By Ron Jackson

South Africa’s Kevin Lereno goes into the unknown when he defends his IBO cruiserweight belt against German-based Ukrainian Roman Golovashchenko at the Sarhadci Olympic Center in Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday. The tournament will be shown live in South Africa on SS4.

On March 15, 2015, the southpaw Lerena (20-1, 9 KOs) made his first trip to the Ukraine and in his first fight out of South Africa he outpointed Igor Pylypenko over six rounds

The 26-year-old Lerena won the vacant IBO belt on September 9, 2017, when he outpointed Youri Kalenga over 12 rounds and then made a successful defense on March 18, 2018, against Dmytro Kucher also on points.

Very little is known about the 30-year-old challenger who has a record of 19-1, 17 KOs, since making his pro debut on September 15, 2007, with a stoppage win over Andrej Mauren in Magdeburg, Germany.

The first loss on the challenger’s record came against Varol Vekiloglu who stopped him in the fifth round.

Looking at his fights since April 2016 he has won all inside the distance against unknowns like Paata Aduashvili (21-12-2), Davit Gogishvili, Gogita Gorgiladze (32-12), Alejandro Emilio Valori (22-11) and Kai Kurzawa whom he stopped in two rounds to win the vacant IBO Intercontinental cruiserweight belt.

In his most recent fight on November 4, 2017, he knocked out Zoltan Petranyi (55-22).

One must favor Lerena going into the fight but he will be fighting in a foreign country and with Golovashchenko having an 81% knockout ratio he could be dangerous.

The other main organization cruiserweight champions are WBA/IBF, Murat Gassiev and WBC/WBO, Oleksandr Usyk.