Raymond Muratalla is expected to make his presence felt in the 10-round fight with Jesus Perez tonight at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. Muratalla is making his return to the ring with a record of 21-0 and 16 KOs. The Azerbaijani fighter is still struggling to bounce back from a sluggish performance earlier this year against Tevin Farmer.
His opponent is Perez a welterweight, who has a record of 25-5 with 18 knockouts, though Elieder is new to the division though he faced stern tests in the persons of Brian Norman Jr and Alexis Rocha. Perez had an excellent win against former WBA super featherweight champion Joseph “Jojo” Diaz and the victory cements him as another dangerous contender.
Raymond Muratalla: Lessons Learned From Farmer Fight
Raymond Muratalla’s last fight with the former IBF super featherweight champion Tevin Farmer exposed flaws in his style. Farmer was doing a good job countering and moving around, and that of course made Muratalla look like some up-and-coming contender. Even though in the ninth and tenth rounds he came back, scoring some nice clean blows.
The show was far from what was expected. Farmer knew how to exploit this weakness and his understanding of the range became the main reason for Muratalla to dodge and shy away from the throw when cornered Farmer made good use of it in his fight against Muratalla.
Thinking of that, Raymond Muratalla has been working on improving his method. He has however said that he could have landed more punches in a bid to neutralize Farmer’s ability to maneuver and dodge his blows. That fight allows Raymond Muratalla to prove that he has evolved from his mistakes, and will correct them against Perez.
The Challenge of Facing Jesus Perez
However, in facing Jesus Perez, Raymond Muratalla’s opponent does not shy away from a brawl, and who has taken on some of the division’s elite. As seen through his chin, Perez proves that he can take a punch from other hard and groveling punchers without feeling the heat. While Farmer is expected to give Muratalla some space to throw and, in turn, try to stand his ground and counter Perez that will allow the opponent to demonstrate the worst part of his game. For Muratalla, he sees the fight being different yet, a fight in which he expects to showcase his punching might when the Uptala of Perez opens up for exchanging blows.
Still, he will have to be wary since Perez has been in the ring longer and has proven he can take much punishment and will not be knocked out easily. An efficient victory over Perez will suit Raymond Muratalla’s boast quite well and add another highlight to the list of his achievements that will help the latter regain his status as the consolidated contender.
Final Thoughts
But while Raymond Muratalla dreams of a win tonight, he also looks at future possibilities. He says he should be part of the lightweight champion level as he ranks alongside the best talents such as Keyshawn Davis. Muratalla would like to face other title holders in the future, among them WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk whom he sees as a perfect opponent.
Of course, Berinchyk is not yet a star like Shakur Stevenson or Gervonta Davis, but Muratalla considers him to be a rather experienced and worthy opponent. Still, it’s unclear whether Muratalla will fight Berinchyk shortly, as Top Rank seems to be setting up Berinchyk for a fight with Keyshawn Davis, the promising 2020 Olympic silver medalist.
