Weight might be the bane of boxers’ lives, but don’t tell that to Shervantaigh Koopman.
The unbeaten South African is already comfortably on track to make the junior middleweight limit and doesn’t expect to boil himself down to make it come fight time on May 31.
That’s when he fights IBO champion Uisma Lima at Emperors Palace, easily his most important bout since turning professional seven years and 15 fights ago.
“It’s not a problem at all,” he said, proof enough that his diet is spot on and he’s getting the road work under his belt.
Koopman has endured a hard training camp, but he’s not complaining. The early challenge was finding willing southpaws, but even this has been overcome. Several left-handers have been shipped in, among them hot prospect Tuvia Wewege, the far bigger Lebo Mashitoa, DRC prospect Aaron Muteba, light heavyweight Jason Medi and even Darrin Rossouw, who has been switch hitting.
Koopman has handled himself well. “I’m doing everything I need, putting in the work and not cutting corners.”
He knows there is no other way if he wants to win a championship, something that was confirmed in his last fight where his excellent fitness and wherewithal allowed him to climb off the canvas to knock out rugged Brandon Cook last October.
Although he got the job done, Koopman wasn’t entirely satisfied. “I must start faster, from the get go,” he said on Tuesday. “There were other things, too, like not keeping my hands up. I’m working on correcting those things.”
As he must do because he rates the Angolan highly. “He’s a come-forward, pressure fighter. It’s nothing I haven’t encountered before, though. I can handle it.”
With little more than three weeks to go, Koopman’s goals are simple: “Pushing, pushing, getting sharper, getting stronger.”
Any down time will likely be spent watching boxing, which he enjoys. His all-time hero is Floyd Mayweather. He also likes Terence Crawford and Errol Spence.
Koopman doesn’t lack ambition and knows that May 31 represents a critical move towards international reckoning. Keep winning and the big boys of the division won’t be able to avoid him forever. Equally significant, this will be his first fight with Lennox Lewis as co-promoter; as good an incentive as any to produce a winning performance.
Lima is thus an important step on his journey. Koopman, the ultimate professional, will be more than ready.
