British Scene: Rendall Munroe vs Victor Terrazas Preview

Dave Oakes previews Friday's super-bantamweight clash between Rendall Munroe and Victor Terrazas.

Rendall Munroe goes into Friday’s big fight knowing that Victor Terrazas stands between him and a world title fight, although it doesn’t always work out that way - he’s already fought a title eliminator only for him to be forced into another one. He faces the tough looking Mexican in a second eliminator for the WBC title at the Skydome, Coventry.

It will be Munroe’s first fight since defeating Simone Maludrottu five months ago, the usually busy Leicester man taking a well deserved break after a busy eighteen months in which he won European and Commonwealth titles.

Munroe, 20-1 (8KO’s), has been on a great run of form recently, impressively beating Arsen Martirosyan and Kiko Martinez twice, as well as the aforementioned win over Maludrottu. He’s shown that he’s the best super-bantamweight in Europe and fully deserves his chance at world level.

The improvement Munroe has shown over the past few years has been nothing short of remarkable. He looked to be a solid fighter at featherweight but nothing more than British title level; he came up short in a challenge for that title against Andy Morris, who he lost to on points.

He then dropped down a division and worked his way to a European title shot against Martinez, a fighter who’d caused a shock in his previous bout by knocking out future world champion Bernard Dunne inside a round. Munroe boxed superbly to tame the big punching Spaniard and take a majority decision. He went on to defend the title five times and also added the Commonwealth title to it when he out pointed Isaac Nettey in May of last year.

Victor Terrazas is a bit of a mystery to me, I’ve managed to see a couple of his fights courtesy of Youtube – a saviour on many occasions for every obsessive boxing addict – but it may not give the wholly accurate portrayal of him.

From the two fights I’ve seen, he looks like a decent all-round boxer who likes to land the left hook as often as possible, he’s a pressure fighter who works his way into range and looks as though he sets a fast pace. I noticed that he was open to the straight right hand on a few occasions and I can imagine the left hand of the southpaw Munroe causing similar problems.

The Mexican’s record looks impressive (25-1-1 13KO’s), but he’s not fought out of Mexico yet and the standard of his opponents has been mediocre at best. It will be a big test for him fighting away from home for the first time and the outcome of the fight may depend on how well he adapts to the situation. The word coming from his camp is that he’s in magnificent shape and more than ready for the fight.

It’s hard to make a confident prediction considering my lack of opportunities to see Terrazas but I’ve got to favour Munroe - he’s boxed at the higher level, is the hometown fighter and is in the form of his life. It’ll take a top class performance to beat him.

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