Robert James Brant vs. Khasan Uvaysovich Baysangurov

Headlining a Top Rank on ESPN card the day after Valentine's, from the unlikely world championship hosting locale of the "Grand Casino" in Hinckley, Minnesota. WBA middleweight title at stake, 1st defense of Brant.

Both men have faced their best pair of previous opponents to date in their careers within just the last year or so, after having conquered middling rabble in the US & Ukraine domestic scenes respectively on their way up. Brant dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to crafty & seasoned German southpaw Jürgen Brähmer in the WBSS quarterfinals and then rebounded smartly by taking one against Brähmer's antithesis in young touted Japanese pressure machine Ryōta Murata to claim the belt. Baysangurov, for his part, spent his 2018 campaign on a couple of UD12s over Argentinian infighting workhorse Guido "Chico" Nicolas Pitto and Mexican swarmer Paul Ramón "Chicho" Valenzuela Cuesta.

They ought both to be hungry at this juncture of their careers - the champion to deflect accusations of his victory over Murata being a "fluke" or a merely fortuitous stylistic match-up contriving to dump a paper title in his lap & to redeem himself by defeating another skillful pure boxer (nearer to Brähmer in approach than Murata, despite not being an exact carbon-copy), while the challenger will be anxious to forestall the writing-off (even were it to be capriciously and unfairly premature...which it well might) of him and his brother as "the next Chudinov bros"...that is to say, hyped up products of the amateur programs beyond the former iron curtain, who after displaying some early pizzazz fizzle out and turn into duds in the pro ranks, should he become also "exposed" in a step up in class so hot on his sibling's heels (Khuseyn was upset by Aram Armenovich Amirkhanyan just over a fortnight ago).

Should be a good fight. Undercard details yet to surface.

 

That was pure speculation on my part. Abel had been talking up that fight ever since the Murata upset, but hasn't mentioned it now in over a month. There was never anything pointing to it being official.

 

Fight week.

 

Turkish-German unbeaten super middleweight prospect Cem Kılıç on the undercard - I'm curious to check him out.

 

Brant 158½lbs
Baysangurov 158¾lbs

 

Brant has to be the most overlooked (although IMO nowhere close to weakest) current world titlist...

Six weeks and he can't even crack one page worth of responses in a poll for his championship defense...even with a morning-of fight-day bump!

 

I underrated Brant ahead of the Murata fight, and have been high on the Baysangurov lads for a while (and have always thought Khasan would go further than Khuseyn) ...but I think in light of their recent performances I have to favor the American here.

I still rate Baysangurov, just not as world champ material.