I've only seen Zepeda once. He gave Ramirez Hell, and Ramirez is overall a better fighter than Baranchyk. HOWEVER, Baranchyk is a bigger puncher than Ramirez, and has the power to hurt anybody in the division. I think I'll go with Baranchyk.
Zepeda also beat Pedraza. Agree with your assessment on strengths and weaknesses. It's why I think it's a good matchup. But I'm still not ready to make a pick.
I've always thought of Baranchyk as a poor man's Provodnikov. Like Provo, he's an aggressive Russian with big power, and no defense. Difference is, Provo had a great chin... Baranchyk doesn't.
ESPN+ ???... REED's Scrolling Thru All the ESPN Channel's and Seeing NATHAN But College Football Scheduled???... REED
I think he'd have stamped out a lot of dudes at 140 and I'd have loved to see him in fights with Khan, Maidana and Hatton. Strong as an ox and about as skilled
I reckon Provo would have lost to Hatton and Maidana. Hatton too quick for him, and Maidana too powerful for him. I wanna say he smashes Khan, but he failed to stop that bum Algeri, so who knows. He very well might have knocked Khan senseless though. But Baranchyk is no Hatton or Maidana.
He absolutely could be seen to fall into a trap of plodding around after Khan with his face falling off and half heartedly making the fight with Khan being one punch away from the grave at all times. Provo was a maddeningly awful finisher.... Worse than Golota but thankfully nowhere near as unhinged. I can just see Khan escaping his clutches, barely, over and over.
Thats probably it for Baranchyk. I cant see him recovering from this. Moving forward, he's gonna be even more vulnerable to getting hurt/stopped. If you're as defensively inept as Baranchyk, you had better have a solid chin, and he doesnt.
Seems like there is a load of weird shit going down at these empty events. We are having soccer results in England that are defying all logic. It's not even the results. The results are mad but the scorelines and the small details are even madder. It's beyond any sort of rational sporting explanation. 8 knockdowns in 1 fight, shared evenly, with the underdog losing? Any other weird shit going down?