Boxing

Kotai Faces Junior World Champ Oligov

09.06 - When in these days of careful protection of young prospects and even considering that boxers tend to contest titles much earlier than was the case years ago, a 22-year-old youngster with all of eight rounds of pro experience steps up to fight a 10-rounder in only his third professional appearance, you get a hint that we are dealing with a special talent. Especially when that talent comes out victorious, as did Russian Akhmed Oligov, who strapped the Slovenian Countries superwelterweight belt around his waiste last summer. Since then, Oligov proceeded to make one successful defence, win the WBC Youth world title (in February ’03), build a respectable 11-2 record and now faces his biggest test when meeting Hungary’s current top fighter Mihaly Kotai for the World Boxing Foundation crown on June 21 in Manchester, England.

Yet, despite an undefeated record of 23 straight wins (11 by knockout) and an EBU # 3 rating, the clash easily shapes up to be Kotai’s biggest test as well. Oligov might have two close points defeats on his ledger, but the 26-year-old from Budapest flirtet with desaster more than once recently and can count himself lucky to be guided expertly by the Polish-German promoter-manager duo of Kryzstof Zbarski and Olaf Schroeder so far. Furthermore, as a paid fighter, Kotai never boxed an opponent from the old Soviet countries and may encounter problems with that kind of style. In an effort to make up for that lack of that experience, Kotai and his German trainer are preparing in Budapest with a slew of top Eastern European fighters like Roman Dzuman or Sergei Marchuk. Also, even though ‘The Hungarian Tornado’ – as Kotai is called by the local Hungarian media – has 10 more professional fights than Oligov, he can’t claim to be more active in 2003. Normally, Kotai feeds off a high activity level giving him an advantage, but whereas he had three outings so far this year, Oligov boxed five times in ’03, including the above mentioned WBC Youth world championship victory.

With less than two weeks to go until the first bell rings for Kotai vs Oligov, only one thing seems to be sure with regards to the outcome: The new WBF world champion will know that he has been in a fistfight…

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