The World Boxing Super Series Cruiserweight tournament rolls along tonight (Saturday, September 23, 2017) with action from the Alamdome in El Paso, Texas as Yunier Dorticos of Cuba faces Russia’s Dmitry Kudryashov.
Dorticos (21-0) enters the fight a slight favorite against the rugged Kudryashov (21-1). Dorticos won the interim version of the WBA world title at cruiserweight back in May of 2016 when he defeated Youri Kalenga in Paris. Dorticos was set as an early favorite and then he was slotted as the #2 seed before falling to seed #4.
In Kudryashov he is facing the man that no one else wanted to face in this tournament. Kudryashov is a bit of an unknown X-factor in the tournament as he has fought his entire career in Russia. At 21-1 he has finished all his fights by knockout. The lone setback of his career came when he was stopped by Olanrewaju Duradola back in November of 2015 but he avenged that loss with a fifth round stoppage in his last outing.
There is the main force at play in this fight. Kudryashov is a knockout puncher but Dorticos, with his amateur pedigree should have enough technique to manage the fight. In the build-up to the fight Dorticos has been extremely confident but he last fought over 16 months ago and he is now over 30 years old. He may be facing ring rust from the layoff but we will not know until fight time. There are many who think that all Dorticos has to do is make one mistake and get hit with Kudryashov’s money shot and his night is over. Kudryashov could break through in any round while a decision likely favors Dorticos, so the books are avoiding an over/under on this one to this point.
Last week in Germany, Ukrainian fighter Oleksandr Usyk defeated Marco Huck to advance to the second round of the WBSS tournament. The other two remaining fights see Briedis vs Mike Perez on September 30th and Murat Gassiev taking on Wlodarczyk on October 21st.
WBSS 200 LB Cruiserweight Quarter Final – San Antonio TX
Dmitry Kudryashov +185
Yunier Dorticos -225
