It wasn’t pretty, but Mairis Briedis successfully defended his WBC cruiserweight title and advanced to the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament semifinals with a decision win over Mike Perez at home in Latvia. This makes the first semi-final matchup set as Briedis will meet top seeded WBO titlist Oleksandr Usyk on a to be determined date.
This fight was really marred by holding and difficult to watch for long stretches. Mike Perez (22-3-1, 14 KOs) started well, clearly winning the first round and going onto win four of the first six on my card. He lost a point in the third, however, due to a longstanding ridiculous rule of the WBC. Basically, if you’re unfamiliar with this nonsense, if there is an accidental head clash that opens a cut on one fighter’s head, the other fighter loses a point. It is meant to be fair and even the scales in reaction to the injury, but it is just stupid.
Regardless, after the half way point, Mairis Briedis started to clearly control the fight with his clinch game. This wasn’t that masterful Andre Ward style of inside bullying though. Instead, Briedis would land a shot, hold, break and late a shot at a later time, and hold again. It was one of the worst recent fights to watch on par with last weekend’s terrible Joseph Parker/Hughie Fury fight. The hold was so bad that Briedis even managed to lose a point for in the tenth round at home, a difficult feat to accomplish in this sport sometimes.
I scored the fight 114-112 Briedis, but it was an unsatisfying showing. When he was physically allowed to work early, Perez definitely looked like the more talented of the two, but then again talent has never been the former heavyweight contender’s issue. I’d like to see him take another crack at a different top cruiserweight before he hangs them up.
As for the Latvian, he has top seeded WBO titlist Oleksandr Usyk up next in the semi-finals. Unless he has more than he showed here, that is not going to end well for him or his reign as the WBC’s titleholder.
