This Saturday night, October 14th, super
middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, fresh off his
demolition of Jeff Lacy, will defend his world titles
against none other than Sakio Bika. Many of you
reading this may be asking who is Sakio Bika, and why
is he fighting Joe Calzaghe. Both questions are fair
questions; so let's take a look at Sakio Bika.
Bika fights out of Australia, but is originally
from Cameroon, Africa. He is 6' 1/2" tall, 27 years
old, and the majority of his fights have taken place
in Australia. He has a record of 20-1-2 with 13 KOs.
Before getting a title shot in his last fight he
fought the likes of Juarne Dowling and fought two
scintillating affairs with Yoshihiro Araki. He fights
under the moniker of The Scorpion. So, there's
a little basic background on the fighter known as
Sakio Bika.
You may be asking now, has this person fought any
marquee name fighters? The answer is yes. Actually,
Bika fought for the WBC super middleweight title in
his last fight against Markus Beyer. The fight was a
technical decision draw after four rounds due to a
clash of heads. For some reason or another, Bika will
now be getting back to back shots at world titles,
this time the IBF and WBO belts. The only other name
fighter on the resume of Bika is Sam Soliman, who Bika
lost a majority decision to. So, now that I have given
you a little background on Bika it's time to answer
the second question. Why is he fighting Joe Calzaghe?
Well, there are a couple of reasons for this.
For some reason the powers that be felt that Bika,
with his stellar resume and record deserved a back to
back title shot. Since Beyer wasn't available for a
rematch, why not Calzaghe? Bika traveled to Germany to
fight Beyer, and now he goes to Manchester to face
Calzaghe. Another reason is that Calzaghe is coming
off the biggest fight of his career against Jeff Lacy.
I guess Bika is his tune up fight.
Another big reason why Bika is getting this shot
at Calzaghe is the fact that this is Calzaghe's first
fight with HBO. Instead of showing a super
middleweight unification fight between Beyer and
Mikael Kessler, which is happening the same day, HBO
felt showing Calzaghe against Bika would make for
better viewing. Since it will be Calzaghe's first
fight on HBO, the network suits are hoping for a grand
and dominating Calzaghe performance, and they feel
Bika may be the guy to help them accomplish this.
So, now everyone knows who Sakio Bika is, and why
he is fighting Joe Calzaghe on Saturday. The final
question might be, why should I watch this? Well,
first off, if you live in the United States you can't
see the super middleweight unification fight.
Secondly, well, it's boxing, and you never know what
to expect.
