The Art of Matchmaking 101 – Primetime 16/5

Av Hisham Zaben

The matchmaking was very good for the most part in this event. Ahmad el Ahmad had the perfect dance partner in front of him. Someone who would test him and provide a good fight but ultimately not beat him. Kem Ljungkvist had been inactive and got a fight on 10 days notice. Garcia was there to help Kem shake the rust off and he did just that, nothing more or less. Linn Sandstrom vs. Katherine Lindenmuth was a good and intense fight all the way to the end. Boudigaard had a tough test but he has been in many tough tests already so he is kind of used to that. He did fine and pulled out the best victory so far in his career. Elias Faour, 20 years old was in a step-up fight which for him was the hardest fight so far for him and he adapted beautifully and I thought he grew as a boxer the longer the fight went on. Perfect step-up for Faour. Khattab was back after some time off the ring and had an excellent opponent in front of him that would make him work hard and get his confidence back up after his last loss. Rossing in his 2^nd fight in recent months had an old man in front of him that knew how to survive and make the fight ugly. One of those fights you just get out the way and move forward. It didn´t help him in any way going forward but a win is a win. 

Only one fight left that I didn´t mention so far and that was the very first fight of the card. Markus Lovberg vs. Ruslan Bereziuk. I was looking at the fight to study it a few days before the event and it marked red flags for me immediately. Markus was 2-0 against very weak opposition and had trouble getting past his last opponent Marian Wesolowski (5-22) three months ago. Markus has experience as an amateur but he was never a national champion and was not considered an elite amateur before turning pro. You have to be very careful when finding opponents for a guy like that. I know Marcus personally and I can tell you right now that he has a very big heart and a very big fighting spirit. This was not his fault and he had no business being in the ring with a guy like Bereziuk.  

Also let´s get the notion of the window right away that this was some kind of lucky blow from Bereziuk because it wasn´t. First of all, the punch that knocked Marcus down wasn´t the one that hurt him initially, for those of you that didn´t notice that. Marcus got hit with 3 other big right hands cleanly moments before and he was badly hurt after the first one. When he finally got knocked down with the big right hand that Bereziuk landed he was in absolutely no shape to continue. Are you kidding me? Had the action been resumed he would have been knocked out cold and it would have been quick and it would have been ugly. I am very glad that we didn´t have to see that because that would have been devastating. There was just no way he would recover from that and for all intents and purposes, that is not a flash knockdown. The trainers seemed to do a very good job with him in the corner and this is not their fault either, it is just that he should not have faced a guy like Bereziuk this night. 

Bereziuk was 2-0 with 2 knockouts and I could find several old videos of him recorded years ago where you can tell that he was good and developed technically already back then and he was a junior at that time. Just assume from that, that he will be more developed now and he is coming off of two knockout victories and no defeats. What is the purpose of bringing in someone like that for Markus Lovberg?, especially when he is not making any money at all and to the contrary, he is losing money out of his pockets? The promoters job is to make the best possible fights as cheap as possible and the managers job is to protect his fighters and get them the best fights for their careers. There is always a conflict of interest between the promoters and managers.  

 
Markus was scheduled to fight someone else and Bereziuk was a replacement opponent which makes it even worse. When you take an opponent on short notice, you never pick one that is tougher on paper than the one you were scheduled to face. And in this case, it was leagues apart from the one he was supposed to face, to the one he faced. Even if Bereziuk was the only option, but it never is, because there are hundreds of journeymen ready to jump on a plane and come over. If it was the only option you kindly decline. Mistakes. We all make´em. We learn and move forward. For Markus, the referee saved him for another day. He can come back from this but has to be very careful going forward with whom he is to face in the squared circle. Markus at his best is fun to watch, he is aggressive and has a lot of heart and makes for entertaining bouts. Markus you can hold your head high and be proud of yourself for the true warrior that you are. You can come back from this!