By Chris Williams: Unbeaten 2012 Olympic Ukrainian light heavyweight bronze medalist Oleksandr Gvozdyk (10-0, 8 KOs) will be facing two-time former world title challenger Tommy Karpency (26-5-1, 15 KOs) on July 23 on the undercard of the Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 29-year-old Gvozdyk’s fight against Karpency will be televised as part of the HBO pay-per-view card. This was made possible with the injury WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez suffered last week that required him to pull out of card. Ramirez was supposed to have been defending his WBO 168lb title against #10 WBO Dominik Britisch.
Gvozdyk vs. Karpency will be the first fight on the HBO PPV card on July 23.
Gvozdyk was scheduled previously to be fighting on July 16 against Robert Berridge in Lancaster, California. With Ramirez not being able to fight on the card, Top Rank, the promoters for Gvozdyk, pulled him out of the Lancaster card and moved him to the Crawford-Postol card a week later on July 23. By putting Gvozdyk in with Karpency, it will give Top Rank and the boxing fans a chance to see what the 29-year-old can do against a decent level opponent.
Top Rank really believes in Gvozdyk and sees him going for. However, Gvozdyk isn’t a big puncher like other top light heavyweight. Gvozdyk has a good jab, but he’s not powerful like Artur Beterbiev, Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson. Gvozdyk is a step below those guys in terms of talent and punching power. However, Gvozdyk is a little younger than those guys, and he might be able to win a title if he goes after the aging 37-year-old WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer.
It might not be a good idea for Gvozdyk to fight Braehmer right now because the German fighter still appears to have a little too much left in the tank for him. It would be better for Gvozdyk to wait until Braehmer ages a little more before going after him.
Gvozdyk is ranked #6 WBC, #10 IBF, #14 WBO. He’ a decent fighter, but I don’t see him doing well against the top guys like Kovalev, Andre Ward, Artur Beterbiev, Stevenson and Braehmer. Gvozdyk doesn’t have that kind of talent.
Gvozdyk was eliminated from the 2012 Olympics by Kazakhstan fighter Adilet Niyazimbetov, who in turn was beaten by Russian Egor Mekhontsev in the finals. Gvozdyk was also beaten by Mekhontsev in 2011.
Gvozdyk vs. Karpency won’t be the co-feature bout on the Crawford vs. Postol card on HBO PPV. The co-feature is now unbeaten featherweight Oscar Valdez (19-0, 17 KOs) fighting Matias Adrian Rueda (26-0, 23 KOs) for the vacant WBO featherweight title. Also on the card is Top Rank welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr. (24-0, 16 KOs) fighting Francisco Santana (24-4-1, 12 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round fight.
Karpency, 30, challenged WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson last year in September 2015, Stevenson toyed with Karpency before knocking him out in the third round. Before that fight, Karpency had challenged for a world title against former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in February 2012.
Cleverly easily beat Karpency by a one-sided 12 round decision. The southpaw Karpency also has defeats in the past against Karo Murat, Rayco Saunders and Andrzej Fonfara, Karpency’s biggest win of his career came in October 2014, when he defeated an injured former light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson by a 10 round split decision. Dawson suffered an injury earlier in the fight that left him fighting with just one hand.
“My matchmakers say this is a real test for Gvozdyk,” said his promoter Bob Arum to ESPN.com. “Karpency was the best opponent we could get on short notice, but we were told he was training for another fight. So this is a good test for Gvozdyk to prove to us that he is as good as we think he is.”
Gvozdyk doesn’t have a lot of time to prove himself because he’s already up there in age a 29, and Top Rank doesn’t have forever to wait on him to see if he can do anything in the 175lb division. I don’t think Gvozdyk will be able to do anything other than maybe become a paper champion if he can win the WBA belt off Braehmer. No way do I see Gvozdyk being able to beat the likes of Stevenson, Kovalev, Ward or Beterbiev. He’s not that kind of a talent. Gvozdyk is more of a Fonfara type talent in my view. Someone like Joe Smith Jr. would be a nightmare for Gvozdyk, because he’s easy to hit with right hands.