How far will Dmitry Pirog go?

This new Middleweight star and now World Champion Dmitry Pirog burst onto the scene earlier this year after devastating highly touted prospect Daniel Jacobs. It was a fairly close fight up until the right hand landed, and looking at the Russian's record prior to that, he seemed to have been seeing off respectable opposition. I'm impressed with him, I think he an unusual style, a nice variety of punches in his arsenal, and good head and upper body movement. He isn't the youngest at 30, though.

How far do we see Pirog going at 160lbs?

 

...****ing clown shoes.

 

I respectfully disagree, Swarmer. He's a young 30 year old considering he's not had a great deal of fights, but the opposition he has been facing has been more than respectable. Going into his fight with the heralded Daniel Jacobs, Pirog had clearly been brought up the harder and had defeated well respected fighters in Russia.

He has the names in and around 160lbs...he just needs to get their names on the contract.

 

In the event that Pirog was to fight and defeat the likes of Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez, and Kelly Pavlik, which is certainly possible within a 3-4 year period, then he'd have to be remembered as being a great fighter. I don't see his lack of fights or age being too much of a factor, he's been fighting well respected opposition with good records, and he's a young 30 year old. Assuming he's good enough to defeat the fighters we're discussing here, then I don't see any problem with Pirog competing at the highest level for a further 5-6 years.

This is all speculative, anyway. We don't even know how good this kid really is, he could fall short when he steps up against the best of 160lbs.

 

Absolutely. Pirog certainly hasn't proved himself to be among the best at 160lbs, and that's why I wish not to discuss the topic to vehemently. It's presumptuous even thinking about fights with the likes of Martinez and Williams at this point. With that being said, I can see Pirog failing to go on to becoming a great Middleweight because he isn't good enough, not because he's only had 17 fights and is lacking experience as a result. Not all fighters have to have a great foundation to build on before stepping up and being a success at world level. This is a guy who's had over 230 Amateur fights. He didn't start Boxing last week.

 

You'll find that Swarmer and I were being rather measured with our comments.

Pirog is a talented kid and a World Champion, but we touched on the fact he hasn't fought any great fighters yet repeatedly.