Halfway via the primary installment of the “Creed” function movie franchise, the protagonist, Adonis Creed, faces a crossroads bout towards a rugged contender named Leo Sporino, nicknamed The Lion.
No matter inventive license filmmakers have taken within the Creed movies, the circumstances surrounding the showdown between Creed and Sporino are among the many most reasonable depiction of boxing within the historical past of cinema. And Sporino was performed by the middleweight boxer Gabriel Rosado, who faces Ali Akhmedov on Saturday night time.
If you wish to show you’re a respectable contender at middleweight or tremendous middleweight, chances are high you’ll need to face Rosado, certainly one of professional boxing’s most dependable gatekeepers.
Rosado’s 26-15-1 profession document signifies that he has confronted stiff competitors over his 16-year professional profession. The Philadelphia native’s résumé contains losses to regional champions (David Lemieux in 2014), future world champions (Jermell Charlo, additionally in 2014), and even to Golovkin (by knockout in 2013).
However Rosado, 36, wins usually sufficient towards ok fighters to clarify that defeating him truly means one thing. Final yr, an Uzbek prospect named Bektemir Melikuziev entered a bout towards Rosado with a 7-0 document and excessive hopes. Three rounds later, Rosado had knocked him out.
On Saturday Rosado will face Akhmedov, a protégé of Golovkin’s from Kazakhstan who’s 18-1, and rebuilding his document after a shock loss in December of 2020. Like many middleweight contenders, he’s arriving at a profession crossroads to search out Rosado standing there.