By Francisco Hernandez: One of the best boxers in the world today is WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog; he has excellent boxing skills and can beat anyone in the division. Most of his fights have been in Russia; he came to Las Vegas on July 31st 2010 to school highly touted Daniel Jacobs, made him look like an amateur, and then knocked Jacobs out in the fifth round. After that great performance by Pirog, boxing aficionados are ready to see him in action again. Pirog has a polished style of boxing, he knows his fundamentals, and can be considered a technical boxer. He knocks out his opponents by setting them up carefully.

At one time there was talk of a fight between Pirog and Pavlik which never came through; Ishe Smith supposedly wants to be Pirog’s next opponent for Pirog’s first title defense on March 26, 2011 but nothing is confirmed yet. Pirog has also called out Sergio Martinez. Pirog can defeat Kelly Pavlik easily. Pavlik is a Frankenstein when it comes to foot work and Pirog can exploit this weakness to stop Pavlik in the early rounds. Sergio Martinez will give Pirog a good fight. Martinez is intelligent and unorthodox, this makes Martinez a puzzle to most of his opponents, but he has no fundamental boxing skills, a good solid boxer like Pirog can figure Martinez out and beat him.

A good matchup for Pirog is against Paul Williams. Despite losing by a devastating kayo to Martinez, Paul Williams is still an exciting fighter to watch, because he isn’t afraid to put it all on the line, he enters the ring to fight. Paul Williams still has several good fights in him, win or lose. Paul Williams can give Pirog a lot of problems because of Williams aggressiveness, but eventually Pirog would knock him out in the late rounds.

Fight fans need a Dmitry Pirog because he is one of a few fighters today who know the art of boxing. Most fighters nowadays are retired from the ring before they really get to learn how to box. It would be a shame if he disappeared in mother Russia and was never heard from again.