Relikh emulating Golovkin for Burns fight

By Boxing News - 10/04/2016 - Comments

relikh

By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated #1 WBA Kiryl Relikh (21-0, 19 KOs) plans on taking the fight to WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (40-5-1, 14 KOs) this Friday night on October 7 in the same way that middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin does to his opponents by turning the fight into a real war.

Relikh, who comes from Belarus and is trained by former two division world champion Ricky Hatton, is a vicious body puncher in the Golovkin mold. Hatton has turned the Eastern European Relikh into a body puncher similar to how Golovkin was transformed into a dangerous body puncher when he teamed up with trainer Abel Sanchez.

However, Relikh has the crushing right hand power that Golovkin possesses, and he’s got major defensive issues that will likely be exposed all night long by Burns on Friday night.
‘He believes he’ll be a superstar like Golovkin,’ said Hatton about Relikh.

Relikh, 26, wants to be like Golovkin by making a big splash in the sport of boxing. Beating the 33-year-old Burns would be a major step in that direction for him if he can get the job done. Based off what I’ve seen of Relikh, he need to increase his work rate CONSIDERABLY and focus more on throwing his left hand rather than his right, which is not much of a weapon at all.

Relikh waits too long between throwing punches, and he doesn’t let his left hand go nearly as much as he should considering that it’s his only weapon in his punch arsenal.

“I have seen what Gennady Golovkin had done and I want to do the same,” said Relikh to skysports.com. “I want to be recognized like Golovkin. He is a hero of mine. I want to turn it into a war. I have knocked out 19 of my 21 opponents and I want to do the same to Ricky Burns.”

Unless Relikh really goes after Burns in close quarters on Friday night, I think he’ll have a hard time winning the fight.

Burns and Relikh will be fighting at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. This is Burns’ hometown and he’ll have the crowd behind him. I don’t think it really matters though. He’s got another Michele Di Rocco inside the ring with him, as far as I’m concerned. In other words, another fighter ranked #1 by the World Boxing Association, but without the needed talent to deserve that ranking. I don’t see Relikh as someone that should be ranked #1 or even #15.

I’m still trying to figure out why on earth the WBA has given Relikh a number one ranking with their organization. In the some of Relikh’s past fights against weak 2nd tier opposition, he didn’t even look good against them. Relikh was not impressive against Tu Gilchrist and Santos Medrano. Perhaps Relikh has improved in his last three fights against Joaquim Cerneiro, Christian Ariel Lopez and Lazarao Santos de Jesus. I tend to doubt that Relikh has done much to get better. I’m just surprised that a Hatton trained fighter like Relikh doesn’t let his hands go with nonstop punches like Hatton used to do. It doesn’t take a genius to spot the flaws in Relikh’s game at first glance. The guy doesn’t throw enough punches, and his left hook is the only weapon he has.

Here are the flaws in Relikh’s game:

– Slow hand speed

– Upright fighting stance that makes him hittable

– Low work rate

– No right hand power

– No head movement

Hatton said this on his Boxing Channel about Relikh:

“He’s been saying to me, ‘When am I fighting for a title? When am I fighting for a title?’ Now he’s got his chance. He’s very, very aggressive. He hits very, very hard. I really do fancy his chances. Relikh is the real deal. When he gets hit, he gets so angry. He’s a little bit of an unknown. He really is the real deal. He’s going to be a handful for Ricky. No one has heard of him, but I think they will after.”

If Relikh really wants to follow in the footsteps of Golovkin, then he needs to attack Burn all out and throw some actual punches, because this guy is just so deliberate and slow with his shots. He doesn’t attack the way he needs to for him to be a Golovkin like fighter. Relikh has a left hook that is a very good weapon, but he needs to throw the thing instead of holding back the way he does.

Burns won the WBA title by an 8th round knockout in his last fight against Michele Di Rocco last May. Some of Burns’ fans believe that he’s been rejuvenated as a fighter since his losses to Omar Figueroa, Terence Crawford and Dejan Zlaticanin. I don’t see it that way. Burns has won his last three fights, but he’s done it against just dreadful opposition in my opinion. Burns’ last three wins have come against this bunch: Di Rocco, Josh King and Prince Ofotsu. Who in the heck are these guys and why were two of them ranked in the top 15 at the time that Burns fought them? I don’t rate any of these fighters as top 15 contender level talents.

The fact that Burns beat them doesn’t surprise me. Burns’ promoter Eddie Hearn has done a great job of getting Burns three easy fights against weak opposition for him to win a paper title. However, the WBA was the one that ranked Di Rocco at No.1 despite the fact that he’d never beaten anyone even remotely good for him to be ranked that high. It was a pretty sad ranking for Di Rocco to be ranked over talents like Rances Barthelemy, John Molina Jr. and Frankie Gomez. I think Di Rocco would have been destroyed by any of these three fighters. I just don’t understand what the WBA was thinking to have ranked Di Rocco over these guys. Further, I don’t understand why Relikh is ranked above those fighters. He doesn’t look anywhere as good as them.

If Burns wins this fight on Friday night, which would seem likely, he’ll be facing Adrien Broner next in a fight that could take place in the U.S.

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