By Ian S Palmer
The vacant WBC interim Light Heavyweight Championship is up for grabs this Saturday, March 17th at the theater in Madison Square Garden as undefeated Oleksandr Gvozdyk of Ukraine will battle it out against Mehdi Amar of France. The 12-round bout can be seen live in the U.S. on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, live in the UK and Ireland on BoxNation and on tape delay in Canada at midnight on TSN 2. Gvozdyk last fought in August when he stopped Craig Baker in six rounds while Amar’s last outing was in November when he beat Otar Gogoberishvili by an eight-round unanimous decision.
The 30-year-old Gvozdyk enters the ring with a perfect mark of 14-0 along with 12 Kos. He stands 6-feet-2-inches tall and has a reach of 75.5 inches. He’s now fighting out of Oxnard, California and has just 60 rounds under his belt since turning pro in 2014. The Ukrainian isn’t really known as a power puncher, but you’d never know it since his knockout ratio currently stands at a very impressive 86 per cent. His biggest wins so far have been against Tommy Karpency, Otis Griffin, Yunieski Gonzalez, Nadjib Mohammedi and Isaac Chilemba.
Gvozdyk won the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England, is a three-time Ukrainian amateur national champion and also fought in the world and European championships as well as in the world series of boxing. He’s actually taking a step backwards here though against Amar and needs to face stiffer opposition if fans are expected to take him seriously as a light heavyweight world champion.
Amar is 34 years old and will climb into the ring with a record of 34-5-2 along with 16 Kos. He turned pro in 2003 and has fought 249 rounds since then. However, other than a few opponents he hasn’t faced anybody in the elite category either. He dropped a unanimous decision to Robert Stieglitz in November, 2016 in a bid for the European Title and has also been beaten by Nadjib Mohammedi in 2012, Mehdi Bouadla in 2009, Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in 2008, and Pierre Moreno in 2008. He’s a pretty tough customer as his only stoppage defeat came against Mohammedi in the fourth round and that was apparently due to an injury.
Amar’s draws came against Konni Konrad over 12 rounds in 2014 and a six-round affair with Gabriel Lecrosnier the same year. As for opponents he’s beaten, well there’s Juan Nelongo, Hugo Kasperski and Serhiy Demchenko twice. Amar is taking a huge step up in class, especially at his age and it’s really unclear how he’s getting a shot at the interim world title. He’s not likely to stop Gvozdyk since his current knockout ratio is just 39 per cent. When it comes to size, Amar’s height and reach are both unlisted.
Prediction…
This isn’t really a good matchup for Gvozdyk and boxing fans as a win over Amar won’t prove anything. He may try to use his jab to keep Amar at a distance by boxing him for a few rounds and then try to take him out.
