By Ian S Palmer
Otto Wallin of Sweden will be meeting fellow heavyweight Travis Kauffman of Reading, Pennsylvania this Saturday, August 15. The 10-round fight will be held at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut and can be seen live in America on Showtime with TSN 2 showing it in Canada. Wallin last saw action in September when he gave Tyson Fury all he could handle in a 12-round unanimous decision loss. Kauffman’s last fight was a 10th-round stoppage at the hands of Luis Ortiz in December, 2018.
Wallin is a southpaw who hails from Sundsvall, Sweden and the 29-year-old also carries around a record of 20-1 with 13 Kos. He’s boxed just 102 rounds since making his pro debut back in 2013 after a mediocre amateur career. He’s a good-sized heavyweight as he stands just over 6-feet-5-inches tall and has a reach of 78 inches. Wallin has pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 59.1 per cent.
The biggest problem with Wallin is the quality of opponents he’s faced so far other than Fury as nobody’s really heard of them. He stopped Gianluca Mandras in the fifth round in 2017 to lay claim to the vacant WBA Continental Heavyweight Title and a year later he captured the EBE European Heavyweight Crown via a unanimous decision over Adrian Granat. He’s also faced the likes of Srdan Govedarica, Raphael Zumbano, Osborne Machimana, Samir Kurtagic and Vladimir Goncharov.
The 34-year-old Kauffman enters the bout with a record of 32-3 with 23 Kos to his name. He’s also a pretty hard hitter with a current knockout ratio of 64 per cent. Kauffman isn’t the biggest heavyweight around, but he’s not small either as he stands 6-feet-3-inches in height with a reach of 76 inches. This means he’s giving up two inches in height and reach to Wallin. Kauffman as 140 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2006 and has wins against Josh Gormley, Cliff Couser, Chris Koval, Ross Thompson and Epifanio Mendoza.
His first loss was a fourth-round KO at the hands of Tony Grano in August of 2009 and he also dropped a 12-round majority decision to Amir Mansour in March of 2017 for the vacant WBC United States Heavyweight Title. Kauffman also lost a 12-round split decision to Chris Arreola in December of 2015, but the result was changed to a no-decision after Arreola failed a post-fight drug test. Kauffman may have a fine record and good power, but he hasn’t fought anybody who could be considered a top-10 contender other than Arreola and Ortiz.
Prediction…
Kauffman has won 14 of his last 17 bouts, not counting the Arreola no-decision, with eight of them coming inside the distance while Wallin looked impressive in his only loss. This fight will let us know if Wallin’s a flash in the pan with his performance against Fury of if he’s a legitimate contender. Based on his performance last September, and that alone. I’d expect him to beat Kauffman in a close contest.
