Michel Abou Soro

The native of Côte D’Ivoire, now a resident of Rhône, picked up his biggest trophy earlier tonight by knocking out Emanuele Blandamura in the eighth (matching Billie Joe Saunders) to become the Euro champ @ middleweight.

In the know fans have long had Soro on their radars as being a classy operator, since he brought his pretty but shallow 18-0 record into a challenge of then IBO champ Zaurbek Baysangurov over three years ago, coming up short in a very close, tough and entertaining fight. I had the Ukrainian edging it but it easily could've been a draw, and Soro did score a knockdown early before letting Baysangurov claw his way back into the contest with body punching to eventually overcome Soro's flashier work (mostly in the early parts of rounds).

A couple of fights removed from that first career loss, in the following year, he outpointed Scottish hustler Kris Andrew Carslaw, who lacks much of a punch but has chin, heart and work rate to spare. That stood as Soro's best single accomplishment until last year, when he drew with touted unbeaten prospect Antoine Douglas. In an interesting contrast with the Baysangurov fight, it was Douglas that faded in the 2nd half and Soro that came on very strong, earning a legitimate draw IMO...although he "won the event" by frustrating Douglas and disrupting his game plan throughout, and hurting the American visibly numerous times.

2015 has been a banner year, now going a perfect 4-0, all by KO, with the opposition getting increasingly better each time out.

Glen Tapia was by far the biggest name in his W column before today, and may be still but only by a slim margin. Tapia and Blandamura consecutively has the makings of the start of a nice little run for the ultra-fit and slick French-Ivorian.

With previous title holder BJS having vacated to challenge Andy Lee for the WBO title, a comfortable niche is left for Soro to dominate the European scene. His movement, speed, accuracy, stiff punching technique, use of underutilized weapons in his ****nal (the sudden left-handed drop from the guard and body jab, in a chess-knight move, as well as the pull-counter right - both moves ripped from the Floyd Mayweather Jr. playbook) and intelligence will serve him well against the crop of potential claimants to his crown - but if he sets his ambitions higher and looks to leap into the world class fray, he will need to work on his activity level, stamina, and not being content to match the opponent's pace and temperament quite so often.

 

That's a BOLD statement. You can say he probably had a better chance than any of the remaining middleweights after he got injured, though. :good

 

Agreed.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTlA_wgvyZ8