Mike Perez is not glass jawed, but Povetkin will KO him late.

He seemed to have lost a touch of the intensity he had prior. It may have effected his motivation to train hard , hence his poor stamina.

 

Abdusalamov was. Perez is still a great prospect. (though you wouldn't know it by him slumming around beating up geriatrics like Ding-A-Ling Wilson these days :-()

 

I think Povetkin should comfortably win with some very few rocky moments.


Povetkin might have some issues early on if Perez comes at him quickly. I think a mid to late rounds KO for Povetkin.


8th or 9th round KO.

 

The stamina issues date back to his early pro days (look at the scouting reports from the Irish fans when he was based there).

His intensity was the same. People just want to believe it had an effect because it makes a compelling "story".

 

He was neither a glass jawed fraud nor a legit prospect.

His power was real, as was his tragically evident heart.

It was his skill level and his extremely low hand speed that I didn't have any faith in. Had the damage from Perez not had the consequences it did, he still wouldn't have gone anywhere that any other slowish and sloppy puncher with patchy defense can go at heavyweight. (see: Victor Bisbal, Akhror Muralimov)

 

Yes, even in the Mago fight, Perez was being hit by countless shots he shouldn't have been hit with, so it doesn't seem that he suddenly slipped after the Mago fight. It seems that he was always hittable and had questionable stamina.

Also, despite having good skills, he never looked like a typical Cuban-style fighter.

 

I expect the fight goes the full length. :hat

 

Yeah. It took a lot for him to win me over - my opinion at first started in the same gutter as that of Stiverne (based on Takam losing on points to Gregory Tony, and Stiverne letting the corpse of Ray Austin outbox him until it ran outta zombie moxie) but unlike Stiverne, ironically - since Takam is yet to 'legitimize' himself with a world title while Stiverne was able to benefit from the last pulpy bits of nasty old Don King's meddling in the sport - the opinion has been forcibly reversed over time. Even with stoppages over Grant, Botha and Oloukun (which is more than Stiverne ever did to erase his own black marks before getting thrown into his world title shot) I was reluctant to accept Takam as even remotely decent on the basis of that early Tony loss. That kid went through a god damn gauntlet, though. Who else has a 3-heavyweight run like Perez, Thompson and Povetkin? And who else could acquit themselves as well as that (in h2h performances, if not on paper at 1-1-1) than he did?

Yeah, shame time isn't on his side. If you shaved even five years off he could be guaranteed a berth on the alphabet championship podium once Klitschko starts filling Hayden with babies.

I also didn't think Perez vs. Abdusalamov was all that close, personally. To me it pretty clearly illustrated the gap in levels - Abdusalamov more of an FNF type fighter and Perez a proper world contender. Circa back end of ten, as you say.

Just don't let him start to show you pics of Patricia Aruajo. You don't want to go down that road, of agreeing with him too much. :verysad