brain had to be rushed to surgery to have it removed. He’s still hospitalized from the affects of the blood clot and a subsequent stroke he suffered. Although Perez got the victory, he took a lot of heavy head shots from Abdusalamov, and hopefully he’s still the same fighter he was before. That was a very advanced opponent for someone with as little pro experience as the 6’0″ Perez.
As a result of the win the World Boxing Council has elevated Perez to #5 in their WBC rankings, and he’s now in the position where he could get a world title shot in within the next two years. There’s a big log jam in front of Perez with Bermane Stiverne, Chris Arreola, Deontay Wilder and Bryant Jennings all looking to fight there way into a shot.
Stiverne will get his title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko or he’ll be fighting for the vacant heavyweight title in the near future. But Perez is going to have to beat one or two of those guys if he wants a crack at a title. These are pretty tough fighters for Perez, and he might not be able to find the same success against one of them that he did against Abdusalamov. Perez is a little undersized at 6-feet, and he’d be taking big shots for a lot longer than just 4 rounds.
As good as Perez was in the Abdusalamov fight, he looked to be about the same class as Dereck Chisora in ability. He’d good, but he’s not someone that will likely do well against the bigger and better heavyweights.
The undercard will also have light heavyweight Eleider Alvarez (13-0, 8 KO’s) fighting South African Thomas Oothuizen (22-0-2, 13 KO’s) for the vacant WBC Silver light heavyweight title.
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