Sassau fight ‘no Dunne deal’

HIS opponent may have had difficulty boxing his way out of obscurity but Bernard Dunne knows what to expect from Daniel Kodjo Sassau in Leipzig on Saturday night.

The Dubliner, unbeaten in his 17 professional fights to date, is not being duped by Sassau’s record of 14 wins, four draws and 12 losses.

Sassau, from Togo but based in France, won his first contest as a professional, lost the next nine but meets Dunne on the back of a 14-bout winning streak.

“He has been around the block. He has fought some very good fighters and he is not a man you could afford to take lightly,” the newly crowned IBC world super bantamweight champion insisted.

“His record is very deceptive. You would have to disregard his early losses because he was boxing out of his depth in many of those contests.”

He was referring to a list of early opponents including European flyweight and bantamweight champion David Guerault, former WBO flyweight champion Jose Lopez Bueno and former WBA lightweight champion Julien Lorcy.

His last defeat was in October 2004 when he lost on points to the unbeaten Spaniard, Sergio Paloma.

“I have watched videos of some of some of Sassau’s fights and he is not to be taken lightly,” Dunne said.

“He is an orthodox boxer - a change for me - but he switches styles and that is something I will be watching. It is a fight that could go the eight rounds but, like always, I will be looking for a quick ending.”

Dunne’s manager and promoter, Brian Peters, had planned a fight in Dublin before the end of the year but then the opportunity to box on the undercard to the IBF middleweight title fight between Kingsley Ikeke and Artur Abraham came along.

“We took it. He is a good opponent and I wanted to fight before Christmas,” Dunne said.

“Otherwise it could be another three months before I’d box again and I did not want to wait that long.

“You can’t afford to bask in glory. You need to keep busy and a fight like this on the undercard to a world title fight helps the profile. It’s all about profile and gaining experience and keeping that winning streak going.

“It is likely my next fight will be in the US. We have had a lot of inquiries and I think the time has come to fight over there again.”

Peters has been planning a big US show on St Patrick’s Day featuring the Dubliner, and it’s understood he hopes to pair John Duddy and Matthew Macklin on the card.