Andrew Cain vs Ionut Baluta WBC International Silver title fight preview
‘KO King Cain’ to clash with ‘Il Capo’
Unbeaten Brit, Andrew Cain (10-0, 9KO), will defend his WBC International Silver super-bantamweight title to familiar Romanian, Ionut Baluta (15-4, 3KO), on Saturday, March 25, at the Telford International Centre, live on BT Sport.
The Queensberry Promotions event will feature four international title fights, with Nathan Heaney vs Jack Flatley sharing co-main event status with Cain and Baluta.
Cain
So far, Cain has bulldozed through his foes with frightening ferocity. The 5ft 6” powerhouse has stopped nine of his 10 opponents with seven of those stoppages coming before the midway mark.
Only Manchester’s Stephen Jackson has been able to go the distance with Cain in their April 2021 bout, when he was 1-0 after defeating the talented Sam Cantwell on his pro debut. Cain said himself, after the fight, that once Jackson had felt his power, he got on his bike for the rest of the bout, managing to see out four rounds, and has only been knocked out once in 32 fights since. The journeyman has clearly perfected the art of his role from the away corner and knows his way around the ring.
Cain first kicked off his pro career with back to back second-round stoppages in 2015 but issues outside of the ring prevented him from building upon this bright start, but he did return three and a half years later to resume his promising career.
Trained by Paul Stevenson at the Everton Red Triangle gym, the exciting 122-pounder quickly picked up where he left off to knock out four foes in 2019 and 2020.
Then it was in 2021 when he took on his first winning fighter, Stephen Jackson, winning all four rounds; then continued the theme to take on another winning opponent in Uriel Lopez Juarez, who was a title contender from Mexico. Cain was a bit more patient in this fight, making Juarez miss while he worked on his defence, danced on his toes and switched stance, but started to land heavily from round two onwards, hardly missing with his big right until the sixth-round stoppage.
Those two fights provided Cain with 10 solid rounds of experience to take into 2022, which became the standout year of his career so far. In his first title fight, he won the WBC International Silver super-bantamweight strap against Pablo Ariel Gomez, who was introduced by the commentator as a “tough, rugged, experienced man,” but was decked with the first proper punch Cain landed. He came out, evaded a couple of jabs, threw a range-finding jab himself that missed, then threw a three-punch combo when in close, culminating with a right hook to the temple that floored Gomez and left him on wobbly legs so he couldn’t continue. Cain thus claimed the first belt of his career within just 19 seconds.
Having not broken a sweat, the ruthless champion came straight back to the ring just one month later to defend his shiny new green and gold belt to tall Mexican Luis Moreno, who had just taken top prospect Dennis McCann the distance over eight-rounds. Cain said he wanted to be pushed in his second 10-rounder, wishing for a “proper fight”, he said in his own words, and Moreno was brought in to provide that test, but just halfway through the first round, Cain penetrated straight through Moreno’s guard with a swift uppercut to down him heavily. It took just another flurry for the Mexican to go down again, remaining on his knee at 2:02 of the first round.
Astonishingly, Cain has both won and defended his maiden title within 141 seconds. He has completed just 25 rounds of a scheduled 56, which tells you everything you need to know about this Merseyside menace.
The 26-year-old begins the next year of his career with another step up in levels as he faces world-ranked Romanian Ionut Baluta.
Baluta
Based in Spain, ‘Il Capo’s’ record on paper looks deceiving having lost four from 19 and only clocking up three KOs. However, that would only fool the casual fan, others in the know have seen this European upset many British boxers from the away corner in fights he wasn’t supposed to win.
In his last six bouts, leaving Spain behind him, the Romanian has travelled well to outpoint prospect Kyle Williams in his hometown, even after having two points deducted; then surprised former world champ TJ Doheny in Dubai with a UD victory; and then he silenced a raucous York Hall crowd with a TKO3 over Olympian and WBO European titlist Davey Oliver Joyce, all within 11 months of each other.
That hattrick set up a lucrative showdown with Michael Conlan for the WBO Inter-Continental super-bantamweight title, which saw the judges split on a mixed decision, with the unbeaten Irishman narrowly winning by a single point on one scorecard, another judge ruling as a draw.
But Baluta bravely bounced back to beat Brad ‘The Blade’ in his subsequent bout. In what was his third successive appearance at the York Hall, the 29-year-old Madrid man made it two wins from three at the iconic East End venue, with a unanimous decision over once-beaten former British and Commonwealth champion Brad Foster, clocking up another upset from the away corner.
A European title shot followed in his last fight in November 2022, against Liam Davies in his hometown of Telford. Baluta began blisteringly fast, as his custom, but Davies remained composed under the pressure of his swinging shots and gradually turned the tide to push back the aggressive European with his stinging straight shots, catching him continuously on his way in.
That fight was a brutal war against two warriors willing take shots as they dished out their own punishment. Baluta was belligerent from the first bell, but Davies controlled the contest with his cute counters, his straight shots from range, and fought fire with fire when he needed to, which was very often in this exciting clash. There was a lot at stake and both warriors gave it their absolute all, but it was Davies who won by the majority of rounds on all three judges’ cards.
Baluta has four losses on his record, but has never lost consecutive bouts. So he comes into this fight off the back of a loss, which history suggests he is due a win next.
The Stakes
Baluta is ranked in 23rd position with the World Boxing Council, having recently reigned as their International champion until Liam Davies (WBC #9) took it off him.
Cain is placed at 32, so he will be looking to elevate his spot with a win over Baluta and force the elusive showdown with his bitter rival Davies, who have unfinished business together after Cain bested him three times in the amateurs.
Cain boasts a 90% KO ratio, halting his opponents in less than three rounds on average, but Baluta has never been stopped. Beaten four times but never knocked down, and neither Conlan nor Davies, who were 26-0 between them, could hurt the Romanian enough to thwart his advances.
These two aggressive fighters are about to clash; one is an unbeaten KO artist, and the other has a history of upsetting the home fighter who has has never lost back-to-back matches. The prospect of this fight couldn’t be any more exciting!
Betting Odds
Cain will be the favourite to win at the bookies but check back with Betway later as the adds are added nearer to fight night.
Predictions
Both boxers are explosive, aggressive, hookers. Baluta is a come-forward, violent fighter, but he is wild and open.
Cain is able to evade shots well with his head movement, and his style of dropping his hands low by his hips allows him to counter with such torque and rotation to land hugely powerful fight-ending punches. Of course, that style is open and vulnerable, so Cain will likely have to cop a few, but he can often be seen catching shots on his gloves well.
I believe Cain will come out for the first round patiently, despite his back-to-back first round KO wins, and dance lightly on his toes, evading Baluta’s attacks with clever head movement while collecting data to begin to land his own shots steadily bigger and heavier as the round goes on.
I think it’ll be round two onwards when Cain starts to exploit the big openings he increasingly finds and begins to put more power behind his punches as he finds the gaps and predicts the patterns. He has a better punch variety than Baluta, so at some point there will be a big shot that lands to scramble the European’s senses. We have never seen Baluta go down before, so it’s difficult to know how he will take it, but Cain’s opponents do not last long after the first knockdown, so if he gets up, I think Cain will aim to finish him off clinically.
I predict Cain to win by KO between rounds 1-6.
