Crawford vs. Indongo fight card preview: Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk is must-see TV

Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk has quickly become a contender in boxing’s light heavyweight division.

This Saturday’s installment of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN features a junior welterweight title unification bout between Terence Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) and Julius Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs). The winner of this matchup will be the true “undisputed” king of 140-pounds, as all four major belts are on the line.

What this post is focusing on is the man in the co-feature. Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk has quickly become one of the best light heavyweights in the world, sporting a professional record of 13-0 with 11 KOs. Ghana’s Michael Gbenga went the distance with him twice, and while his record isn’t sparkling, he’s one of those common journeyman “opponents” who is hard to put away.

Gvozdyk won an Olympic bronze medal in London back in 2012, and only turned professional in 2014, having amassed an amateur record of 220-30. So much like his fellow countrymen Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk (both of whom won Olympic gold in 2012 and are world champions right now), Gvozdyk hasn’t had a need to beef up his professional record with an assortment of “tomato cans,” and has proven that he’s among the best in such a short period of time.

Three of Gvozdyk’s last four opponents are recent world title challengers: Nadjib Mohammedi, Tommy Karpency, and Isaac Chilemba. The Chilemba win was his most impressive, albeit with Chilemba choosing not to continue due to a hand injury. His arguable best showing came against Yunieski Gonzalez (whom I’d contend is the best opponent he’s faced) in April, as the Cuban was steamrolled within three rounds.

Up next on Saturday for Gvozdyk is a matchup against Craig Baker (17-1, 13 KOs), who’s not a bad fighter but isn’t anywhere close to being a contender. His best win is an upset over Umberto Savigne, and his resume is that of a club fighter. This is a pure showcase matchup (read: mismatch) for Gvozdyk that won’t tell us much about his championship aspirations, but ideally he’s getting a crack at one of Andre Ward or Adonis Stevenson down the line.

Gvozdyk is an excellent counterpuncher with a mean streak to his game. He displayed a stifling jab against Gonzalez and as we’ve seen with many Eastern European fighters, he loves go to the body. The only concern I have is he did get dropped and hurt by Tommy Karpency in the opening round, but I believe his offense is well put together and fan-friendly. He’s improving every time he steps into the ring and we could be looking at a future world champion.

The 30-year-old isn’t the only rising star at 175, as Russia’s Dmitry Bivol (11-0, 9 KOs) and Artur Beterbiev (11-0, 11 KOs) are both excellent fighters in their own right. Beterbiev’s legal issues with his promoter Yvon Michel have sadly halted his rise towards the top, but Bivol also looks to be the real deal. We will see Beterbiev return to action in October on a Top Rank on ESPN card, which is good news.

I do want to point out that Andre Ward is commentating on this event and will be a guest analyst on ESPN into next week for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor. There have been rumblings that we see Ward sign with Top Rank, as Roc Nation Sports’ venture into boxing has proven disastrous, and that would certainly be an encouraging step towards possibly setting up Ward vs. Gvozdyk.

Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo takes place in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 19th at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT on ESPN.

You can watch Gvozdyk’s entire professional highlight reel at the bottom of the page.