Richard Abril vs. Sharif Bogere on March 2nd on Showtime

By Boxing News - 12/27/2012 - Comments

By Allan Fox: #1 WBA, #8 WBO, Richard Abril (17-3-1, 8 KO’s) will be facing off against unbeaten #2 WBO, #3 WBA, Sharif Bogere (23-0, 15 KO’s) for the vacant WBA World lightweight title on March 2nd on Showtime in a venue still to be determined. This could be a potentially great fight because the 30-year-old Abril should arguably still be undefeated at this point in his career because all three of his defeats involved him losing by a controversial split decision.

Abril lost to Breidis Prescott by a 10 round split decision in June 2008, and then two years later, Abril lost to Henry Lundy by a 10 round split decision in January 2010. In April of this year, Abril lost a controversial 12 round split decision to Brandon Rios.

Bogere, 24, has beaten all three of his opponents and looked pretty good for the most part. He did struggle to defeat Raymundo Beltran by a 10 round unanimous decision in May of last year. However, Bogere has looked really good of late, knocking out his last three opponents in wins over Francisco Contreras, Sergio Rivera and Manuel Leyva.

Those are good opponents but not in the same class as Abril, and it’s going to be a lot tougher for Bogere to get past him because he’s so tall, and hard to hit due to his focus on his defense.

Abril, 5’11”, has a five inch height advantage over the 5’6” Bogere and that should make it really tough on Bogere to be able to get close enough to take advantage of his speed and power.

Bogere’s speed is extraordinary and it makes it really tough on his opponents, as few of them ever see his fast punches coming until it’s too late. Abril is plenty fast himself, and it’s not going to be as easy it’s been in the past for Bogere to dominate.