Razvan Cojanu… Who Are Ya?
A couple days ago we speculated over who Joseph Parker would be able to book for his May 6 date at such short notice after that Hughie Fury joker got hurt. It had to be a top 15 WBO ranked heavyweight. It also had to be somebody without another fight booked in the short-medium term and somebody who hadn’t just fought recently either. They had to be fit and ready to go. And they had to wanna fly to New Zealand for it.
From the 15 names on that list, that left only five possibilities: Jarrell Miller has called out Parker in the past and he’s managed by Top Rank which helps. Andriy Rudenko and Andrey Fedosov would have come into consideration as well. Agit Kabayel was an outside contender and then there was Razvan Cojanu. Dominic Breazeale was also interested but unavailable for May 6 – he’s not a hundy since fighting Izu Ugonoh and is also in the middle of suing Deontay Wilder for a hotel altercation on the same night as that fight (Breazy was on the undercard).
Of those five, Cojanu is the most travelled and he also fits the bill of being a tall bloke so as not to waste the training Joe’s been into for a taller opponent. Plus, as a cheeky bonus, he’s spent time sparring with Parker in camps before so the two are familiar both in the ring and they also probably have each other’s names in their phones so it woulda been easy to flip a quick text asking whats up and what you doin in two weeks time bro?
Add into the equation that Cojanu was willing to zip on down to Aotearoa for a heavyweight title fight and bingo, there’s your man locked in and ready to go. The idea that it’d be hard to find a replacement was always a dodgy one when you consider the belt that’s on the line. A guy like Cojanu is in no place to get a shot at a title under normal circumstances, he’s just in the right place at the right time is all. But with that belt dangling as bait, Parker and Duco were always gonna have a few messages in the voicemail.
In the end it was Cojanu who was keenest to drop everything for a tiny chance at glory. Within a couple days of the Fury fight being called off he was already on a place to Kiwiland and four days on from the cancellation, there he was at a press conference in Auckland.
Who is this guy though? That’s a fair question and it’s not only the boxing novices asking it either. Cojanu’s a 30 year old Romanian bloke, he’s based in California these days but his last three fights have been in Mississippi, Mexico and China. He’s no stranger to a long flight, in other words. Cojanu was beaten in his first professional fight by mixed decision against Alvaro Morales back in 2011 – a dude who retired with a losing record but who took Ls against the likes of Deontay Wilder, Andy Ruiz, Malik Scott and Razvan Cojanu along the way… yeah, Raz took him on in a rematch two years later and this time the split decision went his way.
So ignore that early defeat, he’s since won 16 of his next 17 contests with 9 KOs in there. Not really anyone of note, he did beat Grover Young and he once beat Paula Mataele in Australia but mostly we’re talking scrubs here. In 2015 he got himself a bout against Donovan Dennis, the best opponent in his resume, and the southpaw Dennis (whose two fights since have been against fellow WBO rankers in Jarrell Miller and Andrey Fedosov, Dennis losing both by TKO) went on ahead and did this to poor Razzy…
That fight was a part of ESPN’s Boxcino tournament, a bracketed format they used to use to showcase some of the more unheralded dudes out there in a couple main divisions. Cojanu got the clear decision over Ed Fountain in his quarter, then got pummelled by Dennis in the semi-final. Apparently Cojanu caught him with a hard one in the first round and goaded Dennis by poking his tongue out at him. Safe to say old Donny got revenge soon after. Dennis went on to lose to Andrey Fedosov in the final there in 2015 – the aforementioned TKO defeat.
Raz on FB after the defeat: “Thank you all for support! I'm very upset and disappointed for what happened this night. In less than a second you can lose or you can win. This is the game. But I lost a battle, not the war!”
The thing about sparring together, and they reckon Parker and Cojanu have done 50+ rounds in the gym, is that you’re working on specifics and you’re probably working only at around 70% or so. Cojanu donned the gloves for Joe in preparation for the Fury fight but that wouldn’t have been a representative Raznan Cojanu in there – he’d have been trying his best to imitate what Hughie had to offer. Raz is actually slightly taller than Hughie, 202cm compared to 198cm, but with Fury’s long arms they boast a similar reach.
