South Africa’s IBO junior-heavyweight champion Kevin 'Two Guns' Lerena is ready to defend his title against 40-year-old Macedonian Sefer Seferi.
The fight is scheduled to take place at Emperors Palace on Saturday,
September 21.
The 27-year-old southpaw, who has made significant strides despite having no amateur background, won the vacant IBO belt in September 2017 with a split decision win over Youri Kayembre Kalenga at the same venue.
“I am looking forward to taking on Seferi," said Lerena. "I have watched several of his fights, he's a good and experienced boxer, and I know he will bring his best into the ring. But I will do my best to defend my crown."
His trainer, Peter Smith, said they are ready for the big day. “We are wellprepared and Kevin is working hard at training. Everything is going well and we are looking forward to it.”
Since winning the belt, Lerena has shown a marked improvement with four consecutive successful defences of the crown against Dmytro Kucher, Roman Golovashchenko, Artur Mann and Vasil Ducar.
Lerena is ranked No7 by the WBC, No9 by the WBA while the IBF has him lined up at number eight.
He has been outstanding since his pro debut in November 2011. He has won the WBF Africa junior-heavyweight, WBC youth junior heavyweight, South African junior-heavyweight, WBA Pan African cruiserweight, and IBO junior-heavyweight titles.
His opponent, Seferi, known as 'The Real Deal' (26-2-1: 21) is from Macedonia but he fights out of Burgdorf, Switzerland. He made his pro debut in May 2007. After experimenting at heavyweight level and taking on Tyson Fury, he is now back to his ideal weight where he remains unbeaten. His last draw against the Top 5 rated Firat Arslan shows his hunger to become the IBO champion of the world.
With a knockout ratio of 81 percent, Seferi moved up to the heavyweight division in September 2016 in a fight for the vacant WBA international heavyweight title against Manuel Charr and lost on points over 10 rounds.
In 2018 he lost in the fourth round in a fight against Fury, the former WBA/IBF/WBO and IBO heavyweight champion, who was returning to the ring after being out for 31 months.
He last fought in November 2018 in a 12-round majority draw against the experienced Firat Arslan (44-8-2) in a clash for the WBO Intercontinental and Global Union world titles.
Sunday Independent