By Ian S Palmer
There’s a cruiserweight title fight taking place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas this Saturday, September 23rd as unbeaten WBA Champion Yunier ‘The KO Doctor’ Dorticos of Cuba will be taking on Dmitry ‘Russian Hammer’ Kudryashov of Russia. This is a quarter-final bout in the World Boxing Super Series. Kudryashov last fought in June when he beat Olanrewaju Durodola by a fifth-round TKO. Meanwhile, the champion’s last outing came in May of last year when he stopped Youri Kayembre Kalenga in the 10th round.
The 31-year-old Dorticos has a perfect record of 21-0 with 20 Kos. He turned pro back in 2009 and has fought just 59 rounds since then. The main reason for this is his lack of action combined with his quick knockouts. There’s no questioning the Cuban’s power as his current knockout ratio stands at an outstanding 95 per cent. He’s also a decent-sized cruiserweight at 6-feet-3-inches tall with an 80-inch reach. Dorticos was elevated to the WBA Cruiserweight Champion in June after being the interim champ.
Dorticos hasn’t really fought the elite of his weight class as of yet with his toughest foes being Kalenga, Fulgencio Zuniga, Edison Miranda and Eric Fields, but there’s no denying his power. Like several other Cuban-born boxers, Dorticos now fights out of Miami, Florida. He had an extensive amateur career of about 260 bouts and won numerous medals and events. Since turning pro, Dorticos has won several minor titles as well such as the WBC Latino Cruiserweight, and USBA Cruiserweight Titles.
The 31-year-old Kudryashov has a fine record of 21-1 with 21 Kos. As his record shows, like Dorticos, the Russian also has exceptional power in his fists. He gives up both height and reach to the champ as he stands just shy of 6-foot-3 and comes in with a 75-inch reach, which is five inches shorter than Dorticos’. Kudryashov turned pro in 2011 and has 63 rounds under his belt since then due to his power. And speaking of power, his knockout ratio is presently standing at 95 per cent, the same as Dorticos.
The only loss Kudryashov has suffered came at the hands of Olanrewaju Durodola via a second-round stoppage in November of 2015. However, he avenged the defeat by stopping Durodola in the fifth round of their rematch in June. Kudryashov is the WBC Silver Cruiserweight Champion with his best wins coming over Julio Cesar Dos Santos, Juan Carlos Gomez, Francisco Palacios and Santander Silgado.
Prediction…
Neither Dorticos or Kudryashov have been able to showcase their boxing skills much as of yet since they’ve been knocking everybody out. Their level of opponents have been about the same and they’re not very well known outside of fans of the cruiserweight division. These guys have a hell of a lot of power though and it looks like the winner could be the one who lands the first huge shot. Dorticos is the better boxer with the longer reach, but Kudryashov is a crude fighting machine who prefers to brawl. I think Kudryashov will go after Dorticos though and eventually stop him.
