Krzysztof Głowacki vs. Santander Silgado

Saturday on PolSat.

Both men have most recently tasted defeat in 2016; Głowka for the first time in his career getting schooled by Oleksandr Usyk and Silgado receiving a 90 second blitzkrieg from Dmitry Kudryashov. Since the calendars for that year were junked (along with countless "I'm With Her" buttons) Głowacki has fought thrice: snatching the zero from a padded-record Turk by forcing Nezir Altunkaya to quit on his stool, then knocking out chinny feather-fist Leonardo Damian Bruzzesse, and finally getting off the canvas this past February to ultimately outpoint green Ukrainian prospect Serhiy Radchenko. Not exactly setting the world afire in his post-Usyk campaign, but he's doing a hell of a lot more impressive work than Silgado, who since being iced has fought just once, knocking out an 0-10 guy.

Silgado is a moderately skillful boxer-puncher but cursed with the punch resistance issues that seems to inexplicably be as intrinsic to his countrymen (he's Colombian) as to Brazilians, Georgians or Latvians - making him ultimately a glass cannon, albeit slicker and less of a straightforward banger than most Colombians of that description. He is probably best remembered for his valiant 2012 effort against Denis Lebedev, where he came in virtually unknown but surprised everyone by clearly winning two of the first three rounds (unsure about the official judges' cards but certainly on every fan card in both my RBR and on social media, including from some raging Lebedev fanboys), putting him universally ahead on the cards when the White Swan brutally knocked him out. This was just a couple of years after the Russian was robbed blind against Marco Huck - the same man that hitherto virtually unknown Głowacki would make his name against five years later. Small world.

The hometown fighter is ½" taller with 2½" more reach. He is currently a ranked contender in every major org (WBC & WBO #3, IBF #7, and WBA #5). Silgado is currently absent from any top 15, but an upset scored in hostile territory could be the improbable fast-track boost he needs toward one more title shot. It will be a tough ask, since he struggles historically with lefties. He is overall 2-3 against southpaws (knocking out Luis Oscar Ricail & Steve Herelius; losing to Rakhim Chakhiev, Shawn Cox, and Lebedev - but even Ricail dropped him before succumbing) and Głowacki is head and shoulders above them all save the Swan.

 

Eh, not sure it'll be super early. Kris doesn't really "do" early kayos. The last time he stopped an opponent inside 4 was Richard "The Destroyer" Hall five years ago, when the once-formidable Jamaican was already balls-deep in his forties and boasting a dozen losses. The majority of his stoppages come on the late side. Granted, all three of Silgado's defeats by stoppage were inside four, but Shawn Cox and Dmitry Kudryashov are both fast-starting home-run swingers...and Lebedev in his prime was just a beautifully accurate counter-punching beast.

 

Those all sound great - or any permutation of all of them fighting each other.

(btw, glad to see you returned to us; heard from CST about some hinky business..)

 

Should be fun and interesting while it lasts, I think.

 

You know what, the more I think about it the clearer a picture emerges about just what a ballsy move this is on Głowka's part. This is super high risk considering how absolutely nothing-burger the reward side of the ratio is. Silgado for all his shoddy whiskers does have reasonable skill, hand speed, and slickness and packs a big wallop, and will be desperately hungry for a last-chance big name coup here - and Głowka's chin is hardly a perfect 10 (down against Huck & Radchenko). If he beats Silgado it won't affect his rankings in the slightest, but losing to him - which is a slim but still clear & present margin of danger of happening - could see him dropping precipitously.

 

WTF nonsense am I talking, fool? Who's "building it up"? I already voted for Głowacki by stoppage in the poll. Correctly identifying that Silgado provides ZERO reward for the risk (however you handicap it) doesn't mean I'm hyping it up as some "put your mortgage on Santander" type of ballyhoo. You're just salty that you impulsively blurted out a prediction that doesn't exactly follow logically if you were making an informed evaluation (or have seen much of Głowacki, to know that he's typically much slower-starting than Cox & Kudryashov, and not quite as sharp a hitter as Lebedev was) and got put in check. Now watch, if the result ends up being Głowacki KO3 Silgado you're going to bump this and gloat like a petulant little child, when I never once said that Głowacki couldn't or wouldn't stop him early - I just said it was likelier to be later based on his past history in the ring and that you expressing confidently that it had to be over in a hurry was a rash & uninformed conclusion to leap to.

 

Because there's going to be a televised match between a former champ with a suspect chin and former world title challenger who's even chinnier but more powerful, with the former champ still ostensibly a player in the red-hot cruiser division? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person that wants to see this, and you know what else? You won't admit so here anymore but you'll be watching too.

 

Dude for a PolSat Sport main event this is par for the course, they're not typically much better.

 

Ah, so a BR editor screwed up, again?

Get your house in order, @PinoyProdigy ! Who's supposed to be in charge of Euro stuff?