By Allan Fox: Boxing fans are going to get a chance to see whether WBO Cruiserweight titlist Krzysztof Glowacki (26-0, 16 KOs) is for real or not when he defends his WBO title against #1 challenger Oleksandr Usyk (9-0, 9 KOs) this Saturday night at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland.
Glowacki will be fighting at home in front of friendly audience but it might not help him, because Usyk appears to be the real thing. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine has the size, punching and the boxing ability to beat Glowacki in front of his own fans. Glowacki has won his last two fights on the road against Steve Cunningham and Marco Huck in the United States.
The win over the 40-year-old Cunningham was expected, because that was just a voluntary defense and not expected to be a particularly competitive match. It ended up being a competitive fight, as Cunningham exposed Glowacki’s vulnerability in getting out-boxed.
Glowacki was fine when he was knocking Cuningham down four times in the fight. But when Glowacki wasn’t able to knock Cunningham down, he was losing the rounds due to him getting outworked and hit a lot. If Usyk is able to nail Glowacki as often as Cunningham and Huck did, then this fight won’t last very long. Glowacki gets hit too much and he can be hurt, as we saw in his fight against Huck.
“I feel terrific and I’m completely focused on winning the world championship,” Usyk said via espn.com. “This was my next goal after winning the gold medal in 2012.”
The 6’3” Usyk has the height, reach and the superior defensive skills of the two. It’s not easy to hit Usyk without running into one of his hard left hands or powerful jabs. Glowacki is going to need to be a little more subtle in his attacking style of fighting, because he has a bad habit of telegraphing his shots. You can always tell when Glowacki is about to throw one of his big left hands, because he loads up and puts his entire body into the shot.
Usyk is always going to know when Glowacki is getting ready to land a shot because he’s going to telegraph his punches each. That’ll enable Usyk to step back to avoid the shot.
If Usyk can capture Glowacki’s World Boxing Organization title, he would become the quickest champion in the cruiserweight division’s history. Usyk has fought only nine times since turning pro several years ago after winning a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics. This would be big news if Usyk can beat Glowacki in his home country. Usyk is going into the lion’s den in challenging for his WBO title. He might need a knockout to get out of there with Glowacki’s WBO title.
Glowacki appears to be a good cruiserweight, but he’s been beating flawed fighters in Huck and Cunningham. Huck held the WBO title for a number of years, but he was always a fairly primitive fighter who won his fights based off his raw power rather than his boxing skills, which you can argue are rudimentary.
Prediction: Usyk by 6th round knockout over Glowacki.
www.boxingnews24.com/2016/09/krzysztof-glowacki-vs-oleksandr-usyk/