Gassiev vs Kadiru - Preview & Prediction

Yup, on the money, Gassiev has had his injury issues, but should blow Kadira away here.

Truly bizarre landscape!

 

It's been a while since I've been looking forward to a HW title fight less than this one.

 

It may not be a good heavyweight title fight, but it's an excellent card. At least 8 of the 10 fights will be competitive. https://boxrec.com/en/event/952270 All the up-and-comers will face capable opponents with winning records. Compare this to the very poor German card the same day.

There will be FOUR heavyweight fights, all good matchups. I agree Gassiev has not been impressive since his Usyk fight - two full years of inactivity after that fight no doubt hurt him - and neither has Kadiru stood out as a pro. But it's not a mismatch. Kadiru isn't as bad as some are saying and has a real chance, Gassiev is slow-footed now and leaves himself wide-open for counters. Murad Khalidov (12-0) vs Arslan Yallyev (17-1) is a decent undercard fight, as is Muslim Gadzhimagomedov (6-0) vs Kevin Martinez (14-1).

An interesting matchup is the highly-skilled Sharabutdin Ataev (9-0) vs Jose Uzcategui
(34-5)

Another is Vyacheslav Rogozin (debut) vs RV Deniega (12-3).

Compare the matchups on Queensberry, Matchroom, Top Rank and German cards where up-and-comers fight complete no-hopers with records like 3-17.

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A few things here.

1) Great vid as always.

2) Gassiev was not "elevated." WBA regular is not an interum title and does not function as such. The "Super" title only comes into existence when a champion unifies. Like a quark in string theory, it does not exist on its own (I am extremely proud of this metaphor and intend to keep repeating it ad nauseam) Gassiev was not "elevated" in super champion, and there is no "super" championship in and of itself to fill. As hard as it is to grasp, because it is so unusual, Gassiev became champion by subtraction, and that is just how it is.

3) The video contains an appropriate amount of angst about how weird the situation is, but some of the posters on here are going to bizarre levels of rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth about a situation that is really not that hard to understand, and not at all Gassiev's fault.

Above is how the WBA works. Gassiev put himself in poll position by targeting Kubrat Pulev when no one else stepped up to do so--whether anyone agrees he is a worthy champion or not. After he won the title, he offered a shot to Itauma, Hrgovic, Miller and others. All turned him down. Again- cry all you like about the whys and wherefores...that is the history of it.

When no one else would fight this supposedly shot, easy mark, he signed to fight the best he could get his hands on--Tony Yoka. Yoka claimed injury, possibly really, given his past, pissing hot again in my opinion. Regardless, to save the card and make good on his time and training, he agreed to fight Kadiru when the WBA disallowed the Joyce fight (or at least that is what I am hearing from some sources on the internet).

So blame the WBA for their garbage system, or for refusing to sanction Joyce, or for sanctioning Kadiru...blame Itauama, Hrgovic, and Miller for declining to fight him when they were offered. Blame Yoka for injuring his back (or failing another test). Blame whoever else could have fought Pulev, or even Charr to get Pulev's spot. But Gassiev is blameless.

This is a guy who was a significant unified cruiserweight champ, who had his career derailed by injures and the inability to get fights for years. He considered throwing it all away and retiring, but dug down and found a way instead. Now, at only 32, he has another shot at the bigtime, and due to his hard work, he has a very real and clear path. Maybe he will get there, and maybe he won't. But those of you pretending that he is doing something wrong--this is not really the sport for you. Seriously. This is the kind of comeback story people used to get behind.

 

Post of the month!

Independently from this my own sentiment is that the lineal title is degraded when the lineal champion does not take his challengers.(And i dont't believe usyk fears the Fight but wants more money - doesn't change things)

Usyk looked really bad against the kickboxer. A fight he took instead of defending against kabayel and the way usyk looked that night one has to wonder whether it was the weird style, developed by peter fury or if usyk has actually gotten old. At least he has gotten old enough that his defensive footwork was just slow and lacking. Exactly what people said would elevate him above kabayel who would not be able to catch him...

So how much is the lineal actually worth at that point where the champion avoided having to show he still deserves being called the best? (To me the spinks win adds little to what mike tyson was)

I think one has to see that as much as the alphabet titles degrade their product by calling bs mandatories or the champions not having to defend like wilder or simply the wrong fighters getting into position to Fight for it - the lineal title equally degrades.

