[JOMO]

Stoke's Scott Lawton fights Russian Kirakosyan for the vacant European super feather on Friday night.

Lawton is 27-5-1(6), Kirakosyan 31-5(21)

Lawton took a while to get going in domestic circles. Dropped a couple of results to journeymen starting out. Won the English lightweight title against Steffy Bull, who had a nice looking record at the time, but very padded and posed very little threat. A win over Bull got Lawton a pop at the British title against Jono Thaxton, which he lost by TKO7. This was followed up with a 4th round loss to Amir Khan. Lawton put up a good show against Thaxton until the stoppage but was pretty helpless against Khan, who picked him off comfortably. After a few keep busy fights, Lawton looked good in stopping then unbeaten Martin Gethin to reclaim his English title, but was stopped emphatically by John Murray last Summer in his second bid for the British title. Lawton was on the verge of retirement after that, but landed a fight against Derry Matthews, a one time British title contender at SF, November. Lawton won in 6th. Matthews however had lost two by stoppage going into this fight, and retired after it. Ergo for me, little can be read into the result.

At 36 Kirakosyan is three years older than Lawton. Started off in Russia but relocated to France. Demolished Giuseppe Lauri in his 12th fight. (Italian Lauri was 30-3 at the time and continues to be a gatekeeper at European level. A few fights later in 2004 lost to the up and coming Juan Urango, who is now a world title holder. Was involved in a cracking fight with Michael Gomez, nearly stopping the Irishman who was pretty much at his peak then. After the defeat, Kirakosyan rack ed up a dozen wins, stopping Portuguese Antonio Bento on his home turf to claim the European title. He then splatted Britain's Carl Johannsen for the 2nd time in his 1st defence. However he lost his title to Surgey Gulyakevich at the end of '07. Gulyakevich, 23-1 at the time, won handsomely. It should be noted however that Gulyakevich is a top 10 contender. Was robbed of the WBC interim title thanks to a hometown decision in Mexico in the Autumn. Kirakosyan has had 5 keep busy fights since losing to Gulyakevich.

In short Lawton should be outclassed. Although he can look pretty slick at times and jab well, he does not have the chin to take Kirakisyan for 12 rounds. The latter has the snap to see off Lawton, who to summarise hasn't made it passed 7 rounds when he has stepped up to the upper reaches of even domestic level.
My only concern about Kirakisyan is that he looked fairly rough against Gulyakevich. However, although his 5 wins since have been keep busys, the results show he's still got sufficient pop to deal with Lawton. Lawton has the height advantage, but doesn't have the pressure-fighter type style to keep Kirakisyan away for 36 minutes.

I like Kirakisyan by KO at 15/8 with Skybet and in rounds 4-6 @ 13/2