By Ian S Palmer
The interim IBF Welterweight Title is on the line in Uncasville, Connecticut this Saturday, Oct. 24th with Sergey Lipinets of Kazakhstan taking on unbeaten Custio Clayton of Nova Scotia, Canada. Lipinets was originally supposed to meet Kudratillo Abdukakhorov of Uzbekistan but his opponent had visa problems. The 12-round bout can be seen live in America on Showtime and Canadians can catch it on TSN. Lipinets last fought in July when he stopped Jayar Inson in the second round for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Welterweight Title. Clayton last saw action in January when stopped Diego Ramirez in the eighth round to defend his NABA Welterweight Title.
Former IBF Super Lightweight Champion Sergey Lipinets won that vacant title in 2017 with a unanimous decision over Akihiro Kondo in 2017. The 31-year-old is 16-1 with 12 Kos. He obviously has some power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 71per cent. Lipinets turned pro in 2014 after a fine amateur career and is also a former WAKO Kickboxing Champion. He has 123 rounds of pro experience.
Lipinets is 5-feet-7-inches tall with a 67-inch reach. His lone career loss came via a 12-round unanimous decision to Mikey Garcia in March of 2018 in which he lost his IBF Crown in his first defence. His biggest victory was stopping Lamont Peterson in the 10th round in March, 2019. The only other recognizable opponents are Erick Bone, Walter Castillo and Cosme Rivera. Lipinets has displayed a solid chin so far to go along with his power but was dropped in the seventh round by Garcia.
Clayton is now 33 years old and represented Canada at the 2012 Olympics in London, England. He won his first two bouts in the event but was then defeated in the quarterfinals. He reportedly went 32-13 as an amateur and was once beaten by Errol Spence jr. Since turning pro in 2014, Clayton has boxed 103 rounds and has posted a perfect mark of 18-0 with 12 Kos.
He has pretty good power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 66.6 per cent and has also displayed a solid chin up to now. He’s 5-feet-9-inches tall with an unlisted reach so is two inches taller than Lipinets. He won the vacant WBC Continental Americas and vacant IBF International Welterweight Titles in 2017 with a 10-round unanimous decision over Jhony Montano.
Clayton then won the vacant WBO International Welterweight Crown via a 10-round unanimous decision over Cristian Coria in his next bout six months later. He added the vacant IBF Inter-Continental Title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Steven Danyo in 2018. Clayton hasn’t fought any legitimate top-10 contenders as of yet though with his best-known opponents being Diego Ramirez, Johan Perez and DeMarcus Corley.
Prediction…
This is a decent matchup but as Lipinets is a seasoned pro with enough power to do some damage while Custio has enough experience to be a problem even though he’s taking a step up in class. However, the original opponent Abdukakhorov is a legitimate prospect and would have made for a more intriguing fight. Lipinets’ experience and edge in power should be the difference and I expect him to come out with the vacant belt even though Custio has the edge of being a late replacement and could upset the apple cart.
