Ra’eese Aleem is finally in the fight has craved for - well, almost. Aleem will be fighting a stablemate of Tim Tszyu, Sam Goodman, for the IBF final eliminator in the super bantamweight division, on June 18th. Aleem was originally set to face David Picasso in a WBC final eliminator bout in the super bantamweight division, but it is hard to figure out what happened with that fight - but it isn’t happening.
Aleem, who isn’t just a world-ranked contender, but a fight fan, shared his insights on the recent fight announcement for July 29th, between the WBO welterweight world champion Terence Crawford facing the WBA, IBF and WBC welterweight world champion, Errol Spence Jr.
“It is great for the sport, these are the fights we need, Haney-Loma, Spence-Crawford, Tank-Ryan,” explained Aleem about the recent advent of super-fights. “The best fighting the best. Win, lose, or draw, you continue to fight the best. That is what [boxing] is supposed to be about. At the end of the day, we are all warriors, we all sacrifice a lot to do this, so let’s do it at the highest level possible. It’s great - I can’t wait until I am in one of those super-fights.”
To Aleem, who only fought once last year when he defeated Mike Plania via a ten-round unanimous decision, the match-up slightly favors the naturally bigger man, Errol Spence Jr., based on the size and the pressure Spence will put on Crawford.
Though Aleem was unable to predict the outcome of the fight, Aleem believes that Crawford is the underdog heading into this pay-per-view bout taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Leading into the fight I kind of want to give Spence the advantage,” said Aleem. “I think Crawford is the underdog. It is going to be a great fight.”
