By Nate Anderson: 38-year-old Commonwealth heavyweight champion Martin Rogan (12-0, 6 KOs) will be making his first defense of his title on Friday night against former Prizefighter contestant Sam Sexton (11-1, 4 KOs) at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Rogan, a fighter that many not many boxing experts felt would make a mark in the sport, has defeated two of Britain’s top heavyweights Audley Harrison and Matt Skelton in his last two fights. Rogan took the fight to both Skelton and Harrison and wore them out with a tough inside game, outworking both of them.

In the case of Skelton, Rogan knocked a tired Skelton down in the 11th round, and then overwhelmed Skelton with punches after he got up forcing the stoppage.

Sexton, 24, successfully fought in the Prizefighter heavyweight tournament last year, beating Chris Burton, Luke Simpkin and Pele Reid. Those were all good wins for Sexton, yet none of those fighters compare to the talent of Rogan.

Sexton will have to fight at a higher level and be much busier than he’s been in the past against Prizefighter opponents if he’s to beat a talented fighter like Rogan on Friday night. Although Sexton is the much younger fighter than Rogan, he’s faced weaker opposition and hasn’t looked as good as Rogan in many of his fights. He tends to fight at a slow pace and is more of a plodding type heavyweight, slow of foot and predictable.

Sexton was stopped in the 6th round by Derek Chisora last year in June the only time that Sexton attempted to step it up in his young four-year pro career. Ideally, Sexton should be facing a softer opponent than Rogan at this point in his career, because he’s probably not ready for a tough fighter like Rogan at this time.

Rogan has the exact amount of pro fights as Sexton, but the Irish fighter appears to be the much more complete fighter right now in comparison to Sexton.

This is an important fight for Rogan, because he needs to win the fight and look impressive if Rogan wants to get a possible title shot against one of the title holders like World Boxing Association heavyweight champions Ruslan Chagaev or Nikolay Valuev.

Sexton generally looks good in the early parts of his fights, but he labors a little by the 6th round. One thing that many people are overlooking in this fight is that Sexton has never fought a bout over six rounds, and he’ll be potentially forced to fight Rogan for 12-rounds on Friday night should there be no knock outs in the fight. I can’t see Sexton lasting that long given how tired he’s looked in the few times that he’s been forced to fight a six round bout.

Look for Rogan to wear Sexton down and take him out by the 8th or 9th round.

Shumenov Gunning for Erdei and Garay

Undefeated light heavyweight contender Beibut Shumenov (8-0, 6 KOs) has huge goals for his young two-year pro career, and wants to fight either World Boxing Organization light heavyweight champion or WBA champion Hugo Garay next up. It’s almost unheard of for a fighter with only eight fights on their record to be ranked as high as Shumenov, but the reason is he’s so talented, and has Olympic experience from the 2004 Athens Olympics for Kazakhstan.

Shumenov recorded his best win last Saturday night, a 4th round TKO over two time former super middleweight champion Byron Mitchell in Kazakhstan. Shumenov also holds wins over Montell Griffin and Donnell Wiggins, two good fighters that are well known in the boxing community.