By Ian S Palmer
Former WBO Light Flyweight Champion Elwin Soto of Mexico clashes with former world champion Hekkie Budler of South Africa in a 12-round junior flyweight tilt this Saturday, June 25th. The bout from Mexico will be telecast on ESPN+ in America. Soto lost his title in his fourth defence when he was edged by Jonathan Gonzalez last October while Budler last boxed in May of last year when he beat Jonathan Almacen via unanimous decision for the vacant WBC Silver Light Flyweight Title.
The 25-year-old Soto has power and a solid chin to accompany his record of 19-2 with 13 Kos. He’s boxed 114 rounds since turning pro in 2016 after a brief amateur career in the World Series of Boxing and owns a current knockout ratio of 62 per cent. After being brought along quite slowly he took the title from Angel Acosta in an upset stoppage in the 12th round. He defended it against Edward Heno and Carlos Buitrago by unanimous decisions and stopped Katsunari Takayama in the ninth round before losing to Gonzalez.
Soto stands 5-feet-3-inches tall with a 64-inch reach and has steadily improved with each outing. He’s not an exceptional boxer but does just about everything well inside of the ring. He was behind on all three scorecards to Acosta when he won the title but capitalized on his opportunity. His first pro defeat came in his third fight when he dropped a four-round unanimous decision to Daniel Andujo. Soto knows he has to get past Budler if he hopes to earn another title shot in the near future.
The 34-year-old Budler enters the showdown with a 33-4 mark with 10 Ko’s and has boxed 309 rounds since making his pro debut in 2007. He’s an excellent boxer who isn’t as well known as he should be. Budler has won several minor and regional titles as a pro such as the IBO Minimumweight, IBO Light Flyweight Title and IBO All Africa Light Flyweight Crowns.
He’s also won major world titles such as the IBF and WBA Light Flyweight Titles as well as the WBA Minimumweight Belt and the Ring Magazine World Light Flyweight Title. Budler has gone 6-3 with 2 KO’s in world title bouts and is 4-3 against former or current world titlists. He’s beaten Florante Condes, Nkosinathi Joyi, Chao Zhong Xiong, and Ryoichi Taguchi while losing to Byron Rojas, Milan Melindo, and Hiroto Kyoguchi.
Budler has been stopped just once as Hiroto Kyoguchi halted him in the 10th round in December, 2018 in a shot at the WBA Super World Light Flyweight Championship. Budler measures 5-feet-3-inches tall with a 65.5-inch reach which gives him a slight 1.5-inch reach advantage on Soto. He doesn’t have much in the way of power though with current knockout ratio of 27 per cent.
Prediction…
Budler has excellent boxing skills and a boat load of experience and it means the best way for Soto to come out on top is to simply overwhelm him by punching in volume. Budler doesn’t have the power to keep Soto off of him for 12 rounds but if Soto decides to get into a boxing match he’ll come out on the wrong end of a decision. I’m banking on Soto taking the aggressive approach here and coming out on top.
