By Chet Mills: Undefeated bantamweight prospect Yan Barthelemy (5-0) will be going up against last minute replacement Jose Garcia Bernal (27-10-1, 18 KOs) on the undercard of the IBF light heavyweight championship showdown between champion Clinton Woods vs. Antonio Tarver, and WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson and former light heavyweight title holder Glen Johnson on Saturday night at the St. Peter Times Forum, in Tampa, Floriada. Barthelemy, 28, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner for the Cuban National team in the light flyweight class, is making sixth appearance since turning professional in 2007.
Barthelemy, 28, is a slick southpaw without much power to speak of but makes up for it with extraordinary boxing skills, both defensive and offensive variety. Though Barthelemy gets much less press than his fellow Cuban teammates Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlanier Solis, he is just as talented a fighter as them, if not more. Indeed, he has previously beaten Gamboa while fighting in the amateur ranks, which is no easy feat considering the excellent skills that Gamboa has.
Barthelemy defected from Cuba in 2006, along with teammates Solis and Gamboa, originally signing on with a German-based promotional team before recently moving over to Miami, Florida. Still largely unknown to American audiences, Barthelemy was recently seen against Antonio Maria Cochero Diaz in a 6-round bout on February 22nd, in which Barthelemy put on a masterful display of ring generalship along the way to an easy unanimous decision victory over Diaz.
In that fight, Barthelemy showed the ability to fight without being hit, making Diaz miss punches over and over again as Barthelemy skillfully moved around the ring, ducking and leaning away from incoming punches. He also showed the ability to punch while going backwards, something that many fighters are unable to do due to lack of skills. Bernal, who has lost five out of his last seven fights, figures to be way in over his head against Barthelemy and one can expect for him to get a big boxing lesson against the former Cuban star.
Hopefully, Barthelemy moves up quickly after defeating Bernal, for he doesn’t have a lot of time to wait due to his advanced age of 28. That’s not old for a fighter but it is for a bantamweight, where the fighters generally depend more on youth and speed than in the heavier weight classes. It’s even more important for Barthelemy to move up fast, in that his entire fight game is based on speed and reflexes, and once those start diminishing, his career is for all practical purposes over.
As of now, I see him being better than all four of the current bantamweight champions – Wladimir Sidorrenko, Joseph Agbeko, Hozumi Hasagawa, and Gerry Penalosa. This makes it even more important that he move quickly before he ages further and misses out on defeating one of these champions. At 5’7”, he has the frame to move up to the super bantamweight division in the near future, though I wouldn’t advise for him to do so. He doesn’t have the power game to compete against sluggers like Daniel Ponce De Leon, Israel Vazquez, and Steve Molitor.