Bika-Sjekloca tomorrow in WBC 168 lb. eliminator

By Boxing News - 02/15/2013 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBC Sakio Bika (30-5-2, 21 KO’s) made weight today for his critical fight on Saturday against #1 WBC Nikola Sjekloca (25-0, 7 KO’s) in their World Boxing Council super middleweight eliminator bout at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The winner of this fight will be facing Lucian Bute for the vacant WBC super middleweight title.

Bika, 33, has got the power to beat Sjekloca if he’s able to get in close and force him to fight on the inside where Sjekloca has only minimal skills. Sjekloca is strictly an outside fighter like a lot of European fighters are, and he’s not going to handle Bika’s pressure too well if Bika is able to stay on top of him for the full 12 rounds.

Sjekloca, 34, has had some of the softest match-making you’ll ever see for a fighter with a #1 ranking, and it’s so sad to see a fighter ranked that high without ever having faced anyone that you can call a good fighter.

Sjekloca’s only two reasonably good wins on his resume were against Hadillah Mohoumadi and Khoren Gevor. That’s it, and those are guys that you’d like to see from a fighter early in his career instead of being the meat of their resume.

Thankfully, Bika will even things out on Saturday night in terms of the WBC’s crazy rankings, and we’ll see Sjekloca moved to a spot more fitting of his experience. My guess is Bika will totally dominate and KO Sjekloca by the 8th round. That’s about as far as I can see Sjekloca making it in this one because he’s going to take some god awful punishment from start to the bloody finish.

Sjekloca’s only chance of winning this fight is to stay on the outside, and throw enough punches to impress at least two of the judges to give him the win. I don’t think he can win a convincing fight because he’s so over-matched in this one, but there’s a chance that at least two of the judges will ignore the huge shots that Bika is nailing him with round after round, and give him a controversial decision. I mean, I’m hoping the judges get the scores right, you know how that is with judges seeing a completely different fight from the one that’s taking place in the ring.



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