By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten lightweight prospect Ivan Redkach of Ukraine meets Yakubu Amidu of Ghana in a 10-round bout at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California on Friday, January 9th. The fight can be seen live on Showtime in the USA. Redkach climbs into the ring with a perfect record of 17-0 along with 13 Kos while Yakubu Amidu is 21-5-2 and has 19 Kos to his name.
The 28-year-old Redkach is a southpaw who now fights out of the U.S. He’s a relentless puncher who likes to go to the body and is aiming to step up in class and make a name for himself before getting a world title shot. Redkach beat Tony Luis by a 10-round unanimous-decision last January and then followed up with another unanimous decision victory over Sergey Gulyakevich in June. He had an extensive and impressive amateur career and has made a successful transition into pro boxing due to his skills and aggressive style.
The 30-year-old Amidu is more of a brawler and has good knockout power. He’ll be hoping to entice Redkach into a street fight. He hasn’t had much luck in the ring lately as Amidu has just one win in his last five bouts along with a draw and three losses. His lone victory came via a stoppage against Rynell Griffin and the draw was against Juan Carlos Burgos. His last outing was against Chris Rudd last February and he dropped a split decision. The six-round fight was a part of an ESPN tournament and the judges had it even. This forced a tie-breaking seventh round which Amidu lost.
Amidu hasn’t fought for 11 months so he may have some ring rust to shake off. He had hoped to be back in the ring in December against Anthony Peterson, but the fight fell through. He’ll need to keep Redkach off of him by nailing his opponent with power shots, but if he doesn’t have any sting on his punches he will likely be in quite a bit of trouble when it comes to the judges’ scorecards. Redkach needs to remain focused and can’t underestimate Amidu since he has the power to stop him in his tracks. Amidu has a decent chin as he’s been stopped just once in his five losses and that was against Ricky Burns of Scotland back in 2008.
Prediction
Amidu should be able to test Redkach’s chin in this fight and if the Ukrainian can handle it then he’ll stick to his usual aggressive style and dig to his opponent’s body. The styles of these two boxers should lead to an exciting bout and there’s a good chance it goes the distance. Redkach knows he has to win this outing if he hopes to keep climbing up the ladder and should be motivated enough to pull out a decision.
