By Eric Thomas: WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (47-2-1, 33 KO’s) will be defending his title on June 21st this month against unbeaten Russian #2 WBC, #5 IBF, #9WBA, #11 WBO, Rakim Chakhkiev (16-0, 12 KO’s) at the Dynamo Palace of Sports in Krylatskoye in Moscow, Russia.
This is going to be a tough title defense for the 31-year-old Wlodarczyk because he’s fought mainly fighters that stay on the outside for his entire 13-year pro career. The 30-year-old Chakhkiev is strictly an inside fighter and he’s very good at it.
Chakhkiev captured an Olympic gold medal in 2008 by using his pressure and inside smothering tactics to beat opponents with better speed than him. He just got in close and forced them to fight his style the entire Olympics, and there was no one that could beat him at his own game.
Since turning pro in 2009, Chakhkiev has swept through his first 16 opponents, knocking out 12 of them with his inside fighting ability and having no problems in any of his fights. In his last three fights, Chakhkiev has beaten Zack Page, Epifanio Mendoza and Andres Taylor.
The one criticism that you can say about Chakhkiev has to do with the soft match-making his promotional team has done for him. He’s been matched weakly and he’s not had the kinds of opponents that you’d have liked to have seen him fighting to get him ready for this fight with Wlodarczyk. However, he’s so good at smothering his opponents and forcing them to fight in close, it’s highly likely that he’ll be able to force Wlodarczyk to fight his kind of fight. Wlodarczyk doesn’t move well to escape pressure and he’s not going to be able to keep Chakhkiev off of him with his jabs or power shots.
Chakhkiev will walk through those shots and get in close every time to start throwing his body punches to the body and head.
This is definitely a much different opponent for Wlodarczyk than he’s ever face before during his career and it’s unclear how well he’ll be do against him. Wlodarczyk’s toughest fights have been against Francisco Palacios, Danny Green, Giacobbe Fragomeni and Steve Cunningham. Wlodarczyk had a lot of problems with Cunningham and most recently with Palacios.
Chakhkiev is a much different style for Wlodarczyk than those guys and it’s going to be tough on him to try and keep the Russian on the outside because he won’t be able to beat him in an inside war. That’s a fight that Chakhkiev will win every time because he was made to fight on the inside and Wlodarczyk doesn’t have the skills to beat him over 12 grueling rounds on the inside. That’s not going to happen. Wlodarczyk will have to use his wheels in order to win this fight by constantly moving to try and avoid Chakhkiev’s constant pressure.
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