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Russia’s premier boxer is back in action tonight as Dmitry Pirog will put his WBO middleweight belt on the line for the first time, meeting challenger Javier Francisco Maciel at DIVS Arena in Ekaterinburg.
Pirog hasn’t been in the ring since winning the vacant title in July, 2010 with a masterful dismantling of highly touted contender Daniel Jacobs before halting the American in the fifth frame.
The 30 year old Russian, 17-0 (14), had won various regional belts leading up to his WBO conquest and the same could be said of Argentine challenger Maciel, 18-1 (12), who captured the vacant WBO Latino strap in September against Juan Carlos Alderete before a successful defense in November.
But 26 year old Maciel will be stepping up way up in level for this bout, his first world title challenge and fighting out of his homeland for the first time won’t exactly be to his advantage.
Pirog possesses excellent boxing skills and Maciel can’t make the same mistake as Jacobs and give the Russian room to operate. But Pirog is also an accomplished puncher, so Maciel must be very careful on the way in and not take too much punishment along the way.
Given Maciel’s relative inexperience in big fights, this is likely seen by Team Pirog as a relatively safe first defense in front of a receptive audience, but the challenger will no doubt be very inspired with a nothing to lose attitude and that makes Maciel potentially dangerous.
The undercard sees an interesting clash for the Interim WBO Asia Pacific lightweight crown with undefeated Alisher Rahimov, 21-0 (11), meeting Rustam Nugaev, 21-5-1 (12).
Nugaev has more losses but is younger, much taller and has faced the better opposition but Rahimov will have the confidence of never having lost so this should be a good contest.
At heavyweight, prospect Vyacheslav Glazkov, 8-0 (6), has the unenviable task of going up against the infinitely more experienced Denis Bakhtov, 33-5 (22), who currently holds the PABA belt, in an eight rounder.
