Frenkel vs. Phelps

By Boxing News - 05/16/2008 - Comments

frenkal33331.jpgBy Erik Schmidt: Unbeaten cruiserweight prospect Alexander Frenkel (14-0, 10 KOs) faces perhaps his toughest challenge of his short career when he meets up with American Cory Phelps (12-3-1, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Oberfrankenhalle, Bayreuth, in Bayern, Germany. Frenkel, 23, will be fighting for the vacant IBF Youth cruiserweight title. Frenkel is coming off an impressive 5th round stoppage over American Arthur Williams in his last bout in February. In that fight, Williams was totally dominated and dropped twice before the referee stopped the one-sided bout in the 5th.

At 23, Frenkel, originally from Ukraine and now living and fighting out of Germany, is one of the top cruiserweight prospects in the world, though he has still yet to fight any top level opposition thus far in his career. In selecting Phelps, Frenkel’s management is choosing a tough opponent, one who many felt beat Bobby Gunn in their recent 6-round draw in March. Even though his record isn’t all that impressive with his three losses, Phelps is much better than his record indicates. He has excellent power and moves well around the ring. That is precisely the type of fighter that may turn out to be the Achilles hill for Frenkel, who despite his enormous power in either hand, he’s somewhat stationary, and moves rather poorly for a top level fighter.

Up to this point in his career, Frenkel hasn’t had to work on his limited movement for most of opponents, aside from Arthur Williams, were limited and not skilled enough to force him to come after them. For sure, Frenkel has been brought along slowly by his management, given largely easy slow-moving opponents, none of which have been even close to the class of Frenkel. Phelps, however, is someone that can perhaps exploit both Frenkel’s lack of head movement, his tendency to use almost exclusively his left hook and his slow foot movement around the ring.

Granted, Frenkel’s left hook is devastating, there’s no doubt about that, and if he does succeed in connecting with it against Phelps, it’s going to be an early night. For that reason, Phelps needs to be careful, making sure that he doesn’t stray too close to Frenkel in the early rounds of the fight when he’s most dangerous. Most of Frenkel’s fights have ended by early knockout, and the longest he’s ever fought is eight rounds. For this reason, Phelps needs to avoid slugging with him early in the fight when Frenkel’s at his most dangerous, and try to take him to at least the 9th or 10th before turning it on and going for a knockout.

I wouldn’t expect that Phelps will be able to win by a decision, mainly because he’ll be giving away a lot of rounds while trying to survive. I also doubt that he’d get a decision even if it were close, being that the fight is in Germany, which has a reputation for being a tough place for foreigners to win a decision. It could happen, but I tend to think not. This is why Phelps needs to save everything he has for the last two rounds and try to go all out for a knockout.

Frenkel hits hard, that much is for certain, but he hasn’t had his chin tested by anyone as of yet. If attacked under the right circumstance, I can see the young Frenkel folding under an attack. He stands straight up in a typical European style, and his chin is right there for anything that Phelps can throw his way. He hasn’t shown the ability to defend well or back away from attacks thus far in the fights I’ve seen him in, which could be a problem for Frenkel if he suddenly meet heavy incoming late in the fight.