By Ian S Palmer
The IBF Featherweight Title will be on the line in Macau, China on Saturday, November 23 when undefeated champion Evgeny Gradovich of Russia takes on Billy Dib of Australia in a 12-round rematch. This is on the undercard of the vacant WBO Welterweight title showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios and can be seen across North America on HBO’s Pay-per-View platform.
The 27-year-old Gradovich beat Dib by a split decision last March to take the title and is hoping to retain it in the same fashion or by a stoppage. Gradovich will enter the ring with a perfect record of 17-0 along with eight Kos to his credit. He had an excellent amateur career and racked up a record of 124-24 before turning pro. He’s made the transition to professional boxing quite easily and hasn’t been beaten as of yet.
Gradovich has a bit of a European style to him, but also uses foot movement effectively since he’s trained by Robert Garcia. He’s also a bit more aggressive than most Europeans and likes to dictate the action and force his opponents to back up. He’ll go into this fight with a lot of confidence considering how he managed to beat dib the first time around.
The 28-year-old Dib carries a record of 36-2 with him along with 21 Kos. He’s an underrated fighter who had a 14-bout winning streak going until he met Gradovich earlier in the year. He’ll be highly motivated to win his title back and start up a new winning streak. However, to do so he’s going to have to fight better than he did in the first meeting. Dib was simply outworked and outmuscled by Gradovich in March and can’t afford to let the same thing happen again.
Dib has good boxing skills and footwork along with decent power and hand speed, but wasn’t able to show them off when he lost his title. He may want to stay away from brawling and utilize his skills against the new champion. Still, Gradovich is a fighter who just keeps on moving forward and likes to dig to the body and is a hard opponent to keep at bay.
The first bout was quite entertaining and this one should be too. But if Dib doesn’t bring anything new to the table he’s going to be in for a long, hard night again. Gradovich, on the other hand, doesn’t really have to change anything from their first meeting to be successful again. He needs to use his strength and volume of punches to wear Dib down.
This is going to be a hard fight for Dib to win unless he can match the champion’s punch output and also be as accurate and match him shot for shot. Dib is quite durable and can take a good punch, but he didn’t seem to have an answer for Gradovich’s tactics in their first fight. This could be a case of Déjà vu as it looks like Gradovich will earn another decision win over Dib and retain his title, but this time by a close unanimous nod.
