Aydin vs. Ionut Dan Ion on Saturday

By Boxing News - 06/04/2010 - Comments

By Jim Dower: Undefeated welterweight contender Selcuk Aydin (19-4, 15 KO’s) faces unbeaten Romanian prospect Ionut Dan Ion (26-0, 14 JO’s) on Saturday night at the Abdi Ipekci Spor Salonu, Istanbul, Turkey. Aydin, 26, is currently ranked #2 WBC and #3 IBF and really needs a win over Jo-Jo Dan to get a shot against one of the current welterweight champions. Aydin is short for a welterweight, only 5’7”, but has good power and is able to generate a lot of power in close.

In many ways, he’s similar to Marcos Maidana, only seem be quite as powerful and fierce as Maidana but he’s similar to him in that he can punch really hard in close. He doesn’t need a lot of room to wind up on his shots. In his last fight, Aydin stopped Jackson Osei Bonsu in the 9th round in July 2009. In Aydin’s fight before that, he looked very pedestrian in beating Said Ouali by a 12 round split decision in April 2009 in the United States. American boxing fans were less than impressed with Aydin’s performance and many of them thought he should have lost.

Aydin is ranked high in the welterweight division despite only facing one quality fighter during his four year pro career. That may be a blessing for Aydin but it also could be a problem for him when he’s finally put in with a guy like WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto. Aydin might be okay in facing welterweight champions Jan Zaveck and Vyacheslav Senchenko, since both of those fighters haven’t faced anyone either and are very beatable.

Dan, 5’11”, will have a considerable height and reach advantage over Aydin. Dan likes to box, move and make his opponents miss with their shots. Dan fights similar to Lucian Bute, who also comes from Romanian and loves in Canada like Dan. The one problem that Jo-Jo Dan has is that he lacks power and often tires out late in his fights.

It hasn’t made much of a difference in the past because his opposition has been so god awful, but it might be a problem for him on Saturday night against the pressure fighter Aydin. Dan, a southpaw, is going to have to keep Aydin missing all night long or else he’s going to get hit, hurt and probably knocked out. There’s a reason why Dan isn’t ranked as highly as Aydin and it’s because he’s all arms and legs and punches like Paulie Malignaggi. He’s going to have to look a heck of a lot better than the handful of fights I’ve seen him in if he wants to survive against Aydin.



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