Radivoje "Hot Rod" Kalajdzic

This young, fit, rangy, and fast-handed Bosnian-Serb light heavyweight prospect was a promotional free agent until Lou DiBella snapped him up this summer. This will hopefully lead to some opportunities to refine his skills with progressive steps up in class, after having seen his level of competition go up and down on the indie circuit.

His biggest test by far has been Lionell Thompson, ending the comeback streak of "Lonnie B." after he was demolished by Sergey Kovalev. Kalajdzic only squeaked by Thompson via SD8, but considering that his greatest previous step up was a shot Otis Griffin, the closeness of it doesn't reflect as poorly on him as getting the result makes for a good look.

What's striking to me is that he reportedly scored a whitewash shutout against very tough & crafty journeyman Rayco "War" Saunders, dropping him in the 1st and continuing to overwhelm him with blazing combinations the rest of the way and forcing Saunders to pull out every defensive trick in the book just to make the final bell. Saunders has given plenty of prospects a hard night (including Seanie Monaghan) and few have ever dispatched him with the ease ringside accounts have attributed to Kalajdzic. In the last twelve years only Artur Beterbiev has ever stopped him. A shutout with an extra point for a knockdown is a nice feather in Hot Rod's cap.

He is coached by Pete Fernandez, a well-respected Floridian trainer and former promoter (and fighter) who trained Juan Urango and Edner Cherry for pretty much their entire careers, as well as Miguel Cotto for a brief time. He is a gym rat who emphasizes conditioning, and seems to be a student of the game as well.

LHW is poised to become fairly well stacked on the world scene in the near future, with a lot of parity at the US domestic level and room for someone to climb their way to a big payday. Another guy with an entertaining style (and time on his side, being only 24) is welcome, and match-ups with the likes of Cornelius White, Trevor McCumby, Thomas Williams Jr., and Tommy Karpency would all be fun and potentially help elevate Kalajdzic to a position where DBE could see a bit of return on investment.

Kalajdzic vs. Otis Griffin:
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Kalajdzic vs. Lionell Thompson:
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Kalajdzic vs. Gilbero Matheus Domingos:
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Nah, he fought the Brazilian at cruiser (and technically didn't make the light heavy limit for his previous two outings this year) but that was a one-off; he is still rated at 175lb and called a light heavy by local press and in promotional materials. :conf

 

Robbed against Marcus Browne yesterday. :!:

 

He reminds me a little of Martirosyan, stylistically (and in his build). Anybody else?

 

Yep. Future EBU-EU champ and NABF champ respectively. :yep