Seldin (28-1, 23 KOs) is a puncher, and the 38 year old's overhand right is his best punch. In his last three fights- against William Silva, Patrick Okine, and Jose Angulo- Seldin has struggled at times. Silva outboxed Cletus for several rounds until the Hebrew Hammer turned the fight and completed a stunning comeback in the seventh round. Some felt Okine was ahead when Seldin starched him in the sixth. The JBB had Seldin ahead at the time of the stoppage, but there was no doubt that Okine landed some bombs. Cletus started fast against Angulo and was on the verge of stopping the tough Ecuadorian, but Angulo boxed effectively down the stretch.
This fight against Kinda (20-6), a 36 year old from Burkina Faso, is shaping up to be another challenging contest for the "Hamma." When he was first starting out, Kinda left his family and traveled to New York in the hopes of achieving his dreams of success in the ring. Initially, he worked six days a week in a restaurant and trained whenever he found the time.
Kinda, like Seldin, was formerly promoted by Star Boxing. Nicknamed the "Volcano," he started his career 16-0 before suffering an unlucky loss to Chris Howard in 2013. Kinda greedily snatched momentum of the fight when Howard's eye swelled shut from an earlier headbutt. The judges gave the truncated fight to Howard, much to the dismay of Kinda, announcer Teddy Atlas, and most observers. Issouf then lost an ugly fight to Jeremy Bryan, one in which the Burkinabé was far too passive.
Kinda is a boxer who moves well, has good hand speed, and throws fluid punches. Boxers have been known to give Seldin trouble, although he has developed a new tactic of just touching his opponents when he's being outboxed. That serves to lull the opponent into a false sense of safety before Seldin inevitably hammers them.
Kinda began boxing at the age of three, a big advantage over Seldin, who came to the sport much later. Issouf will also have a height advantage But Cletus holds a significant power surplus. Kinda only has nine knockouts. In a wild fight against Jimmy Williams in 2017, Kinda landed a flush left hook on the AARP-eligible referee Steve Smoger, who took the punch well.
But Kinda is an unassumingly strong man like his fellow countryman Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Against Javier Loya, Kinda crunched an overhand right onto Loya's chin earning a massive knockdown and leading to a stoppage soon after. Issouf doesn't have the best chin. The Volcano has been extinguished early three times, although they were against top guys: Jose Ramirez, Ismael Barroso, and Arthur Biyarslanov.
Dating back to 2016, Kinda had lost three in a row, not including the loss to Jimmy Williams which was later ruled a no contest, before he won a couple of fights in Ghana last September against lesser competition.
Seldin-Kinda is scheduled for eight rounds and will be streamed on UFC Fight Pass.
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