Fighting for the first time at cruiserweight, former heavyweight contender Mike Perez (22-2-1, 14 KOs) obliterated a badly over-matched Viktor Biscak (10-1, 7 KOs) in the 1st round of a shceduled 6 round fight on Saturday night at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Perez, 31, knocked down Biscak with a right-left combination to the head. The 32-year-okd Biscak was badly hurt from both the punches and from injuring his angle during the knockdown. After Biscak showed that he couldn’t stand without limping, the referee Hugh Russell Jnr. waived off the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:29 of round 1. This was a terrible opponent for Perez. I can understand not wanting to put Perez in against a good fighter after 2 years out of the ring, but this was RIDICULOUS. You’ve got to better than Biscak.
Perez landed only 3 punches in the entire fight. He connected with a right hook, and then the right-left combination that put Biscak down for the count.
Perez’s promoter Eddie Hearn said after the fight that he needs to find guys that are competitive with him and can give him some rounds. Hearn says he wants to have Perez challenge for a world title at cruiserweight as soon as possible.
Before tonight, Perez hadn’t fought since losing to Alexander Povetkin by a 1st round knockout on May 22, 2015. Perez looked lost in that fight. He wasn’t in the same class as Povetkin. He didn’t belong out there in that fight against a heavyweight with that kind of talent. Perez weighed in at 240 pounds for the Povetkin fight. Last Friday, Perez weighed in at 198 lbs. for the Biscak contest. The transformation to Perez’s body was nothing short of stunning. He looked completely different. Perez had not only lost a lot of fat, but he’d also added a lot of muscle to his arms and chest. You don’t normally see a fighter lose 40 pounds while looking more muscular.
It’s unclear which of the cruiserweight champions Hearn is going to have Perez target. I wouldn’t give him any change of beating WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk or WBC champion Mairis Briedis. Those guys are WAY too good for Perez in my opinion. Perez would match-up better against WBA champions Beibut Shuemenov or Denis Lebedev. IBF champion Murat Gassiev is someone that Perez might do well against as long as he’s not hit by him. Perez’s chin isn’t the best, and I rate Gassiev’s punching power as being above Povetkin’s power. If Perez can’t take Povetkin’s power without dropping for the 10 count, then I suspect he’ll get knocked out by Gassiev as well.