2015-04-29Staff Report 2 Come May 22 at the Luzhanki Sports Centre in Moscow, Russia, Namibia’s WBO Africa Cruiserweight champion Vikapita ‘Beast Master’ Meroro will face his toughest test of character when he squares off against an opponent that has won all his 17 fights by way of knockout. The ‘Beast Master’ is set to rumble against Russian opponent Dmitry Kudryashov for the WBA Cruiserweight International title, currently held by the 29-year-old Russian. Speaking to New Era Sport yesterday, promoter Nestor Tobias refused to read too much into Kudryashov’s impressive record and the danger he could pose to the Namibian, insisting the ‘Beast Master’ is a highly experienced fighter who has fought against the best in the world before and knows what is expected of him. “These are two world class fighters and both are very much experienced as well, so I don’t see Kudryashov’s record of 17 knockout wins being a big threat to Meroro. The ‘Beast Master’ has trained hard for this fight and looking closely at both records, one can see that Meroro is more experienced at that level compared to Kudryashov,” said Tobias. The highly experienced Meroro is currently rated number 4 in the world by the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) and is the incumbent African cruiserweight champion. He holds an impressive record of 32 fights, 28 wins and 4 losses. As for the Russian, Kudryashov is the current WBA International Cruiserweight champion and is rated number 6 in the world by the World Boxing Association (WBA), 12th by the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and number 5 by the World Boxing Council (WBC). “We have been struggling to get Meroro a credible opponent in Africa because of the lack of cruiserweights, so we are therefore excited about this fight. He is facing an opponent that does not know what losing is all about because he has a 100% win record, so Meroro would have to up his game and take the fight to Kudryashov who will be fighting at home,” adds Tobias. 2015-04-29Staff Report 2
