Khei Kno vs. Luis Concepción

Wednesday morning, could be an under-the-wire last day FOTM contender.

Ryoichi Taguchi vs. Ryo Miyazaki in support, very nice world title doubleheader. TV Tokyo has coverage from 8:30am EST. :good

 

Yeah, sounds about right, I very hesitantly favor El Nica.

 

Fascinating sort of match-up. Hard-nosed trier with a grinding style with average power and solid chin vs. a far more talented and explosively powerful athlete who's a glass cannon. These rarely disappoint, and they're never easy to predict.

 

Poll added.

 

He isn't a complete feather-fist (nor to be sure anything close to a one-punch artist, but with attrition he can wear you down and hurt you), and while Concepción isn't packing total glass (and his two stoppages are excusable coming at the hands of a thunderous-hitting still-prime Tyson Márquez, and he did go twelve rounds with Cuadras and in Márquez III) you still can't ignore the fact that he was dropped by Anuar Salas with his 48% kayo rate and well below world class overall level, and early in his career by Gilmer Baules who finished up with a 6-3 (2) record. Concepción does have a punch resistance liability, and while some may harp on it disproportionately (the same way people referred to Zab Judah as chinny despite all the extenuating circumstances of his own knockdowns and stoppages coming mostly at the hands of respectably high-class opposition...and, loathe though I am to say it, much like some - including myself - perhaps raise too much stink about Khan's chin being "glass" when really taking everything into consideration it objectively is nearer to 'average'...) the fact is that his brains can be scrambled if you touch him right. Thing is, he usually implements his own massive power (and speed/skill) to get to people first, and either knock them out cold or make them gun-shy. A guy like Kono, however, is going to have the 'stuff' to walk through all of that and still be around - which is a point where it will be VERY interesting to see how Luis responds, if his best shots aren't good enough to put away Kono or get his respect and then relentlessly stubborn counter fire starts coming his way.

 

...like if Oliver McCall had fought Michael Grant.

There are plenty of real-life instances of this dynamic actually playing out including some recent ones but this sleep addled mind is blanking for some reason. Anyway they're usually fun battles fraught with a sense of two-way danger throughout. (or unexpectedly and savagely one-sided in either direction)

 

I think door number three. He always was a good fighter, and capable of upsetting world class guys - he was just matched tough, often, and is going to always be a coin-flip against the best, with his grueling and workmanlike but unspectacular and quasi-predictable style.