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IBF Light Middleweight Champion Roman Karmazin puts his belt at risk on Saturday night against former undisputed welterweight world champion Cory Spinks at the cavernous Savvis Center in St. Louis but the Don King promoted, Showtime televised bill is awash with quality fighters. In addition to Karmazin – Spinks, former world champions Jean Marc Mormeck, Daniel Santos, Maselino Masoe and William Joppy are all slated for action.
In the main event, Karmazin, 34-1-1 (21), returns to the ring for the first time since winning the IBF belt from Kassim Ouma a year ago. Like Ouma, Spinks, 34-3 (11), is a southpaw and shorter than Karmazin but the similarities stop there. Ouma is a natural light middle, has more pop to his punches than Spinks and was more likely to stand and trade with Karmazin, hoping his high volume attack would wear out the Russian.
Spinks will hope to achieve the same result as Ouma hoped for, tiring Karmazin out, but from making the champion miss punches rather than sheer energy expenditure. Spinks is lightning quick and the move up from welterweight may give him more gas in his own tank than he had when lost his titles against Zab Judah in a poor performance from last year.
If Spinks can stick, move and counter for all twelve rounds it’s almost a certainty that he’ll pull in a unanimous decision in his hometown of St. Louis. But if he can’t and forced to trade shots with Karmazin, it could prove to be a bad night for “The Next Generation”.
Karmazin has superb boxing skills if he can keep his opponent in front of him and if Spinks decides to try and trade with “Made In Hell” in order to regain some of his glory lost against Judah or can’t keep on his bike for all twelve rounds, the visitor should retain the belt during an exciting contest.
