By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten Cuban heavyweight Mike Perez (20-0, 12 KO’s) looked very impressive last night in defeating Magomed Abdusalamov (18-1, 18 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision on the undercard of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Curtis Stevens bout at Madison Square Garden in New York. Perez gave Abdusalamov a real beating in winning by the scores 97-92, 97-92 and 95-94.
Since it’s unlikely that the World Boxing Council will strip WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko anytime soon, I’d like to see #3 WBC Deontay Wilder facing Perez next in a kind of stay busy fight for Deontay to show off his talent to the U.S audiences, and to show the difference between him and the 6’0″ Cuban fighter.
I think it would be a good way for Deontay to eliminate any such talk of Perez as being one of the guys that should be in the running for the WBC title, while at the same time I think it would give Deontay a good warm up fight for Bermane Stiverne once the WBC does make up their mind about what they’re going to do with Vitali not defending his title.
The things that Perez was able to do to Abdusalamov, he wouldn’t be able to do against the 6’7″ Deontay because Perez is too short at 6’0″, too flat-footed, too easy to hit, and too wide with his shots. Perez reminded me of a weaker version of Lamon Brewster. Deontay is much faster, much taller and much better puncher. The shots that Abduslamov was bouncing off of Perez’s head, Deontay would have poleaxed Perez if he had landed the same shot.
It’s too bad that Perez suffered a cut under his right eye against Abduslamov because that will probably keep him out of the ring for at least 6 months while he heals up from that. I would like to see Deontay and Perez go at it to eliminate one of them in a box off for the WBC title. Stiverne and Chris Arreola could face each other again, and then winner of those fights could face each other to fight for the WBC title. If Vitali still wants to keep the WBC strap, then he should face the winner of those fights by a certain period of time. If he can’t defend his title by that point then he needs to be stripped of his title or he needs to vacate it.
I think Deontay would easily outbox Perez from the outside and spear him with huge right hands every now and then. All those punches that Perez was able to hit Abdusalamov with, they’re come up short against Deontay because he’s so much taller and stays farther out on the outside. I could see Deontay catching Perez with a big right hand at some point and putting him down for the count.
Perez used to look a lot better a couple of years ago. He seems to have put on about 10-15 pounds of fat on his frame and he looks a lot slower than he did when he he was lean looking in 2010 and before. I hope he can take off the flab he’s put because I think he could still beat guys like Alexander Povetkin, Tyson Fury and David Haye.
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