By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World super flyweight champion Khalid Yafai (21-0, 14 KOs) will be making his first defense of his newly won WBA strap on May 13 against an opponent still to be determined at the Barclaycard Arena. Yafai, 27, won the vacant WBA title on December10 in beating Luis Conception by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Yafai looked good against Conception, but he didn’t anywhere near as good to beat the talents in the super flyweight division like Roman Gonzalez, Carlos Cuadras, Naoya Inoue, Koki Komeda, Anmat Ruenmeng, Jamie Conlan, and Omar Narvaez.
Yafai’s problem is he can’t punch. He’s one of those finesse type fighters that wins his fights by boxing and not getting hit. It’s pretty boring to watch some of Yafai’s fights, because he doesn’t let his hands go. For Yafai’s first defense, I’m expecting his promoter Eddie Hearn to pick out a bottom feeder in the World Boxing Association’s top 15 rankings.
No way do I see Hearn putting Yafai in with a live body on May 13. I’d like to see Yafai take on #2 WBA Juan Francisco Estrada or Zolani Tete, but that’s not going to happen. Those fighters are too dangerous for Yafai in my view, and I think it would end badly for him if Hearn picked out one of those guys for his first defense.
Hearn is likely going to have Yafai milk his WBA title against dreadful opposition for easy paydays until he has to fight his first mandatory. Technically, Yafai is supposed to defend against his mandatory challenger, because he won the vacant WBA title last December against Conception. It’s up to the WBA whether they’ll make Yafai defense against his mandatory or not.
“It’s a dream come true to be topping the bill in Birmingham as a world champion,” Yafai said. “Winning the title in Manchester was amazing, but Birmingham is the place I want to fight and to turn the Barclaycard Arena into my hometown fortress.”
Dec. 10 was a great night for British boxing and a night a new star was born in Kal Yafai,” Hearn said. “He took a two-weight world champion to school and made history as the first world champion from Birmingham (in more than a century).”
It sure would be nice for the British boxing fans to see Yafai face someone good for his first defense. Hearn is talking about wanting to put Yafai in with Roman Gonzalez. I think that’s a very bad idea. Yafai is not a fighter that throws a lot of punches. He mainly tries to box and land pot shots. Roman Gonzalez would just stay in close and batter Yafai.
It would be a terrible mismatch. If Hearn doesn’t realize that, then he’ll find out soon when makes that fight. Gonzalez is a nonstop puncher, and he’s good at tracking down runners like Yafai.
“The world champions at (junior bantamweight) are all top, top fighters,” Yafai said. “Roman Gonzalez is considered to be one of the pound-for-pound best and Naoya Inoue is a huge name in Japan and looks very impressive, so it’s an exciting division to be in.”
I think Yafai would be better off just defending his WBA title against the contenders in the top 15 rankings. Yafai needs to stay in his lane, because he’s not in the same class as Roman Gonzalez or Inoue. It was a good win for Yafai over Conception on December 10, but the victory didn’t say much. Concepcion was already whipped by Cuadras and Hernan Marquez [twice]. Beating Concepcion is no big deal. Journeyman Hernan Marquez did it twice.