Montana Love Makes a Big Step-Up Against Ivan Baranchyk
When undefeated welterweight Montana “Too Pretty” Love (15-0, 7 KO’s) steps in the ring next the stakes will be high. On the undercard of Jake Paul versus Tyron Woodley, Love will face the challenge of former IBF junior welterweight champ Ivan “The Beast” Baranchyk (20-2, 13 KO’s). Despite having appeared on three previous Showtime cards, without question the Beast will represent Love’s stiffest competition to date.
Yet, it should be mentioned that the Russian bruiser will enter the bout coming off a loss. Not only this, Baranchyk suffered a particularly brutal fifth round stoppage at the hands of Jose Zepeda just under one year ago which ended up being 3kingsboxing.com Fight of the Year for 2020. It will be very interesting to see how the straight-forward pressure fighter handles himself in his first fight back in the ring.
For his part, Love is only two months removed from his latest victory. On June 5, he snagged a second round stoppage over Olaide Fijabi in a prizefight stage in Duabi.
HOME TOWN HEROICS??
Along with tangling with seemingly his toughest opponent, Love has the added pressure of fighting in his native Cleveland, Ohio. It’s not the first though. Back on August 3, 2019 Too Pretty secured a second round knockout victory over Michael Ogundo. Naturally, Love would relish in claiming another dominate win such as he did then. Therefore even though this is not his first prizefight staged in front of his home fans, this will certainly be the biggest stage that he’s done it on.
Love will also have the seeming advantage of weight being that the Beast is moving up from junior welterweight. Presently the Russian is ranked #9 (WBC) at junior welterweight. Technically speaking, he has fought within the welterweight division eight previous times. He even fought as high as super welterweight once. Yet, he has not competed at welterweight since his December 10, 2016 dustup with Wilberth Lopez.
Ultimately though, the final result will boil down to “can Love remain composed while dancing with the ferociously aggressive fighter?” Luckily, Too Pretty knows what he’s in against, so now we’ll just have to watch how it all unfolds in the ring.
“I’m expecting him to be wild, aggressive, strong, you know not really pretty much skilled or anything like that. But we are expecting aggression and wildness. This is going to stamp the whole division! They know I am coming!”
“We got a bunch of champions that I been working with, plenty of champions. I’ve been in plenty of camps and now everybody watching is going to see what I do.”
By: Bakari Simpson
