By Ian S Palmer
Nathaniel Gallimore of Jamaica takes on unbeaten Fiodor Czerkaszyn of Ukraine in a 10-round middleweight bout this Saturday, November 5th. The fight from Minneapolis, Minnesota can be seen live on Showtime in America while fans in Canada can catch it on TSN 3. Gallimore was last in the ring in June when he beat Leon lawson III via a 10-round majority decision while Czerkaszyn last fought in August when he stopped Gilbert Venegas Jr in the fourth round.
Gallimore is now 34 years old and now fights out of Des Plaines, Illinois. His record stands at 22-5-1 with 17 Ko’s and he’s boxed 124 rounds since turning pro in 2014 following a brief amateur career. He stands 5-feet-11-inches tall with a reach of 73 inches. Gallimore has pretty good power in his arsenal with a current knockout ratio of 61 per cent but it hasn’t been evident lately as he hasn’t stopped anybody since 2017 and he’s lost four of his last six fights.
The problem with Gallimore is that he’s fallen short when stepping up in class. He lost to Julian Williams by 12-round majority decision in 2018, to Patrick Teixeira by eight-round unanimous decision the same year, to Erickson Lubin by 10-round unanimous decision in 2019 and to Sebastian Fundora by sixth-round stoppage in 2020. His first defeat was to Virgilijus Stapulionis by 10 -round split decision in 2016.
Gallimore’s lone draw draw was an eight-round affair with Urmat Ryskeldiev in 2015 and his biggest wins have been against Justin DeLoach, Jeison Rosario, Angelo Baez and Michael Finney. It appears that Gallimore is in the twilight of his career right now and is being used to test the unbeaten Czerkaszyn. Gallimore of course wants to prove he’s still a contender and he should enter the ring with some confidence as he handed Leon Lawson the first defeat of his career the last time out.
The 26-year-old Czerkaszyn was born in Ukraine but fights out of Poland. He climbs through the ropes with a perfect mark of 20-0 with 13 Ko’s and has boxed 89 rounds since making his pro debut in 2015. He stands 6-feet-1-inch tall with a 72-inch reach which gives him a two-inch height advantage over Gallimore but a one-inch reach disadvantage.
Czerkaszyn possesses pretty good power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 65 per cent and has stopped six of his last 10 opponents. This will be just his second fight in America, but his second straight. His biggest wins so far have been against the likes of Kassim Ouma, Wes Capper, Patrick Mendy, Damian Bonelli and Guido Pitto.
Prediction…
Gallimore’s fallen short against most of his name opponents but Czerkaszyn doesn’t really fall into that class as he’s a virtual unknown in North America. He’s going to have to get past Gallimore if he wants to advance his career on these shores. He had no amateur boxing experience but was involved in Muay Thai and kickboxing since a youngster. Considering Czerkaszyn is eight years younger than Gallimore, is motivated and has pretty good power, I’m expecting him to have his hand raised in victory on Saturday night.
