Golden Gloves

South Africa’s unbeaten WBA Pan African super middleweight champion Tommy “Tommy Gun” Oosthuizen (10-0, 7 knockouts) will face his toughest test as a professional, when he steps into the ring at Emperors Palace on April 27 against world rated Venezuelan southpaw Gusmyr “Azucar Torpedo” Perdomo.

In confirming the fight, Golden Gloves Promoter Rodney Berman said; “This guy from Venezuela is a bona fide world championship contender and has a record of 16-3, with 10 knockouts. Moreover, he’s a splintering puncher and has beaten some outstanding opposition like Hector Javier Velazco (37-7-1), whom he knocked out in the second round and Michal Balak (15-3). At 6 ‘2” /188 cm, he’s only marginally shorter than Oosthuizen and his only losses to date came against stellar opponents like WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (41-1), Dimitri Sartison (20-0) and Mario Veit (45-2)” said Berman.

Mind you, Perdomo lost a very close “majority decision” to Veit in only the Venezuelan’s 10^th professional fight and while he was closely outpointed by Sartison (95-96, 95-97, 95-96) in 2007, the lanky Hispanic was stopped on a TKO in the fourth round of his abortive tilt at Mikkel Kessler’s WBA world title in September 2009.

“Perdomo has been a professional since 2002 and had an excellent amateur pedigree of 85 victories and 11 defeats” said Berman. “Moreover, he was Venezuelan Amateur champion on 11 occasions and ranks very highly in terms of power”.

Born on September 7, 1976, the La Guaira, Venezuela, born Perdomo feels that he’s sharpening his skills in accordance with the level of opposition he’s fought and at age 33 believes he still has another seven to eight years in the professional ranks.

Interestingly, all 10 of his knockout wins were registered in the first four rounds, and he’s known to be a high-velocity left hooker with a needle-threading jab.

“People have been asking when Tommy will finally be tested against a world class opponent” said Berman. “Well now they can stop wondering. This guy Perdomo is streets ahead of Tommy in terms of experience and he’s certainly no slouch in the punching department. Indeed, we’re taking a huge risk by accepting this fight so soon in Oosthuizen’s career, but since both Tommy and Harold (Volbrecht) have given us the green light, it’s all systems go”.

Notwithstanding Oosthuizen’s status as a three-time international champion, at 20 years of age the South African is still a comparative rookie in the professional code, and there will undoubtedly be those soothsayers who predict an upset result at Emperors Palace when he squares up to Perdomo.

Trainer Volbrecht, however, is not one of them! “Bring on Perdomo” said the Hammer. “We’ll do what we have to on the night and after that, Tommy will hopefully be focusing on a world title shot at Emperors Palace in June.”