Pirog vs. Macial on March 26th

By Boxing News - 03/14/2011 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: WBO middleweight champion Dimitry Pirog (17-0, 14 KO’s) will finally be making his first defense of his World Boxing Organization belt on March 26th at the DIVS, in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Pirog, 30, has sat idle since stopping highly respected contender Daniel Jacobs in the 5th round last year in July to capture the vacant WBO belt. It was hoped that Pirog would take on a well-known opponent so that boxing fans could see Pirog in action against someone that they’ve seen before.

Instead, Pirog is opting to take on one of his lower ranked contenders in #9 ranked Javier Francisco Maciel (18-1, 12 KO’s), who comes from Argentina but hasn’t yet faced anyone on the world stage. We’re going to see Pirog face a guy that’s taking a big step up and all we can hope is that Pirog gets Maciel out of there quickly so that Pirog can fight again really soon against a more notable opponent.

Once Macial is out of the way, Pirog has a number of appealing contenders he can take on next like Fernando Guerrero, Kelly Pavlik, and Gennady Martirosyan. Pirog may have problems getting Pavlik to fight him because he’s now fighting in the super middleweight division and he likely won’t want to take on a tough boxer/puncher like Pirog. The same applies to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

He’s more of a plodder and would have problems with Pirog’s boxing ability and power. Pirog needs to make sure he doesn’t sit out for another long stretch if he wants to get some big fights. He can’t afford to stay out of the ring for stretches at a time if he wants to establish a legacy and get better known in the U.S.



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