Cruiserweight contender Kevin Lerena, a man unbeaten in the weight class since 2017, is set to become a heavyweight.
Trained by Peter Smith, Lerena is scheduled to enter the square ring for his first fight in the upper division when he faces Romania’s Bodgan Dinu for the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) Inter-continental title Saturday, March 26 at Emperor’s Palace in South Africa’s Kempton Park.
Lerena, 29, decided to leave the cruiserweight class after feeling he has done enough in that lower division, and there was no longer much to prove.
The IBO cruiserweight champion had amassed six successful defenses of his crown.
Before entering the ring, he was a horse-racing jockey with no amateur boxing background. In heavyweight debut, Lerena takes on the third-ranked Dinu, who has lost only three times in his 23 fights, while winning 16 bouts by knockout.
The equally battle-scarred Lerena, who has proven himself over the years to have an iron fist, will be hoping to defeat Dinu to begin his rise to the top of the heavyweight rankings and join the likes of Anthony Joshua, Oleksander Usyk and Tyson Fury.
“I am facing one of the toughest fights of my life, but I know I can prove to all that I have the ability to stick it out in the heavyweight ranks,” he said. “I won’t allow another man to take my kids’ food from the table.”
