SILENCE MABUZA vs YONNHY PEREZ

South Africa’s Silence Mabuza lost in his two biggest fights, but this was no disgrace as each time he was meeting the formidable Rafael Marquez in America. On Friday, Mabuza will have home-ground advantage when he meets unbeaten Colombian Yhonny Perez in an IBF bantam title eliminator.

This is Mabuza’s most dangerous fight apart from the two with Marquez. Perez has won 18 consecutive bouts — and he has won almost every round of these fights.

A multiple Colombian amateur champion and a Pan American Games bronze medallist, Perez has twice been featured on ShoBox, when he went through Alexander Fedorov and David Martinez in four and six rounds respectively. He turned pro late — after a reputed 230 wins in the amateurs — due to spending some nine years in the Colombian military, and, at the age of 30, he is more than ready to make a move into world class.

It is difficult to gauge how good Perez is because he has been outclassing everyone put in front of him. He was much too strong for Fedorov, pounding his opponent with heavy hooks and right hands until the referee rescued the Russian. When Perez stopped David Martinez he seemed to be treating the fight as a public sparring session — “almost too relaxed,” commentator Steve Farhood noted.

Perez lives in California, where he is promoted by Thompson Boxing (in conjunction with Gary Shaw), and he gets excellent training.

Each time I saw Perez I had the impression that he was capable of raising his performance level several notches had it been necessary. His management has considerable confidence in him, and it’s easy to see why.

On Friday Perez meets the best opponent he will ever have faced, however, and he is doing it on the other man’s home turf.

Marquez was too powerful for Mabuza, but the South African fighter has comfortably beaten most of his other opponents, although he did have a gruelling fight with Cruz Carbajal in Las Vegas — I was ringside for that one, and it was a tougher contest than the scores suggested because the Mexican fighter was in Mabuza’s face and punching hard for the whole 12 rounds.

Perez will be bringing the pressure, too, but he isn’t a Rafael Marquez type of puncher. He will have to keep on top of Mabuza and outwork him, I think, if he is going to come out with the win. Perhaps he can do this, because he is a very good fighter and there is a possibility that the Marquez fights took something out of Mabuza.

I am, however, going with Mabuza. He is a clever boxer with good hand speed, and he switches adroitly to the southpaw stance on occasion.

Perez will be in the fight for every minute of every round, I have no doubt about that, but Mabuza has boxed at a higher level and I make him a bit more of a skilled technician than the Colombian boxer.

It was worrying to see the shots that Mabuza took in the rematch with Marquez before compassionate cornerman Nick Durandt pulled him out of the fight, but he has looked sharp enough in his three subsequent bouts.

Mabuza on points is the pick, but with an unbeaten boxer one cannot be sure how good he is until he loses, and I am well aware that Perez might turn out to be rather better than I realised.