By Jim Dower: Unbeaten light heavyweight contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk (14-0, 12 KOs) will be facing 35-year-old journeyman Mehdi Amir (34-5-2, 16 KOs) in a 12 round scheduled fight on March 17th on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Gvozdyk vs. Amar is the co-feature bout on the Jose Carlos Ramirez vs. Amir Imam card. Also on the undercard is unbeaten lightweight Felix Verdejo facing Antonio Lozada Jr. in a 10 round fight. Super featherweight prospect Christopher Diaz will be fighting Braulio Rodriguez in a 10 round bout. Former IBF super featherweight champion Jose Pedraza is battling Jose Luis Rodriguez in a 10 round contest. 2-time Irish Olympian Michael Conlan will be fighting David Berna in an 8 round fight.
This is a Top Rank promoted card. Gvozdyk is a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist from Ukraine. His promoters are high on him, but they’ve not moved him nearly as fast as they did with 2-time Olympic gold medalist. Gvozdyk is moved about the same pace as we saw with former Russian amateur standout Matt Korobov. Top Rank never did much with Korovbov. Gvozdyk might wind up aging out by the time he gets a title shot.
The 30-year-old Gvozdyk is waiting for a title shot against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson. Top Rank is probably doing the right thing in having Gvozdyk go after 40-year-old Stevenson rather than the other champions. It’s doubtful that Gvozdyk would be able to defeat Dmitry Bivol, Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev. Those guys hit hard, and they have the kind of boxing skills that would give Gvozdyk problems. The downside of Gvozdyk being angled to fight for the WBC title is it could take too much time to get the title shot. Gvozdyk got a late start to his pro career due to the many years he fought as an amateur in Ukraine.
We’ve already seen Gvozdyk get dropped hard by Tommy Karpency in the 1st round in their fight in July 2016. Gvozdyk also didn’t look that great against Craig Baker in his last fight in August of last year. Gvozdyk won the fight by a 6th round knockout, but he wasn’t as fast as Baker. He won the fight based on his superior power and pedigree rather than having better raw skills than Baker. Gvozdyk isn’t that fast and he’s not a huge puncher like Kovalev, Beterbiev, Stevenson or Bivol.
Amar is from France. He turned pro 15 years ago in 2003, and he’s been an active fighter for the most part. Amar briefly held the EBU light heavyweight title in 2016 after beating Sergey Demchenko by a 12 round unanimous decision. You could say that was the high point of Amar’s career, as he lost the EBU belt in his first defense against former WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz in November 2016 in losing a 12 round split decision.
Amar’s best wins are over these fighters:
• Sergey Demchenko
• Thierry Karl
• Yoann Bloyer
• Adasat Rodriguez
Amar’s losses were against these well-known fighters:
• Hassan N’Dam
• Nadjib Mohammedi
• Mehdi Boudla
• Robert Stieglitz
Amar fought to a 12 round draw against Konni Konrad in May 2014. Amar has only been knocked out once in his career in losing a 4th round TKO to Nadjib Mohammedi in May 2012.
Ranked No.2 with the World Boxing Council, Gvozdyk is rated highly enough to where he should be able to get a crack at Stevenson within 2 to 3 years depending on how long the WBC allows Stevenson to go between defending against his mandatory challengers. It’s been 4 years since Stevenson last defended against his first and last mandatory challenger in 2014, so it could be a while before Gvozdyk gets a title shot.
Gvozdyk should be able to press Amar out of there if he pushes a fast pace on him. Amar has good boxing skills, so he might be able to survive if Gvozdyk fights at a slow pace like he sometimes does. Amar is a mobile guy, and he’s not going to stand that and let Gvozdyk tee off on him without making him work.
Gvozdyk’s shaky punch resistance might keep him from ever winning a world. If he can get to Stevenson within 2 or years, he’ll be catching him when he’s 42, and that could give him enough of an advantage to win. But if Gvozdk takes on Bivol, Kovalev or Beterbiev, I see him getting blasted out of there fast. Gvozdyk is better off going through an aging Stevenson than going after the likes of Bivol, Beterbiev or Kovalev.