What Cojanu has that Fury doesn’t is power and Kevin Barry has made this very clear in what he’s had to say. Take that with a hint of scepticism because they’re also trying to sell tickets for a fight which they’ve already moved to a smaller arena, but the word out there seems to be the same. Parker’s got a reputation as a slugger among some fans because of his KO record but he’s not really got elite strength. What he has instead is speed and guile, as well as durability. Fury is kinda similar except he has pretty weak power for a top heavyweight and his fitness has looked awful in the past. We never really knew what to expect from him given his long spell out of the ring – he coulda been completely changed – but that’s what the video suggested.
With Cojanu we know he can hit. We also know that he can be hit. He’s potentially both a much easier opponent but also a more dangerous fight for Joe Parker – he should win with ease but if he cops a stray one then you never know. Parker’s been hit hard and withstood it before, so this’ll be a good test.
Parker deliberately targeted a taller fighter once before and that was Alexander Dimitrenko. The idea was that the top dudes in the division are tall and powerful and Joe needs to get experience hitting at and defending himself from those angles. Dimitrenko turned out to be a pisstaker and there’s the chance Cojanu will as well. But at least Joe will face another tall lad with some strength, which is exactly what Anthony Joshua (198cm), Deontay Wilder (201cm), Wladimir Klitschko (198cm) and Tyson Fury (206cm) all have in their favour over the 194cm Parker.
There’s not a lot else to say about the Cojanu fight, really. It’s hard to speculate on a guy when there’s hardly any footage of him out there. Word is he had a handy amateur career and he seems a nice enough fella based on all the smiles at the presser. It’s a rare opportunity for him. Of course he’s stoked to be here.
So, you know, try not to be a dick about the fight and moan about what a joke it is. There’s a kiwi defending a world title belt, just support and enjoy him doing his thing. Go and watch him live if you can afford it. You don’t know when he’ll be back fighting in NZ again (even though they say that every time). It’s weird that New Zealanders who don’t know more than about three current heavyweight boxers complain about Parker’s opponents like it even matters who he’s fighting. Nobody complains that they’ve never heard of the second five-eighth coming off the bench against the All Blacks.
We can’t lose sight of the act that this is a keep busy fight. A late fill-in. Cojanu was nobody’s first choice but Duco and Parker had their hands tied by Hughie Fury’s madness and the WBO’s silly rankings. Which is where the real blame lies – Raz Cojanu should be nowhere near the top 15 of any heavyweight ranking. No disrespect to him, just that he doesn’t have the record to justify it (BoxRec have him the 79th ranked heavyweight in the world). But he was able to edge his way into the top 15 by winning the vacant WBO China Zone heavyweight title back in December.
That was his opponent there, no not the little girl but the portly chap. Zhi Yu Wei, a 34 year old coming off a KO loss to Ian Lewison (who was smacked into submission by Dillian Whyte in his following bout) and whose next fight is against unknown Indian fighter Kuldep Singh. Apparently Raz played it casual in the first round, sizing his opponent up, before going HAM in the second and leaving him on the canvas to be peeled back up by his trainer. Having said that, much like Raz is a late replacement this time around, Wu was also a late replacement then after unbeaten/untested German boxer Alexander Frank pulled out. An indication of how these panic fixtures sometimes play out there.
Yeah so that’s Razvan Cojanu. Plucked from the obscurity of the minor leagues and now about to challenge Joseph Parker for a heavyweight title. You can put your nose up at that if you want but it’s kind of a cool story, ain’t it? Pretty much Rocky movie material… so long as he doesn’t get decked in the first thirty seconds. He’s nowhere near the challenge that Hughie Fury would’ve been (despite the punch strength) but at least he’s a fight and that’s something to celebrate.
You don’t get coverage like this on them telly newses, so you may as well be a champ and click one of those flashing capitalistic product placements spread out on the fringes of the page and support the Nichey Niche’s integrity fund.