By Jason Kim: In one of the better ESPN2 fights, undefeated light heavyweights Ismayl Sillakh (17-0, 14 KO’s) faces unbeaten Denis Grachev (11-0, 7 KO’s) in an Eastern European fighter showdown scheduled for 10 rounds at the Frank Erwin Center, in Austin, Texas.

Sillakh, #2 WBC, #6 IBF, #10 WBA, should come out on top in this fight, as he’s ranked high and has excellent boxing skills. However, it’s still too hard to know how good Sillakh is at this point because he looked mediocre at times in his win against Cuban Yordanis Despaigne last year in March. Sillakh won the fight by a 10 round unanimous decision, but he was backed up throughout the fight by the harder punching Despaigne.

That fight kind of showed the 27-year-old Sillakh’s flaws front and center. He’s got some power but not a lot. He’s got some speed, but not comparable to guys like Jean Pascal and Chad Dawson. Sillakh is good, but very beatable against the very top of the light heavyweight division.

The 29-year-old Grachev from Russia is a kind of an unknown right now. He’s been matched against mostly lower level opposition. Recently he was moved up to 2nd tier fighters and he’s done well. He’s got power but not much in the way of boxing skills.

Grachev probably will have to try and get Sillakh out of there early if he wants to win the fight, because the longer the fight goes the better the chances are that Sillakh will walk away with this fight and win a wide 10 round decision.