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Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev and Romanian Bogdan Dinu will square off on Saturday night in Costa Mesa, California, in a 10 round Heavyweight fight. There will be no title on the line, but the winner will get close to earning a title shot.
Pulev (26-1, 13 KO) is a very solid fighter who is rated as a Top 10 heavyweight for a long time now, although he only had one title fight in his entire career. That was in 2014 against Wladimir Klitschko, when he also suffered his only loss via a 5th round knockout. Pulev won all his other 26 fights, including 6 after the Klitschko loss, but he never really faced top class opponents. His best win might be a split decision over Derek Chisora (a fighter with 9 losses on his resume) back in 2016.
Dinu (18-1, 14 KO) is coming after the first loss of his career, as he got KO’d by Jarrell Miller in the 4th round back in November last year. Dinu is a newcomer on the big stage at the Heavyweight category, even if he`s 32 years old. He had 18 straight wins until the Miller loss, but he only met low level fighters, mainly due to bad management. After changing representation last year, he is finally getting big fights now. Maybe even too big, as he was thrown in directly against one of the best heavyweights in the world last year, Miller, who is set to fight Anthony Joshua in June.
Bet on Pulev vs Dinu and claim your 100% (120 Eur) welcome bonus at LSbet now!Pulev is standing at 194 cm tall, with a reach of 203 cm. Dinu is standing at 196 cm tall, with a reach of aproximately 200 cm (the exact number is unknown). The two are pretty similarly built, and also have comparable styles – not huge punchers, but good tacticians.
Dinu is unknown for many, given the fact that he only fought very low level opposition until the Miller fight last year. Dinu had a pretty good showing in that fight, even if he got knocked out in the 4th round. He was actually leading on the scorecards against the 6th best ranked Heavyweight of the world until Miller`s famous power eventually got the better of him.
It was probably too soon for Dinu to fight such a quality opponent like Miller after only fighting bums previously, but that experience will be huge, and will help him be better prepared for this Pulev fight, especially considering that Pulev is a (small) step down in quality compared to Miller.
I reckon Dinu has a shot here, even if he is a huge underdog at odds around 10.00 to win. There`s definitely value on the Romanian, as those odds are artificially inflated because not many people know about him. He can do more than people think / expect. He really is a good fighter, a former special police officer who is fundamentally sound, who could have maybe even been a contender at this point of his career if not for bad management and lack of top fights.
Now, of course, if you put a gun to my head I would go with Pulev here, he`s not such a huge favorite for no reason. He`s a top fighter, one of the best ones in the class below ‘world class’. He is vastly more experienced and seasoned than Dinu, who only fought once before at this level.
Pulev`s 26 wins in 27 fights speak for themselves – even if he didn`t defeat world class opponents, he did have many wins against good boxers, and he`s a Top 10 heavyweight in the World, at least by ranking. Pulev will definitely view this as a warm up fight for bigger and better things to come, something he actually said himself.
But Dinu has a chance. I`m pretty confident he would beat Pulev at least once out of 5 matches, so odds 11.00 are big value. My tip will be Dinu to win. If he does, it will probably be via points, as neighter fighter is a huge puncher. That might be good for Dinu considering his sound fundamentals, which he proved recently against Miller, when he outboxed his famous opponent for 3 rounds out of 4 but in the end couldn`t take his big power.
Pick: Dinu
Odds: 11.00 @ Betfair Sportsbook
Stake: 2
Possible profit: 20
Event date: 23 March
