By Ian S Palmer
Former IBF Lightweight Champion Richard Commey of Accra, Ghana takes on Jackson Marinez of the Dominican Republic at the Bubble at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this Saturday, Feb. 13th. The 10-round bout can be seen live in the USA on ESPN and ESPN Deportes and on TSN 5 in Canada while those in the UK can catch it on BoxNation. Commey lost his title by a brutal second-round knockout to Teofimo Lopez in December, 2019. Marinez last fought in August when he dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to Rolando Romero for the interim WBA Lightweight Crown.
Commey is now 33 years old and will be trying to comeback from a devastating knockout at the hands of Lopez. He enters the fight with a mark of 29-3 with 26 Kos. Commey won the vacant title the with a second-round stoppage over Isa Chaniev in February, 2019, then stopped Ray Beltran in the eighth round in his first defence in June.
He won the title in his second shot at at it as he fought Robert Easter for the vacant belt in 2016 and dropped him in the eighth round but lost a split decision. His other career loss came three months later when he dropped another split decision, this time to Denis Shafikov. Commey turned pro in 2011 and has boxed 173 rounds since then. He’ obviously got some power as 26 of his 29 wins have been by stoppage and his current knockout ratio is an impressive 81.2 per cent.
He’s just 5-feet-8-inches tall with a reach of 71 inches and his biggest wins have been against the likes of Chaniev, Beltran, Bilal Mohammad, Gary Buckland and Yardley Cruz. Since turning pro, Commey has also won the Ghanaian, IBF Continental Africa, African Boxing Union, Commonwealth, IBF Inter-Continental, and WBC International Silver Lightweight Titles.
Marinez is a 30-year-old with a mark of 19-1 with 7 Kos. He turned pro in 2016 after a mediocre amateur career and has boxed 127 rounds since. He stands 5-feet-10-inches tall with a wingspan of 69.5 inches which gives him a two-inch edge in height on Commey but a slight 1.5-inch disadvantage in reach. Marinez doesn’t carry much power in his fists as his current knockout ratio stands at 25 per cent.
He was rolling along at 19-0 before running into Romero with his biggest wins coming against the likes of Francisco Lopez, Jesus Arevalo, Adrian Perez and Yardley Cruz. Marinez won the vacant WBA Fedecaribe Lightweight Title with a nine-round unanimous decision in 2016 and the vacant WBA Fedelatin Lightweight Belt with an 11-round unanimous decision in 2018.
Prediction…
Commey needs to regain some confidence after the Lopez blowout and he could be a little gun shy. However, he’s fortunately facing a boxer who doesn’t have much in the way of power. Marinez is a solid boxer though with a good chin. Commey struggles against upper-class fighters such as Lopez, Easter and Shafikov but should have enough power and skill to handle Marinez, especially with the power he possesses in his right hand. This is a huge psychological test for Commey and unless Lopez took everything out of him, he should be able to beat Marinez.
