Seldin to Fight Vazquez on September 4

Cletus Seldin is scheduled to face Victor Vazquez on September 4 at the Paramount Theatre in Huntington, New York, USA. This bout will take place in the junior welterweight division.

Seldin (25-1, 21 KOs) is a 34 year old with a wrecking ball for a right hand. After turning pro in 2011, the Hebrew Hammer won his first 21 fights. He appeared on ESPN and HBO. After Yves Ulysse Jr. out-boxed him in his second fight for HBO in 2017, Cletus took eleven months off. Da Hamma has scored four consecutive knockouts, including one over Zab Judah, since the loss.

February 28, 2020 marks the date of Seldin's last professional fight, eighteen months ago. While he might be rusty come fight night, he will be in shape. Cletus has spent the pandemic training, including lost distance running.

Victor Vazquez (11-5, 5 KOs) is a 25 year old pressure fighter. The Puerto Rican from Yonkers, New York is fresher (with ten fewer fights), has been more active (last fighting in April) and is three inches taller than Seldin at 5'10". He primarily fights from the orthodox stance, but he will switch to southpaw.

Boxers are tougher than the average human, and Vazquez is tougher than the average boxer. Human beings tend to be about 60% water, but El Flaco (The Skinny) is about 60% heart. When a fighter has a ton of heart, it usually means they exhibit poor defense and possess a weak chin. Victor is no exception.

Vazquez is the B side, but he's no pushover. Seven of his eleven wins have come against opponents with winning records. He has been stopped on three occasions, but the combined record of those fighters is currently an extremely impressive 44-3-3. He also beat 14-0 Ricardo Garcia in 2017, but that win looked more impressive at the time. Garcia is now 14-8-1.

The best moment of Vazquez's career came against 2016 Olympic gold medalist Fazliddin Gaibnazarov. Fayzi, a southpaw from Uzbekistan, went down 15 seconds into his pro debut for an official knockdown. But it appeared as if the Olympic champion had stepped on Vazquez's foot and gone down as Victor missed a right. Vazquez chomped on a Fayzi left in the next round and fell. He got up and wanted to continue, but the fight was stopped.

Vazquez is often too square right in front of his foes. When he pressures, he doesn't come in behind the jab. Instead, he throws reckless power punches from the outside and launches four shots in the hopes of landing one. He keeps his left hand low which leaves him open for the overhand right, which happens to be Seldin's signature punch. Vazquez is often wobbled in fights, but he always keeps fighting back... if they let him.

Against Seldin, Vazquez would be wise to box, but he won't. His team announced before his 2018 fight with southpaw prospect Josue Vargas that Vazquez would box. That lasted about thirty seconds when Vazquez's true nature surfaced and he attacked Vargas. It made for a very exciting fight. Victor was eventually stopped in the seventh round when his corner waved it off. The Yonkers man had taken a ton of punishment but would not go down or stop throwing. His fight against Anthony Mercado five months later was an even more thrilling fight. Young Vic survived a knockdown early and a near stoppage in a close decision loss. In fact, ref Gary Rosato nearly stepped in and stopped it on two different occasions: one when Vazquez was on his way out and later when Mercado was all but done.

Though the bout is scheduled for ten rounds, it might be a short night, not because of an overly wide difference in class, but because Vazquez's style seems perfect for Seldin. He'll be there to hit and when he gets hit by Da Hamma, the fight might not last long.  If Vazquez can make it out of the first round, he'll show a ton of guts, and win some fans along the way. But Cletus will win the fight.