By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBA Light Flyweight Champion Carlos Canizales of Caracas, Venezuela will be defending his title against Japan’s Sho Kimura in Fuzhou, China this Sunday, May 26th. Canizales last fought in July when he stopped Bin Lu in the 12th round. Kimura, who is a former WBO Flyweight Champion, last fought in March with a third-round stoppage over Wicha Phulaikhao for the vacant OPBF Silver Flyweight title.
The 26-year-old Canizales has a near perfect record of 21-0-1 with 17 Kos. His only blemish so far was a 12-round split decision draw with Ryoichi Taguchi in Japan on New Year’s Eve 2016 in an attempt to win Taguchi’s WBA crown. Canizales then won the vacant WBA title in March of 2018 via a unanimous decision over Reiya Konishi. He then defended it against Bin Lu.
Canizales turned pro in 2014 and has boxed 104 rounds since. He’s got better-than-average power with a current knockout ratio of 77 per cent. The champion stands 5-feet-3-inches tall with a reach of 64.5 inches. He also won the WBA Fedelatin Light Flyweight Title in October of 2015 with an 11-round split decision over Robert Barrera.
There’s no doubt Canizales has talent and power but just six of his 22 opponents have entered the ring with winning records and two of those were just 1-0. On the other hand, he showed he could move up in class when he took on Taguchi in Japan and was very competitive.
Kimura is 30 years old and has been boxing as a pro since 2013 with 109 rounds of experience under his belt. He’s 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 66.5-inch reach which gives him a two-inch advantage on Canizales in both height and reach. He carries around a record of 18-2-2 with 11 Kos. Kimura was stopped in his pro debut in just 75 seconds by Shosuke Oji in 2013 and then won five straight before boxing two consecutive draws with Akira Kokubu and Isao Ayoama in 2014.
Along the way Kimura has also won the WBO Asia Pacific Flyweight Title. However, he made a name for himself in July of 2017 when he stopped Zou Shiming in the 11th round to lift the Chinese Olympian’s WBO World Flyweight Title. Kimura then defended it against Toshiyuki Igarashi and Froilan Saludar by stopping the challengers in the ninth and sixth rounds respectively.
Kimura then ran into Kosei Tanaka last September and in a candidate for fight of the year he lost his title via a majority decision. He’s now on a mission to win another world title albeit in the light flyweight division. Kimura’s a great volume puncher rather than a knockout artist and carries around a current knockout ratio of 50 per cent.
Prediction…
Kimura looked very impressive against Tanaka last September even though he was edged on the scorecards. It was a toe-to-toe brawl for 36 minutes and one has to wonder how much it took out of him. If Kimura performs even half as well as he did against Tanaka he should be able to take the title from Canizales. He’s the bigger man and can definitely take a punch, but Canizales may have the better boxing skills. Kimura’s bet bet is to just keep throwing punches like he did against Tanaka and hope to overwhelm the champion by sheer volume of leather. Kimura could face a problem coming down from 112 lbs to 108 though and if the weight loss drains him then he’ll have a tough task on his hands.