Let usyk fight wilder or whomever he wants to Fight, but no need to elevate him as the big man as long as he doesn't show he is and even looks bad on top. He had an unbelievable career but that seems to be over. Its a farewell round. And yes he beat dubois who is now one champion and he beat gassiev who is another but his recent performance didn't look like the one against dubois so who knows if he could repeat it and noone thinks gassiev is one of the best right now. Let's not conflate that with being the best at this point in time.

I am excited that usyk got off the top and I want to see the Division moving. Usyk didn't have much more to give. He is an atg, one of the greatest careers ever, but he was holding up the Division and I don't want to see him elevated as a consequence of that!

 

Very good card indeed for an atrocious main event. I hope they air all 8 of the fights. Very nice to see Muslim added.

We may also have a new future sensation for lower weight classes with Rogozin.

 

I think you're taking this a little too personal mate. When there's arguably the worst title fight in the history of the division, people will be unhappy about it and criticize all the parties involved. Gassiev/Kadiru is a **** fight, Gassiev/Yoka was a **** fight, Gassiev/Joyce would've been a **** fight, and considering it was contested between a 45 year old and a guy who lost to the only top30 HW he faced at the time, Gassiev/Pulev was a **** fight.

Not everyone has to share your sentiment towards Gassiev. The fact remains that he's been a HW for 7 years, beaten noone none-geriatric of note, and one time faced a top30 HW younger than 45, he was beaten soundly. And still managed to manoeuvre his way to a easy title opportunity, just like Charles Martin and Bermane Stiverne before him. Those guys faced criticism and ridicule, so Gassiev won't be immune to it either.

Actually, scratch that. Stiverne became a titlist by beating a legit top10 HW. And he still faced some ridicule as a paper titlist.

 

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Gassiev is being spoon fed a world title by beating a D+ , C- type fighter in Kadiru. Then he'll be fed to Itauma , Joshua or some other set up. Rummy is right, this is ridiculous

 

You say this, and yet, a couple of posts later, we get exactly the kind of hate posts I was talking about.

Because Itauma wouldn't answer his calls, Hrgovic rejected him, Miller rejected him, Yoka pulled out, and Joyce was rejected by the WBA...

When what they should be doing in any sane world is praising him for seeking the best competition he can get and taking a fight on short notice to save the event.

Of course. It was made a week out.

But the best he could get because Ituama, Miller and Hrgovic don't want to know about a fight. PUT THE BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS PLEASE.

It also would have been one made a week and some change out.

Again, and again, and again, and again...its the entire rest of the boxing world's fault for not understanding the WBA rules as well as Gassiev and Pulev did. You could have had Itauma already being champion, but his people wanted to fight Jermaine Franklin. THIS IS NOT GASSIEV'S FAULT. It's not even Pulev's. It's literally the entirety of the the rest of the heavyweight boxing world's fault.

And let's remind you again--Turkyi wanted Itauma-Pulev, and so did Frank Warren. It was only when the supposedly shot and useless Murat Gassiev won the belt that the phone lines went silent.

But everyone need to tell the truth. That is the issue.

Struggling with injuries and the fact that most of the division won't fight him with a submachine gun.

And yet here he is with a belt, so maybe he's just a wee bit smarter than you and the critics.

You put the qualifyer on it, so you understand that Pulev was a top 30.

A fighter is allowed to lose a fight. Irrelevant.

And you are complaining because he took an opportunity that all the others stupidly passed up? Silly.

But the point is that he has the opportunity to do better than they did. You certainly aren't going to see him pissing brown gravy from a disease partially caused by obesity like Stiverne. Gassiev worked hard to get here.

You are criticizing and ridiculing a guy who has not failed yet, and who has demonstrated the ability to be at unified champion level. Really, this is just sad. If Gassiev quit today, he would have more legacy than Martin, Stiverne, and Itauama thus far put together.

Just a bit of comedy there since Arreola is one of the original to talk about how Gassiev is the single hardest-punching heavy. Serge has posted the clip a number of times.

Repeating a fiction over and again does not make it true. Gassiev wanted Itauama, settled on Yoka, and had to take Kadiru at the last minute to save the card. History.

He's asked repeatedly for Itauma. the HISTORY is that Itauma and crew wanted the WBA regular when Pulev had it. When Gassiev got the shot, Warren threatened to sue. When Gassiev won it, the phones went quiet.

I am a big fan of Joshua's but he needs to prove he can beat Albanian's second best heavyweight before we get to Tyson, then we'll talk.

And yet it's better than the event being cancelled, and obviously so.