Boxing Preview: Miguel Vazquez v Leonardo Zappavigna

The IBF Lightweight title may not be in the hands of the best Lightweight in the world, probably not even the best Lightweight from Mexico, though it’s a title that for the 2nd time in 3 fights is having a really great fight. Last October it was a vacant title until Korean Ji-Hoon Kim, an explosive hitter lost a bit of a one sided affair with skilful Mexican Miguel Vazquez. That fight, although not a fight of the year contender, was an incredibly interesting bout. Since then Vazquez has defended the belt once, a near shut out against Ricardo Dominguez and Leonardo Zappavinga has come to the for having stopped Kim in the opening round. This has left us with Vazquez v Zappavigna, being fought on the undercard of Cotto v Mayorga. Yes it lacks the big name fighters of the main event, neither of the fighters has the following of either Cotto or Mayorga, though this could well be the most entertaining bout of the night.

Vazquez, (27-3, 12KO‘s) has emerged somewhat as an oddity for Mexican boxing, he’s completely about skill and movement. He’s not the type to stand in the pocket, he perhaps even lacks that Latin passion that has made fighters like Erik Morales so popular, though he’s the sort of fighter that uses his brain. A look at Vazquez’s record shows 3 losses though every one of them came above Lightweight, in fact 2 of them came against an emerging Saul Alvarez and 1 against Timothy Bradley. Although he was beaten clearly in 2 of the fights (though took Alvarez to a split decision the first time they met) neither man was able to stop him and since the 2nd Alvarez fight he has started to garner his reputation as the type of fighter who can outbox the sluggers. Wins against Ji-Hoon Kim and Breidis Prescott in 2 of his last 3 fights have been incredibly impressive. On paper he only beat Prescott by “split decision” though I struggled to give the Colombian a round after the 10-8 opener (Vazquez was dropped though dominated the fight) .
At just 24 Vazquez is one of the most under-rated young fighters in the world, tall for a Lightweight at 5’10’’ he’s tough, skilled and uses clever counter punching to dominate fights. He seems to enjoy sluggers as they give him the opportunity to land his shots time and time again and it’s this which has helped make Vazquez somewhat well known amongst the more hardcore of fans.

Leonard Zappavigna, (25-0, 17KO’s) is comfortably the puncher in the fight, he enters on the back of an impressive victory over Ji-Hoon Kim. Though his victory over Kim is the more impressive from the two men who have both beaten the Korean it says more about the style of the fighters, Zappavigna had the power to really hurt Kim and after knocking Kim down the Korean never got back into the fight being dropped again then stopped on his feet. “Lenny Zappa” is Australia’s bright hope for the future and has a decent following back home, though internationally he’s not seen as anything special, many feeling he got a gift in his last fight outside of Australia (a unanimous decision win over Fernando Angulo just over a year ago). The fight with Angulo left us with more questions than answers and Zappa has still failed to answer some of those questions, the Kim fight certainly not helping. Zappa was seen to struggle with the fact he couldn’t put Angulo away and as the fight went on Angulo certainly showed that Zappa faded as rounds went by. A look over the record of Zappa also shows some interesting stats, all 17 stoppages have come in Australia (he’s fought twice in the US with out a stoppage), 37 year old Super Featherweight Sergio Macias like Angulo, managed to take Zappa the distance (though it was only a 6 rounder), also of Zappa’s 17 KO’s 7 have come in the opening round, 6 in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd, 1 in each the 4th and 6th round. Unless he blows you out quickly he appears to be unable to get the job done.
Zappa is the shorter man giving away several inches in height (and likely to also be giving away some reach too) and also the younger man (though he’s less close to his “typical prime“). He’s easily the power fighter and holds explosive power, though he needs to land it early in a fight and over 12 rounds he seems to struggle with stamina issues. He’s cruder than Vazquez though much more rounded than Kim who left himself too open to Vazquez’s counters, admittedly it’s harder to be cruder than Kim but that’s beside the point.

The opening round or two will likely be relatively dull, although Zappa has power early on he tends to land powerful shots as opposed to rolling through fighters. Vazquez won’t be wanting to give the Australian any easy opening so the distance will be kept long range and Zappa will have to be the man stepping in and chasing a little bit. As Zappa steps in he will have his face hit by the stinging shots of Vazquez who will stick and move, frustrating Zappa almost from the off. You could imagine this sort of pattern for the opening few rounds, Zappa getting some success but clearly being out boxed. As the fight went on you’d almost certainly see Zappa broken, his explosiveness seeming more like a firecracker than dynamite as the rounds go on.

Although Zappa will always try and get to Vazquez, becoming more desperate as the rounds go on he will start to give the Mexican more and more counter opportunities and the Mexican will dominate a tiring Zappa. Although Vazquez could stop him late it’d be more likely a near white wash on the cards for me, expect scores like 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110. Although Zappa does hit hard he needs to land clean on Vazquez and that’s never been that easy. Expecting it to be dull at times, a little one sided in moments though one that could light up if Zappa lands something decent at some point.

The result of the fight will effect the top 10 rankings in the Lightweight division which appears to be one of the hottest divisions in boxing with fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez, Brandon Rios, Miguel Acosta, Humberto Soto, Urbano Antillon, John Murray, Antonio DeMarco, Michael Katsidis, Robert Guerrero and Jorge Linares all there. Fights with any of those names would be interesting to say the least, even if the loser faces one of those names boxing fans will have no right to complain.