Kevin Lerena was calm as he always is in the face of an adversary making feeble attempts at unsettling him.
South African boxing’s ‘blue-eyed boy’ stared directly into Serhiy Radchenko as the Ukrainian tried to threaten him during Wednesday’s weigh-in for their WBC bridgerweight world title fight at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria on Thursday night.
Having just made the weight limit (101.6 is the limit) by tipping the scales at 101.4kg) nearly a good five kilograms more than his opponent over whom he towered, Lerena will be out to give himself a special pre-birthday gift of holding on to his belt. The man fondly referred to as “Two Guns’ in relation to the explosion he carries in both his punches turns 33 in four days’ time.
As they faced off after the weigh-in, Radchenko could be seen mouthing off at Lerena who remained stone-cold to the challenger’s surprise. Eventually the champion got out of face-off mode and the two boxers shared a laugh and a quick embrace before Lerena made his intentions known.
“We’ve got a fight and I told them (the Radchenko camp) that they are going in there with a different beast. And I promise you, I am going to knock his sparks out,” he said to loud cheers from the Lerena Army.
In what is an historic maiden WBC world championship title defence by a South African on home soil, the main bout of Legacy Promotions’ ‘The Reckoning’ promises to once again showcase the superb boxer Lerena is.
A former IBO cruiserweight world champion, Two Guns became bridgerweight world champion after the incumbent Lawrence Okoie vacated the title with his move up to the heavyweight division in October last year. Lerena was the interim champion and thus mandatory challenger having beaten Sened Gashi in 2023. He now gets to validate his position with this fight against the silver bridgerweight champion who is on a four-fight winning streak.
Lerena is unperturbed as he usually is by the quality of opponent and is focused on delivering the goods and sending his huge support base into celebrations.
The Talking is Done 🤫 Tonight we go to WAR 🥊 Join us at the Sunbet Arena, Times Square Pretoria 🏟️ Catch all the action live on Your World of Champions Supersport channel 209 across the Sub-Saharan Africa 🇿🇦 and stream it live on DAZN worldwide! || @SuperSportTV & @DAZNBoxing pic.twitter.com/q8jh9D8rnK
— Kevin Lerena (@Kevlerenaboxing) May 1, 2025
Arguably one of the most disciplined and hard-working boxers the country has ever had, the southpaw credited his success to ‘surrounding yourself with a great team’ in reference to his revered trainer Peer Smith.
That discipline is what should see him overcome an opponent who has not made the long trip to South Africa just to be cannon-fodder for Lerena. Radchenko comes from a country renowned for producing world champions and he is intent on adding his name to the list.
“I am impatiently waiting for the moment to fight,” he said through a translator. “I am here to win, I will continue the Ukrainian tradition of making world champions so that I can inspire the next generation of boxers.”
It makes for what should be a superb fight between great warriors and a former South African boxing ‘beast’ who will be ringside agrees that Lerena will win by knockout.
“Kevin’s going to stop this guy” said former IBF junior featherweight king Vuyani ‘The Beast’ Bugngu , He is currently the best boxer we have and he is carrying the baton for South African boxing in the world. It’s a great thing that we have such a huge event taking place here in South Africa.
“It is good for boxing and shows that there are sponsors keen to support boxing and this can only help us return to the good old days. Kevin’s success is serving as inspiration for the other upcoming boxers and all that is needed is for the entire boxing to come together instead of the in-fighting. We have a lot of talent in South African boxing and all it needs is to be nurtured.”
The undercard of tonight’s bill is proof of what Bungu is saying about the talent in the country with both Thabiso Mchunu (v Amaandor Kalonji), Thulanei Mbenge (v Emmanuel Mungandjela) alaos in action.
It is Kevin Lerena the main spotlight will be on though, and if his eigh-in coolness is anything to go by, expect Radchenko’s time in the ring to be way shorter than the allotted 12 rounds.
