There’s no need to jump into a fight with the “big guns” in the world heavyweight division.
That was the warning from Golden Gloves’ Rodney Berman, the most experienced boxing promoter in the country, after South Africa’s latest heavyweight sensation, Kevin Lerena, recorded a fourth-round knockout win over Romanian Bogdan Dinu at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg on Saturday night.
No sooner had Lerena won the WBA inter-continental crown that he announced to the world that he was ready to take on the top-10 in the heavyweight division. That signal was for the likes of Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.
Fury is the reigning WBC champion (32-0-1), while Usyk is the owner of the WBO, WBA and IBF belts (190-0) and Joshua (26-2-0) is a former IBO, WBA (super-heavyweight), IBF and IBO champion.
Berman, known as the “Don King'' of SA boxing, has been around for more than four decades in the fight game and has promoted some of the best talent in the country. So he knows just what he is talking about.
The silver-haired promoter has handled some of SA’s most outstanding boxers for years and led them through to the top in world boxing; the likes of Brian Mitchell, Pierre Coetzer, Johnny du Plooy, Bushy Bester to name but a few from yesterday-year. So, it would be advisable for Lerena to take the lead from Berman and work closely towards getting to the top of the tree in the heavyweight division.
The fights will come, make no mistake.
Berman is well connected in world boxing - across Europe and the United States.
The promoter, though delighted with the outcome of the Lerena v Dinu fight over the weekend, said that he needed to sit down with the latest WBA inter-continental champion plus his management team before deciding the next steps in his career.
Lerena has just fought and won his first fight in the heavyweight division, but he is far from the finished product.
Heavyweight Kevin Lerena (27-1, 14 KO's) scores a knockdown in the 3rd & two more in fourth for a KO-4 victory over Bogdan Dinu (20-4) to claim the vacant WBA Inter-Continental title at Emperor's Palace - the palace of dreams - in Gauteng, South Africa pic.twitter.com/N7RP2BEKab
— Tim Boxeo (@TimBoxeo) March 26, 2022
“We need to plan a strategy. We need to build his career at the right pace and we need to match him with the right opponents before we can start talking of fighting those in the world top-10,” Berman said.
“It’s nice to dream of the big fights, but realistically we need to walk before we start running. Make no mistake, he was impressive on the night. But the day will come for Kevin to fight stiff opposition and eventually fight for a world title.
“It’s a process and he has to go through it. He’s got to be patient and continue working hard.”
Berman added that the first building block of Lerena’s foundation has been firmly laid and that he needs to continue in the same manner as he did on Saturday.
“It was just so nice to see how he went about his business against an experienced heavyweight. The manner in which he attacked a taller fighter was a joy to watch and his punching power was lethal. He punched better as a heavyweight than when he was a cruiserweight. There was power in the punches and that got him the victory,” Berman added.
Berman will meet Lerena’s management team this week and they will map a way forward for the 29-year-old heavyweight.
IOL sport