*** Dmitry Pirog vs. Javier Maciel RBR - live on ESPN3.com ***

The first defense of Dmitry Pirog's WBO middleweight title will be made this coming Saturday against Javier "The Beast" Maciel in Ekaterinburg, Russia. 26 year old Maciel is ranked #10 by the WBO and holds their Latino Middleweight title, but has never fought outside his native Argentina. 12 of his 18 wins have come by knockout, as has his only loss two years ago.

Also on the card is an interesting heavyweight clash between Ukrainian prospect and Olympic bronze medalist Vyacheslav Glazkov and resurgent Kazakh fringe contender Denis Bakhtov.

 

A couple of Maciel's most recent wins:

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He looks to be a strong and not unskilled kid, who comes forward without ignoring defense and has a nice left hook to the body. Given his style and Pirog's, though - he seems to be a very justified 9/1 underdog.

 

Vcash betting available:
http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=298076

 

Yes. It will have been 8 full months out of the ring; his longest professional layoff.

 

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I did some digging and apparently Maciel's one loss is a bit fishy.

According to a loose translation of some eyewitness comments on a Spanish-language site dedicated to Argentinian boxing, Maciel was soundly beating Matias Ezequiel Franco when a headbutt occurred and opened a cut on his eye - and went on to continue dominating even with the eye closed. The commission ultimately stopped the fight, and the referee ruled (incorrectly, it is said) that it was from a legal blow instead of the blatant headbutt. :think On Boxrec it is listed as "TKO4", with a note explaining "The decision was changed (the original decision was WTD (SD) for Franco)".

So...it's not so much that Maciel losing is in question but whether it should in fact be listed as a stoppage loss. (the other issues: whether the cut was bad enough for the commission to halt the action and go to the cards - and whether the scores themselves were accurate, when it sounds like Maciel ought to have been up - are both unknowable and matters of conjecture...for the sake of argument we'll just accept that the TD4 victory for Franco would have stood if the cut was ruled from a headbutt, even if it seemed like a robbery or a premature interruption)

It would be great if there was some video. It was televised on TyC Sports...so if anyone saw it and remembers it, please shed some light. :good

 

Dan Rafael confirmed that the ESPN3 broadcast does include undercard action! :happy