Cape Town - It would have been totally understandable if Kevin Lerena entered the heavyweight division with a sense of trepidation.
He was a master at cruiserweight for many years, defending his IBO world title six times, but the extreme effort needed to stay within that weight class was taking its toll on the Johannesburg southpaw.
Lerena made the big move to the blue riband division earlier this year, and he would hope to follow in the footsteps of other top cruiserweights such as Evander Holyfield, David Haye and Oleksandr Usyk, who became heavyweight champions as well.
Reaching the 91kg cruiserweight limit before a fight involved some serious work and even diets for Lerena, and now he said he is “totally more comfortable” in the unlimited heavyweight division.
“I’m comfortable in the sense that I don’t have to deplete myself, which was doing an injustice to my performance. So, I think you are seeing the real me now, in the sense of performance-inspired me,” the 30-year-old told Independent Media at the Under Armour ALL OUT MILE event at the Green Point Athletics Stadium in Cape Town last week.
“Yes, I’m a smaller heavyweight, but so what? This smaller heavyweight is kind of making big men look average, and I plan to continue to do that.
“My training has changed a bit in a sense of what I do… I’m not putting on too much mass, but I don’t want to get heavier than I am right now.
“You will lose your speed (if you put on too much weight), and I’ll rather sacrifice a little bit of power to be super dynamic and fast and flashy. So no, I don’t want to bulk up.”
Lerena certainly made Bogdan Dinu “look average” in late March to clinch the WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title at Emperors Palace in Joburg. He pulled off a fifth-round knockout against the highly experienced Romanian, who is also a big unit at 1.96m compared to Lerena’s 1.85m frame.
“I made it look easy! It wasn’t easy… I think I made it look easy because I prepared. No stone left unturned – each fight presents different (challenges), and yes, sometimes in a fight, it falls into your hands a bit ‘easier’ than other fights,” Lerena said.
“But that’s essentially a game-plan, and I knew that is what I was going to put him away with – an uppercut straight left.
“It’s been going very good. A lot came after that fight. The victory was a big one. Now I’m just staying humble, true to the ground… and continuously work hard. I know where I want to go.
“Somebody said to me the other day, ‘What are you doing here at the gym?’, and I said ‘What do you mean? I’m no longer a world champion. I need to work hard and become a world champion again’.
“So, the hunger, the fire is there, the desire is there to become champion again, and now it’s up to me to do it.”
The victory over the 35-year-old Dinu – who has faced the likes of Kubrat Pulev and Daniel Dubois previously – would have made the heavyweight world sit up and take notice.
Lerena, though, knows he needs to “pay school fees” to get a title shot, and he told Independent Media that his next fight might just be the one to take him to the next level.
“I’ve got a big fight in September, a very big one… I cannot say who yet! It’s going to be here – it’s actually 80 percent that it’s going to be here (in South Africa), so we’re just hoping that we can finalise some numbers and get some big blue-chip brands on board to get behind the event,” he said.
“But it’s 80 percent here. A big name, a massive heavyweight… A gatekeeper to the heavyweight division top 10. And when I beat him, it will send a very big message to the world champions that I’m here, and I wanna fight you.
“To be fair, he’s never been knocked out before, so he’s a real tough dude. He’s only lost to Wladimir Klitschko, on points, (Alexander) Povotkin on points, and Dillian Whyte. But, maybe I will knock him out! Let’s wait and see… A victory sends a message; a knockout sends the share price through the roof and says a world title fight written all over me.
“To be honest, in my last fight, did I think I could knock Dinu out? Yes, I did. Do I think I can knock this next guy out? Most definitely. It will be a lot harder, though. I’m not naïve to the fact that it’s a harder fight. But hey, this is boxing, and it just takes one punch, as we saw (against Dinu).
“So, I’ve got to be defensively tight. I can’t afford to make mistakes, because one mistake will throw the fight for me. But he will make a mistake. And when he makes a mistake, he’ll pay.”
Lerena added that the big opponent will be announced by his promoter, Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves, on June 13, with the bout scheduled for September 17.
@AshfakMohamed