By Ian S Palmer
Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan will be taking on Fres Oquendo of the Puerto Rico on Sunday, July 6 for the vacant WBA World Heavyweight Championship. The 12-round bout will be taking place at the Ahmat Arena in Grozny, Russia. Chagaev recently won the vacant WBA Continental and PABA Heavyweight titles while Oquendo hasn’t been very visible at all lately. This bout can be caught live in the UK on BoxNation.
The 41 year old Oquendo, who turned pro back in 1997, now fights out of Chicago and stands 6-feet-2-inches. He has an 80-inch reach and is a decent size for a modern-day heavyweight. He’ll be climbing through the ring ropes with a record of 37-7 along with 24 Kos. He’s also been stopped twice in his seven defeats. He hasn’t been in the spotlight lately and at 41 is definitely in the final stages of his career, but he’s still the 12th-ranked American heavyweight at the moment.
Oquendo’s last fight was a second-round TKO over Galen Brown in a scheduled eight-round bout back on May 10 in Kansas City, KS. Oquendo has still been active, but he hasn’t taken on any elite opponents for several years now. He’s faced some top boxers in the past such as Oliver McCall, Bruce Seldon, James Toney, Evander Holyfield, John Ruiz, Chris Byrd, David Tua, and Bert Cooper. He fought Byrd for the IBF world title in 2003 and dropped a unanimous decision and was stopped by Ruiz in the 11th round a year later in an attempt at winning the WBA version.
The 35-year-old Chagaev, who now fights out of Germany, is quite small for a heavyweight at just 5-feet-11 with a 74-inch reach. He’ll be giving up three inches in height to Oquendo as well as six inches in reach. Chagaev’s a southpaw who also turned pro back in 1997. His record stands at 32-2-1 with 20 Kos to his name. One of his two losses came by a ninth-round TKO, and that was to Wladimir Klitschko back in 2009. He was also beaten by unanimous decision by Alexander Povetkin in 2011 in a bout for the vacant WBA world title.
Chagaev’s last outing was a unanimous decision victory over Jovo Pudar for the vacant WBA Continental and the PABA Heavyweight in October of 2013. Chagaev’s also fought some pretty good opponents over the years, which gives him just as much experience as Oquendo when it comes to big-time fights. Chagaev has arguably been fighting better opposition over the past few years though and this could give him an edge against Oquendo.
Prediction
Neither of these boxers is known as a power puncher, but they can both put their opponents to sleep if they’re given the opportunity. Oquendo has some fine boxing skills and has good footwork in the ring, but it’s hard to tell how much he’s got left at his advanced age. It can also be said that Chagaev and Oquendo have frozen when it comes to world title fights in the past, but one of them is going to go home with the belt after this contest. Based on their current form it’ll likely be Chagaev by a relatively close decision.
