By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten heavyweight Efe Ajagba of Nigeria will be taking on Razvan Cojanu of Romania in a 10-round bout this Saturday, March 7th. The fight from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York can be seen live in North America on Fox and Fox Deportes while those in the UK can catch it on BoxNation. Ajagba last fought in December when he stopped Iago Kiladze in the fifth round of a slugfest after getting dropped in the third round. Cojanu was last in the ring in October when he beat Tamaz Zadishvili via a six-round unanimous decision.
The 25-year-old Ajagba is a young, hard-hitting prospect who now fights out of Texas. He climbs through the ropes with a perfect record of 12-0 with 10 big Kos. He’s obviously got good power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 83.3 per cent. He’s also got plenty of size as he stands 6-feet-6-inches tall with an 85-inch reach. Ajagba enjoyed a fine amateur career and made it to the quarterfinal of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the super heavyweight division.
He also won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Scotland in 2014. Ajagba turned pro in 2017 a year after the Olympics and has been pretty busy ever since. He’s fought 12 times but has boxed only 31 rounds due to his power. He’s been the distance just once as Ali Eren Demirezen took him 10 rounds last July. The only other man he failed to stop was Curtis Harper in August of 2018 and that’s because Harper was disqualified after walking out of the ring before the opening bell rang.
Ajagba’s only recognizable opponent up to now has been Amir Mansour, whose corner stopped the fight after the second round last March. But while he hasn’t fought any top rate opponents as of yet, at least each one of his foes entered the ring with a winning record. Ajagba’s chin hasn’t really been tested but it should be noted Kiladze decked him in his last outing, so the jury’s still out on how well he can take a punch.
The 32-year-old Cojanu is a big guy at just over 6-feet-7-inches tall with an 81-inch reach. This gives him an inch edge in height over Ajagba but his reach is four inches shorter. Cojanu now fights out of America as well and has 102 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2011. He possesses mediocre power with a current knockout ratio of 39.1 per cent. He enters the fight with a mark of 17-6 with 9 Kos and has been stopped three times.
Most boxing fans may know Cojanu from his fight against Ortiz in 2018 when he was stopped in the second round. But he’s also fought some other top ranked opponents. He lost a unanimous decision to Joseph Parker in a shot at the WBO Heavyweight title in May, 2017 and dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to Nathan Gorman in December 2018 for the WBC International Silver Heavyweight Title. He was also stopped in the second round by Daniel Dubois last March for the vacant WBO European Crown.
In fact, Cojanu lost four straight fights when he was beaten in succession by Parker, Ortiz, Gorman and Dubois but stopped the bleeding when he beat Zadishvili in his last outing. Fans probably won’t recognize many of his other opponents though, perhaps other than Grover Young, Ed Fountain and Manuel Alberto Pucheta. His first loss came against Alvaro Morales via a four-round majority decision in his pro debut and his second defeat was to Donovan Dennis by second-round stoppage in April of 2015.
Prediction…
Cojanu doesn’t possess much in the way of power and he doesn’t own the greatest chin. He needs to land a perfect punch to have a shot at a W but the likely scenario will see Ajagba stop him. It could come early as well.
