On Saturday the 2nd of February at the Ford Center, Frisco, Texas at exactly 8:00 ET, Richard Commey cracks the IBF Lightweight strap the second time against Isa Chaniev in an undercard of the Sergey Kovalev- Eleider Alvarez fight II. The fight promoted by Bob Arum TOP RANK and supported by Lou Dibella will be shown live on ESPN and HSTV right here in Ghana.
The fight promises to be exhilarating with a lot of interest by connoisseurs of the sport simply for the fact that the winner may face Vasyl Lomachenko the WBA and WBO Lightweight Champion.
TALE OF THE TAPE
Chaniev 26, comes into the fight with an impressive record of 91 rounds of boxing, 13 wins, 1 loss, no draw and 6 by way KO (43% of total fights). He has height and reach stats of 5’7″ and 6’7″ respectively.
Chaniev an Orthodox boxer but quickly switches to southpaw. He is quick, he runs round the ring with unsuspecting aggression with quick combinations of left and right hooks and occasionally goes in for the pound for pound exchanges.
Chaniev has weak and bad defence so he keep running around to ward off from being exposed. Chaniev has come from lost against Fedor Papazov in an IBF and IBO intercontinental fight but has had a straight three winning streak against Jean Pierre Bauwens, Juan Matin Elorde and Ismael Barroso. He looks to surprising Commey as he comes in as an heavy underdog.
Commey 31, mounts the ring with a superior record, huge experience and advantage over chaniev. He has had 161 rounds of boxing, 27 wins, no draw, 24 by way of KOs (83% of total fight) and 2 losses was controversially called for Robert Easter Jnr in his first crack at the IBF title and Denis Shafikov in an elimination to set a rematch against Easter Jnr. He has won his last two fights with blistering and thunderous crashing of Alejandro Luna and Yardley Cruz in round 6 and 2 respectively.
Commey is quick on the counter, excellent recovery rate, good defence, power puncher and top class pound for pound, solid aggression to his advantage but weak backtracking.
Immediately in the early rounds, Commey must test Chaniev in a pound for pound exchange with relentless aggression to expose him. Commey should open the defence of Chaniev by using a lot of jabs and crashing straight right because of the reach and height advantage.
Commey must prevent Chaniev from clinching and keep his defence apt at all times. No lazy punches
Team Commey stands tall, looks good in this encounter. I call the fight for Commey and may end the fight in late rounds precisely round 8.