JOHNRIEL CASIMERO vs RAMON HIRALES

There is a fight in Mexico on Saturday that I find quite intriguing. It is a bout for the WBO’s interim junior flyweight title between Johnriel Casimero, the undefeated champion from the Philippines, and Ramon Garcia Hirales, a Mexican fighter who has lost one of 14 bouts.


Casimero looks as if he could be a bit special. Only 20, he has won 14 bouts in a row, and he scored a spectacular victory when he knocked out Cesar Canchila, the former WBA interim champion, in the 11^th round in Nicaragua last December.
 

That fight showed that Casimero is able to fight well away from home. He is a fast, fluid boxer-puncher with what I describe in my notes on him as having “cat-like” moves. The win over Canchila has been recoded as a TKO, but Casimero blasted his Colombian opponent to the canvas with a left hook followed by a huge right hand, and the referee waved the finish without bothering to count. Canchila was well and truly out.
 

Casimero’s adviser is Sampson Lewkowicz, an experienced boxing agent and talent spotter who first discovered Manny Pacquiao. Lewkowicz doesn’t waste his time on a fighter if he doesn’t think the boxer has world-championship potential, although he doesn’t get it right every time

I haven’t seen Hirales, but a couple of things struck me. He is a southpaw, and he has twice been the full 12-round distance. In his 12-rounders, Hirales comfortably outpointed useful fighters in Jose Luis Varela and Erik Ramirez, who have both fought for world titles. In his last fight, Hirales stopped the Colombian, Michael Arango, who had scored 24 KO wins and was unbeaten in his last seven bouts, in the second round.
 

Hirales comes from La Paz, a coastal resort city in Baja California, and not from one of Mexico’s “boxing” cities such as Mexico City, Tijuana, Los Mochis or Guadalajara. Still, it seems clear from Hirales’s record that he knows how to fight.
 

So, we have an unbeaten Filipino hotshot with star quality against a boxer who seems more of a mature technician and who is fighting in his own country although not in his home state. Indeed, this is Hirales’s first fight outside Baja California.


Fans in Mexico will be able to see the fight on the TV Azteca network. 


It seems to me that Hirales has fought the better competition, and sometimes these young Filipino whizzkids wilt when the heat is on (Marvin Sonsona, Richie Mepranum and Eden Sonsona all lost by stoppage away from home this year).

Casimero’s win over Canchila was obviously noteworthy, but he was meeting a fighter who had been brutally battered by Giovanni Segura nine months earlier.

 The sportsbooks didn't offer any betting lines on this fight. I would make the more exciting, more explosive Casimero the favourite — but I have a feeling that Hirales can box his way to what I would consider an upset win.