By Jason Kim: Unbeaten WBC Baltic cruiserweight champion Rakhim Chakhkiev (14-0, 11 KO’s) will be defending his title this Friday night against 36-year-old journeyman Epifanio Mendoza (34-14-1, 30 KO’s) at the Sporthalle, Wandsbek, Hamburg, Germany. Chakhkiev, a former 2008 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist from Russia, was supposed to be fighting Alejandro Valori (9-3, 6 KO’s), but he dropped out of the fight after suffering an injury while training.
Valori would have been over his head against Chakhkiev, so there’s not much lost in him being out of the fight. Mendoza will probably do about as well as Valori would have. In other words, he’ll be destroyed with ease by Chakhkiev.
Chakhkiev, #5 WBC, #13 IBF, #13 WBO, #14 WBA, wants to get a title shot against WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck. However, the WBO for some reason hasn’t been moving Chakhkiev up like the WBC, and has a lot of fighters ranked above him that would likely be destroyed by Chakhkiev without any problems. It’s too bad because Chakhkiev is good enough to beat Huck if the WBO ever gives him Chakhkiev a high enough ranking to where he’ll become Huck’s mandatory challenger. Don’t count on Huck to voluntarily fight Chakhkiev, because that’s probably not going to happen. Chakhkiev is too dangerous for Huck, and with his power he’d likely take the judges out of equation by knocking Huck out. For this reason, it might take years before Chakhkiev is ever given a shot at the WBO title.
Chakhkiev has been blowing away most of his opposition since turning pro in 2009. His best wins have come in his last four fights against Michael Simms, Zack Page, Alexander Kotlobay and Jaidon Codrington.
The journeyman Mendoza has been around for a long time since 1999, and has lost to the following fighters during his career: BJ Flores, Chad Dawson, Jeff Lacy, Beibut Shumenov, Lateef Kayode, Carlos Negon, Luis Ortiz and Amir Mansour. Mendoza’s experience isn’t the problem. The problem is he keeps losing to all of these guys and his career has never really worked out despite having respectable power. His best weight was at 168. However, recently Mendoza pulled off a huge upset by stopping Negron, a 2008 Olympic star from Puerto Rico.
Also on the card will be undefeated heavyweight contender Denis Boytsov facing Konstantin Airich in a scheduled 10 round bout that promises to be a mismatch.
Other fights on the card as follows:
Ismail Oezen vs. Fiodar Pugachou
Ina Menzer vs. Loli Munoz
Sebastian Real vs. Yavuz Keles
Vitali Tajbert vs. TBA