HOZUMI HASEGAWA vs FERNANDO MONTIEL

Japan’s Hozumi Hasegawa, who has been destroying his opponents in recent appearances, faces perhaps his most dangerous fight in Tokyo on Friday when he meets Fernando Montiel in a bantam championship match.

Hasegawa is one of the elite fighters in the lighter weight classes, a fast, classy southpaw with punching power in either hand. He can hurt an opponent with either the right hook or the straight left hand through the middle.

Montiel has skill and power but he was disappointingly tentative in his loss to Jhonny Gonzalez and he struggled with the southpaws Z Gorres and Alejandro Valdez. Although Montiel finished strongly against Gorres in the Philippines he started cautiously and left it late to pile on pressure — he nearly lost.

When Montiel is in top form he’s a formidable fighter. His destruction of fellow-Mexican Martin Castillo was highly impressive. He is at his best when he has a speed advantage and either gets in first with his punches or whips in counters. A quick blowout over an outclassed Filipino in his last fight didn’t prove anything other than that Montiel can look devastating when an opponent isn’t on his level.

In Hasegawa, Montiel is in with an opponent who can match his speed and who will be able to hurt him. This means that we could see Montiel in the sort of fight where he stays back and tries to figure things out. If so, he could lose rounds and have to try to salvage a losing a situation by coming on later in the fight.

Montiel must be respected, though. Hasegawa can’t afford to make too many mistakes. If, say, Hasegawa starts taking the fight to Montiel and unloading punches he will be in the position where he can get caught himself.

I’m going to go with Hasegawa due to his home advantage, southpaw style and also because he is on such an impressive run of form. I think he can outscore Montiel in a nip-and-tuck fight that should provide sparkling entertainment for those lucky enough to be able to see it.