By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten junior middleweight Sergey Rabchenko of Belarus will be putting his European Title on the line against Bradley Pryce of Britain in Vratsa, Bulgaria on Saturday, November 16. Pryce is a late replacement for Cedric Vitu, who was originally scheduled to challenge for the championship.
The 27-year-old Rabchenko is a solid fighter who has built up a perfect record of 24-0 up to now along with 18 Kos to his name. He’s a good boxer who has above average power. He won the vacant belt with a seventh-round TKO against Ryan Rhodes in June of 2012 and this will be his third defence of the crown. Rabchenko is quite aggressive in the ring and isn’t averse to going toe-to-toe and slugging it out with his foes.
He has pretty good head movement which makes him a bit difficult to hit and he’s trained by former world champion Ricky Hatton of England. Hatton is trying to break some of the champion’s bad habits, such as coming in wide and not throwing enough punches per round. Since he has good power he often loads up on his shots looking for a one-punch knockout rather than throwing in volume.
His new opponent, the 32-year-old Bradley Pryce, is no stranger to the champions since the two of them met before in the spring of 2011. Pryce enters through the ring ropes with a 34-14 record along with 18 Kos. He doesn’t have much in the way of power and the journeyman has lost his share of fights, but when he took on Rabchenko a couple of years ago it was a relatively close fight which he lost by unanimous decision.
Pryce of course would like to even the score while Rabchenko wants to prove once and for all that he’s the better boxer. Rabchenko wasn’t at his best in 2011 as his movement was predictable by retreating in straight lines. Hatton has been working with him in the gym on this and says his fighter is a lot less predictable now as he is slicker and feints a lot more than he used to. The trainer claims he’s also shored up his defence and Pryce will be surprised at how much he’s improved.
This was originally scheduled to be a rematch against Vitu, who he won a split decision over in November of 2012 and who is a better boxer than Pryce, so some people will feel the champion will have an easier time of it. Of course, boxing doesn’t always work out this way and Pryce could once again prove to be a troublesome opponent for the champion. Pryce may have lost six of his past nine contests, but will be highly motivated for this rematch.
The WBC has Rabchenko listed as their number one ranked fighter and he’ll also be motivated here as a won should propel him into a world title shot sooner or later. The circumstances surrounding this fight could make it an interesting and exciting one.
Rabchenko and Pryce know each other from the past and the champion has improved since their first meeting two years ago. This bout should go the same way as the first one, but Rabchenko could also score a stoppage in the second half of the contest to put an exclamation point on it.
