By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated junior welterweight prospect Ionut Dan Ion “Jo Jo Dan” (22-0, 12 KOs) won a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision over Peter Semo (18-3, 13 KOs) on Friday night at the Piatra Neamt, in Romania. Dan, 26, ranked #12 in both the WBA and WBC junior welterweight division, boxed expertly for 12-rounds, boxing in circles around the slower, less skilled Semo, 26, from Uganda. Using almost entirely his jab mixed in with a rare straight left hand, the southpaw Dan moved around gracefully in the early rounds of the fight, hitting Semo at will with jabs and keeping out of the way of his slower, less than skillful attempts to land a shot of his own.
Semo, without any real speed, was badly at disadvantage in the fight, and had big problems landing anything at all. In the opening three rounds of the fight, Semo was unable to land anything on the few occasions that he actually even tried to throw a punch. His lack of efforts seemed to hurt him even worse, because with all the moving that Dan was doing, he was often vulnerable to counter shots due to his predictable jab. Without any other weapons besides the jab, Dan showed even in the early rounds that his weakness. Semo, however, just wasn’t skill enough to take advantage of it, though, and spent most of the fight just following him around without throwing any punches at all. In the 4th round, after absorbing a fights worth of jabs already, Semo finally landed a couple of right hands, which knocked Dan back each time they would land.
Dan seemed not to like being hit, and turned around and ran like no tomorrow trying to prevent that experience from repeating itself. Lucky for him, Semo was too slow to land more than a couple of punches in the round, for I doubt it that Dan would have been able to take more than 10-20 without going to pieces.
In the 5th round, Semo began to apply more pressure on Dan, hitting him with some big right hand shots. However, like in the previous rounds, Semo was only able to land more than few punches before Dan got back on his bike and moved away, firing long jabs as he went.
In the 8th round, Semo landed a beautiful right hand when Dan strayed a little too close, knocking Dan back two feet and almost dropping him. Dan, however, used his quick hands to get out of the situation by firing off a few fast left hands, before scurrying away to safety.
In the remaining rounds, Dan would continue to jab and beat the limited Semo by an easy one-sided decision. I can’t say I’m impressed with Dan, though. He looks very beatable against a fighter with better skills than Semo.
In a way, Dan reminded me of a smaller, much less powerful Lucan Bute and Mikkel Kessler. However, he doesn’t have the ability to get in and get as fast Bute, nor does he even come close to having the punch assortment or the defense of Kessler. He’s more limited, a cruder version of both, but with potential.
Dan’s lack of power will be a lingering problem, though, and it’s doubtful he’ll get much more powerful than he is now, even with more power work and weight lifting. I think he’d be a problem for a fighter like Paulie Malignaggi, who would find himself on the losing end of a jabbing contest. However, against a boxer/puncher like Ricky Hatton or Timothy Bradley, Dan would have serious problems and would likely be knocked out no matter how much he runs in the fight.