The Butcher V Lepikhin was a David and Goliath battle. Berridge was completely outclassed by the much taller Russian . A long reach good footwork and hard crisp punching made sure Robert was never able to get inside. I don't think he landed one scoring punch. Berridge received a few flash knock downs during the course of the fight before the referee decided he'd seen enough early in the 5th. Sergey Kovalev Artur Beterbiev Vasily Lepikhin. The Russians have arrived. Certainly exposes the gulf that exists between Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere boxing at the moment.
Really feel for Rob here. He's a fight any man any time kinda guy, but it was hard to watch his desperate attempts to land a shot on the lanky russian. Maybe needs to work on footwork, or even a team change. What about cutting weight and campaigning at smw? Especially since alot of the lhw boys are bigger than ever. That LHW kiwi who won gold at the games is 6"3 aswell. Accolaades to him for the effort. Back to the drawing board tho!
He spoke in the week leading up to the fight about how much weight he had to cut and how difficult he was finding it. I doubt he could make 168.
Bad luck for the Butcher. The guy was ranked 190 odd on boxrec despite being unbeaten he had fought nuffies. Unfortunately for Rob what was supposed to be a easy night at the office to wow the yanks turned disastrous. Caparello-Berridge 2 or Berridge-Foley 3 next up.
