Hekkie Budler wins in comeback, Kevin Lerena upsets Micki Nielsen in stinker

After his shocking defeat to Byron Rojas, former minimumweight kingpin Hekkie Budler (30(9)-2) moves up a division. He seems better for it. Against local South African domestic Siyabonga Siyo (10(4)-2), Budler looked stronger while retaining his speed.

To be blunt, Budler kicked Siyo’s ass. During the championship rounds, Budler was beating Siyo from pillar to post. The only reason Siyo made the distance was because he was running while rarely throwing anything back.

It’s my opinion that Budler would be better to stay at 108lbs where great opportunities await against Ganigan Lopez and Akira Yaegashi.

The full fight can be viewed on YouTube.

On the undercard, local hope Kevin Lerena (16(8)-1) upset previously undefeated Danish prospect Micki Nielsen (22(14)-1).

The fight was incredibly boring due to Nielsen’s strategy of swinging a single hook, missing, then immediately wrestling. Lerena simply picked his shots when he could, and made sure they were significant. The scores were 97-93, 96-95, 95-95, but truth be told, Lerena did much better than the judges indicated.

Previous to this fight, Nielsen was ranked a top 10 cruiserweight by the WBC, IBF, and WBO. It’s my opinion that Nielsen was overrated. Based on the eye test, I don’t think Lerena should be a world-ranked cruiserweight either.

If you suffer from insomnia, you can watch the full fight on YouTube.