By Dan Ambrose: Super middleweight knockout artist Edison Miranda (34-5, 29 KO’s) could be facing former Cuban Olympian Yordanis Despaigne (8-1, 4 KO’s) on July 29th in a Friday Night Fights bout. Although the fight hasn’t been officially rolled out yet, it’s likely going to be happening.
Miranda, 30, really could use a win over someone as good as Despaigne to try and bring some life in his sagging career. Miranda, a once promising middleweight contender, has lost two out of his last four fights and he’s looked poor even in the fights he’s won. Miranda defeated Rayco Saunders last Saturday night in an eight round unanimous decision win, but looked slow and heavy.
Since Miranda moved up from the middleweight division his once huge power has dropped off. At super middleweight and light heavyweight, Miranda isn’t considered a big puncher that he was at 160. If it were possible, Miranda could move back down to middleweight and resume knocking out most of his opponents. Unfortunately, it’s too difficult for Miranda to make 160 anymore and he’s kind of stuck fighting at super middleweight and above now.
Despaigne, a 2004 Olympian for Cuba, is coming off a one-sided 10 round decision loss over light heavyweight contender Ismayl Sillakh last March. As good as Despaigne is, Sillakh is much better and made him look bad in that fight. However, Despaigne has got the boxing skills to give a fighter like Miranda huge problems unless Miranda can catch him with a big shot. Miranda will have to show better speed than he did against Saunders, though, because Miranda looked slow in that fight and seemed to be lacking in the stamina department.
Comments are closed.