With a blunt performance, Osley Iglesias (13-0, 12 KO) sent a strong message to the entire super mediate division as he entered the conversation of the aspirants for world titles, in a category where Saul Canelo reigns, Alvarez and his compatriot William Scull.
Petro Ivanov (18-1-2, 13 KO) was supposed to be the toughest test in Iglesias’s professional career, but the Cuban dominated Thursday night from beginning to end to impose himself by knockout in the fifth round and maintain his IBO world girdle, which is usually the prelude to the great crowns of boxing.
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There was some unknown to see how Iglesias would fare if the fight reached the middle rounds, because his previous three fights – all this season and on the same stage in Montreal, Canada – had not gone beyond the second round.
But Iglesias responded to any brilliant doubt and a display of tools he had previously had no opportunity to show because of those same quick-track victories that have earned him a reputation as a man of power.
The Antillean pugilist always says that he does not go out to look for the knockout, but obviously, it comes naturally to him, either because of the impact of a coup or because of the accumulation of punishment, as was the case of this fight in which he was gradually tearing the Ukrainian apart.
After a first round in which he calculated distances and marked territory, Iglesias began to press in the second, and for the third came the first really powerful blow that warned an Ivanov who faced problems with the right jab, repeated and polite.
Ivanov wanted to press into the room and tried to make the fight something rougher and more complicated, but Iglesias knew how to read his strategy and downloaded the left-handed at angles, especially to the body, to push back the Slavic and make it clear that he was not going to take a step back.
Perhaps it was not noticed at the time, but that punishment left traces in Ivanov, who could no longer defend himself efficiently, as the coups of Churches broke his guard and entered as sabers that cut any rival initiative, leaving everything ready for the end.
The left-handed Cuban, who had not always found the perfect target, on this occasion, gave in the face of his opponent he fell backward and did not point to react in time or to overcome the count of 10 that the referee applied to him and decreed the triumph of Iglesias.
In principle, the action of the person in charge of guarding the rules on top of the ring may seem premature, but Ivanov himself was left with a face of resignation and, in particular, acceptance of the verdict that puts the Cuban in a very advantageous position at 168 pounds.
It remains to be seen now what would be the next step to bring Churches closer to that world girdle that so longs and that his compatriot Scull – his long-time personal friend – won a few weeks ago when he beat Russian Wladimir Shiskin in Germany.
Whatever happens, the Tornado made it clear that it intends to continue with the strength of a hurricane, beating hard into the future.
