By Allan Fox: Unbeaten IBO super middleweight champion Thomas Oosthuizen (20-0, 13 KO’s) will be defending his strap against light heavyweight Fulgencio Zuniga (25-5-1, 22 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round fight on November 10th at the Emperor’s Palace, Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa.
Oosthuizen, #3 IBF, #6 WBC, #11 WBA, was passed over for a title shot against IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch, which was a big compliment to Oosthuizen because it showed how well respected he is. At 6’4″ with a long reach, good power and a nice work rate, Oosthuizen is very hard to beat. Its going to take a special fighter to give him his first loss, and it doesn’t look as if any of the champions are eager to get him in the ring to test how good he is despite his high ranking. Oosthuizen, 24, is already building up a huge following in the United States with his fights being televised on Showtime.
The Colombian born Zuniga, 35, is better known as the fighter that was blown out by IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in a 4th round TKO in March 2009. Zuniga also fought IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud and was easily beaten by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in December of 2010. Zuniga also fought Denis Inkin for the vacant WBO super middleweight title in September 2008, but lost a 12 round unanimous decision in a fight that appeared to win. That much have been a really disappointing fight for Zuniga, but Inkin was the German based fighter and the fight took place in Germany. Zuniga also has losses to Kelly Pavlik and Daniel Santos.
As you can see, Zuniga has only been beaten by good fighters and has in most cases put in a good effort in losing. In the Pavlik fight, Zuniga gave Pavlik a lot of problems until getting worn down from Pavlik’s huge power shots. In Zuniga’s last fight, he stopped 36-year-old former IBF super middleweight champion Alejandro Berrio by a 7th round TKO last July in Colombia.
Oosthuizen should take this fight fairly easily. Zuniga is a good fighter but he’s got a lot of miles on him and at 35, he’s probably not going to be able to handle the power from Oosthuizen or be able to pressure him enough to make this fight competitive. This will be a good scalp for Oosthuizen to add to his resume because Zuniga has been around for a long time and has had all those title shots over the years.
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