Saturday afternoon US time British WBO Lightweight titlist Terry Flanagan (32-0, 14 KOs) defends against Russian born, Spain based Petr Petrov (38-4-2, 19 KOs) in Manchester. Also on the card is the Battle of the Liams as 16-0-1 (11 KOs) Liam Williams takes on recent Canelo victim in 24-4-1 (13 KOs) Liam Smith. This fight may or may not be for the WBO Junior Middleweight title that Canelo won from Liam Smith last September depending on whether or not Canelo decides he is interested in defending it. Officially for now this is for the interim belt and for once that kind of makes sense.
Let’s get this out of the way: Terry Flanagan has not had an impressive reign as the WBO titlist at 135 lbs. He won the title on a fluke when Jose Zepeda had to bow out of their vacant title fight with an injury after just two rounds. Flanagan was able to legitimize his belt with a two round thrashing of decent contender Diego Magdaleno, but from there his time as a titlist has been a complete dumpster fire.
First he took a locals fight with Derry Matthews. It made sense as a victory lap/cash grab after the legit Magdaleno win as long as he followed it with something real. Instead he followed it with the corpse of Mzonke Fana. You might remember Fana as a KO2 victim to Marco Antonio Barrera in 2005, but probably not. If you remember his 2007 title run at 130 you’ve been a hardcore fan for longer than most as he won, defended, and lost it all in South Africa with little international fanfare. Or, I guess, you’re South African. Even briefly with the IBF Junior Lightweight belt, he was probably never world level. If he was, it was a decade ago and he certainly was never world level at 135. Going into the Flanagan fight he was 7-5 in his last twelve with no notable wins. Great title defense.
It gets worse! Most recently Flanagan defended against Orlando Cruz. It is hard to justify Cruz being in this fight at all except as a human interest story since he is touted as the first openly gay, active male fighter. That is great for him, and great for the world that we have come far enough where this can happen even in a super masculine niche like boxing, but it is a poor excuse for his presence here. First, he had never fought at lightweight in his career. Not once. How do you earn a title shot in a class you’ve never fought in? You be a great fighter, someone who commands a title shot just by entering the division. Orlando Cruz is not that. He had been stopped both times he stepped up to world level at 126 against Daniel Ponce De Leon and Orlando Salido, and he has lost fights on a level well below them as well. This was another joke of a defense.
There is good news here though. Mostly that Flanagan is pretty good fighter and far from a terrible titlist even if his time with the belt has been subpar. He fights at range well and has found some power later in his career. He started 18-0 with only 4 KOs, but has since stopped 9 of the last 14 and remains unbeaten. The Magdaleno domination remains a great mark on his record too.
Most importantly, with this fight Petrov is a step back in the right direction. He is not an elite lightweight, but I’d confidently pick him to beat Matthews, Fana, and Cruz without any hesitation. Petr Petrov, an Russian expat who moved to Spain as a child and has the brilliant multicultural nickname of “El Tsar”, is the definition of a grinder. He comes forward with pressure, pressure, and more pressure. He does not have any real elite physical attributes. He isn’t slow or fast, and he can punch but isn’t exactly a puncher. What he looks to do is wear his opponent down over the course of the fight and take over in the second half. Petrov also throws a real notable variety of punches without a lot of predictably, but a skilled fighter with range like Flanagan may actually be able to take advantage of this. Sometimes Petrov will do something curiously counterable like lead with an uppercut from way outside, for example.
Petrov’s two losses were to Marcos Maidana by stoppage up in weight in his only previous title shot and to Dejan Zlaticanin by decision. Both were in the opponent’s home country, much like this fight, and both are/were excellent fighters. Since rebasing to the US Petrov is 5-0 against a similar level of competition to what Flanagan has been fighting. I expect this fight to be entertaining at the very least.
In the co-feature, Liam Smith looks to reclaim the WBO belt he lost to Canelo against unbeaten Welshman Liam Williams. Technically this is currently for the interim belt since Canelo is choosing not to defend it, but who believes Canelo is ever going to defend that belt? I imagine he will give it up and the winner of this fight will be upgraded to full title holder at 154 lbs for the WBO.
Liam Smith is a solid enough junior middleweight who has fought on a lot of significant Frank Warren bills over the past few years. He also gave a very game effort against Canelo and left the ring with nothing to be ashamed of in defeat. Liam Williams is a bit more of an unknown for me so I look forward to filling that knowledge gap. I won’t pretend to analyze a fight where I don’t truly know one half of it well.
Prediction: Flanagan UD Petrov, something like 116-112.
In the UK this is on BT Sport and in the US at minimum the main event will be streamed live midday on Twitter. I do not know what, if any, of the undercard we will get over here but I will make a point to catch the Liams fight as well one way or another.
