By Erik Schmidt: World Boxing Association bantamweight champion Panamanian Anselmo Moreno (25-1-1, 8 KOs) defeated Ukrainian challenger Wladimir Sidorenko (21-2-2, 7 KOs) by a 12-round split decision on Saturday night at the Halle 7, in Bremen, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 115-113 for Moreno, 113-115 for Sidorenko and 115-113 for Moreno. However, like a lot of fights in Germany, the scores were way off from what actually took place in the ring on Saturday night. I had Moreno winning all 12 rounds with ease and having little problem with the shorter, 5’4” Sidorenko.
Believe me, there was nothing close about this fight because Sidorenko, a former WBA bantamweight champion, was far too short to get his punches in and was nailed countless times in every round as he would attempt to land a punch. Some of the rounds were mildly close, but in each case Moreno out-landed Sidorenko by a huge number.
A year ago, Moreno, 23, defeated Sidorenko by a close 12-round decision. That fight, too, wasn’t close, as the southpaw Moreno dominated every round with his long jab and straight left hands to the head.
This time, though, Moreno looked even more impressive as moved around the ring jabbing Sidorenko to the head in the opening round. Sidorenko tried hard to get close enough to land any punches, trying to crouch down low to get in range.
It was no use, because Moreno picked him off each time with jabs and straight left hands. Sidorenko would get even slightly close, Moreno would back or move laterally, jabbing the shorter Sidorenko as he moved. Sidorenko looked as if he had trained well on how to defeat Moreno’s long reach, but it seems everything Sidorenko tried to do was doomed for failure.
By the end of the first round, Sidorenko began to desperately rush forward flailing his arms to try and land, and missing more often than not due to his limited reach.
Sidorenko continued to try and charge Moreno in rounds two and three, coming up empty each time. Sidorenko only landed four punches in the 2nd round, and was drilled each time he’d try to get near Moreno.
In the meantime, Moreno spent the round throwing a lot of jabs, and lefts to the body and head. Moreno made it really easy, as he was able to time Sidorenko each time as he came rushing in trying to land. Moreno had a way of increasing his unusually long reach by bending forward and shooting jabs and left hands at Sidorenko. Even if the Ukrainian wanted to land, he was almost a foot short on most of his attempts due to his short reach.
In a way, it was like watching a tall adult place his hand on the head of a child and watching the shorter child flail away with punches and hitting only air. It was a bad mismatch at this point and I couldn’t see Sidorenko even coming close to winning the first two rounds.
In rounds four through twelve, Moreno continued with his dominance over the shorter Sidorenko. Again and again, Moreno would jab away at Sidorenko from the outside. As the rounds went by, Sidorenko’s right eye began to swell and turn round. In the 9th round, Sidorenko’s suffered a bad cut over his right eye in the area of the swelling.
The cut was caused by a punch, likely one of the many jabs that Sidorenko was eating in the fight as he plodded forward. From rounds 10 through 12, Sidorenko was positively desperate as he charged forward like a mad man, trying hard to land but missing almost always. In each of the rounds, I could count no more than 11 punches connected by Sidorenko.
In the meantime, Sidorenko was getting hit with an enormous amount of jabs from Moreno. It didn’t matter that Moreno didn’t have much power on his shots, when you get hit 50 to 60 times in the face per round, it adds up.
In the end, Moreno was simply too tall for Sidorenko to compete. The final scores were ridiculous as I mentioned, and even if I wanted to be merciful, I couldn’t give Sidorenko more than one round. He just wasn’t able to connect due to his limited height and reach.
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