Bantamweight powerhouse Wladimir Sidorenko makes the seventh defence of his WBA title on Saturday against Anselmo Moreno, a Panamanian who although little known has won his last 15 fights.

Sidorenko, with his deep amateur background on the Ukrainian national team and world championship experience, is far more seasoned than the 22-year-old Moreno and he is fighting on home ground in Germany.

At first glance, then, Sidorenko looks very likely to win. A closer look suggests it might, in fact, be a difficult fight for the unbeaten champion, even one he might lose.

For one thing, Sidorenko’s two toughest title defences were against the Panamanian southpaw Ricardo Cordoba, each one ending in a draw. He meets another Panamanian southpaw on Saturday.

Moreno is the WBA’s mandatory challenger, meaning that Sidorenko’s promoter, Universum, did not hand-pick him as an opponent — it was fight him or vacate the title.

Moreno’s only loss was on a split decision to Ricardo Molina, a fellow-Panamanian, in his eighth fight. He twice beat Molina in subsequent bouts.

In his last two fights, Moreno gave easily his best two performances, soundly outpointing the capable southpaw Tomas Rojas and then stopping the veteran Ricardo Vargas in 66 seconds in a WBA title eliminator.

Moreno’s win over Vargas was especially noteworthy. Although Vargas is 36, he had been the full 12 rounds against Rafael Marquez and Silence Mabuza in his last two defeats.

One-round wins can be misleading — a fighter can simply get caught before he can get into the fight — and Vargas might simply have grown old after a long career, but on paper this was an outstanding performance by Moreno.

A Panamanian aficionado, Jose M. Chu, who reads this website shared his thoughts concerning Moreno. He said that Moreno had a very short amateur career and in his earlier bouts looked nothing special but that as he got more experienced he developed a Pernell Whitaker style and changed his nickname from “Chemito” to “The Phantom”.

I thought readers might enjoy the well-reasoned analysis of Sen. Chu.

He described Moreno as having “great reflexes and defensive skills, with more punch than Cordoba” although adding: “His chin hasn’t been tested yet.”

Sen. Chu added: “Moreno has been training for this fight since January. A psychological factor to take into account is that Moreno was in Cordoba’s corner for the second fight with Sidorenko and lifted Cordoba on his shoulders when the final bell rang (both train in the same gym). Cordoba can give Moreno a lot of advice on how to fight Sidorenko.

“I have the feeling that Sidorenko looks good with boxers who come at him. The defensive type of boxing like Cordoba’s and Moreno’s gives him trouble. He doesn’t find that style of boxers to spar with in Europe, specially a left-handed one. If he doesn’t figure out Moreno in the first three rounds, he is going to have a long night.

“I think Moreno’s style will be a problem for Sidorenko, and he will be scoring rounds while Sidorenko tries to figure him out. If Moreno wins however, it will be by way of the judges’ cards. In order to beat Sidorenko in Germany, he has to win many rounds and very clearly. That I think is the hard task he has.

“Sidorenko will close strong, with his crowd supporting him, and the wait for the decision will be stressful. I am confident Moreno can be dominating enough to score a win and bring the title to Panama.”

So, my thanks to Sen. Chu for sending me his thoughts on the fight.

Obviously, Moreno has never fought anyone like Sidorenko. The champion puts enormous pressure on his opponents and throws lots of punches — a dynamo of the ring. He can also go to a moving, boxing style, as he did when outpointing the strong Thai, Poonsawat.

Sidorenko’s last two fights were away from home when he overpowered a French challenger and then outpointed the tough Nobuto Ikehara in Japan.

He is one of those hard-working, well-schooled fighters who had a thorough grounding in the amateurs (including winning an Olympic bronze medal) and he is durable and adaptable. Still, he has had a few close calls — the two fights with Cordoba, a 12-round struggle against Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko. He is meeting a young, fast, hungry challenger who is also a southpaw. This is an extremely interesting fight.

Sidorenko’s greater strength and pressure could be too much for Moreno. The Ukrainian is an accurate puncher and his timing could negate Moreno’s speed. If, however, Moreno can hit and move, get into the fight immediately and run off some eye-catching combinations, he can make this a close contest — perhaps too close for comfort for the Sidorenko faction.

Moreno has been winning his fights easily in the last couple of years or so, losing very few rounds, so he seems like a young man who can raise the level of his boxing, which is something he will probably need to do if he is to pull off the upset on Saturday.

Sidorenko, with all that experience, and boxing on home ground, should win — but Moreno looks like an extremely live underdog.

RESULT: Moreno unan. dec.