By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated hard-hitting lightweight Michael Katsidis (23-0, 20 KOs) will be going up against a formidable opponent this Saturday night when he takes on 36 year-old Joel Casamayor (35-3-1, 21 KOs) at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, Cabazon, California. Katsidis, the WBO interim champion, is coming off an especially tough bout over Czar Amonsot, whom he defeated by a 12-round unanimous decision in July 2007.
The bout was costly for the Australian Katsidis as his face was badly lacerated around both eyes, making it necessary for him to take an extended amount of time off to recover from the injuries to his face. His opponent, Amonsot, experienced even worse injuries, a subdural hematoma to his brain, caused by the thunderous punches from Katsidis. For his part, Katsidis has had two tough bouts in a row in 2007, beating first Graham Earl, who traded knockdowns with Katsidis and had him badly hurt before succumbing in the 5th round, and then finally Amonsot, who turned Katsidis’ face into a Halloween mask of blood.
Previous to that, Katsidis had faced mostly average C-level opponents, beating most of them quite easily without sustaining punishment in the process. However, in stepping it up against his last two opponents, Katsidis has seemed very vulnerable when being attacked. His offense is extraordinary due to his immense punching power but his defense is almost nonexistent, making him vulnerable of being beaten at all times. It’s questionable whether Casamayor, 36, has enough left at this stage to defeat Katsidis, as he barely squeaked by with a split decision win in his last bout against Jose Armando Santa Cruz, and has been showing signs of slowing down in his past six fights.
Casamayor defeated Diego Corrales by split decision a year earlier in October 2006, and was beaten by both Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo in 2004. Casamayor, usually a crafty counter puncher, looked badly slowed against Santa Cruz, and appeared by many people to have lost the fight. That said, Casamayor’s chin has always been excellent, and if he can stay in the bout long enough to open up some of Katsidis’ numerous scar tissue on his face, he may be able to stop him.
Most people felt that Katsidis should have been stopped on cuts in his last fight against Amonsot, because his cuts were horrific looking, the kind that do permanent damage. With any kind of shots that he’ll be taking, the scar tissue will likely break open again resulting in lacerations as bad as his last bout with Amonsot. It was respectable that Katsidis could fight through such pain and punishment, but it was also quite lucky on his part that the fight wasn’t stopped. I doubt that his luck will hold out twice should Casamayor cut up his face anything like what happened against Amonsot.
If that happens, expect the the referee to quickly move in and halt the fight, giving the victory to Casamayor. That’s not to say that Casamayor will be ahead in the fight at the time of the stoppage, because I doubt he’ll win any of the rounds because he doesn’t have the kind of power at this stage in his career to compete with a powerhouse like Katsidis. However, he won’t need to, because the fight will be stopped to Katsidis’ bloody face. He’s a good fighter, but he simply doesn’t have the skin for the fight game. Look for a 6th round stoppage victory for Casamayor.