The best super middleweight in the world may be boxing in Montreal. The problem is, nobody in Quebec knows it.
Thursday night, at the Capitole in Quebec City, Osleys Iglesias dismantled Denmark’s Oliver Zaren in seven rounds. Two knockdowns in the sixth, then the towel came in the seventh. The Cuban now has 16 wins, 15 by knockout, with the IBF belt around his waist.
And after the fight, everyone went home and life went on. No front-page headlines, no media frenzy, nothing. A world champion who destroys everything in his path, and Quebec just shrugs.
It’s not the boxer’s fault. Look at his résumé: he won his belt against a Russian, Pavel Silyagin. He defended it against a Dane. Before that, another Russian, Vladimir Shishkin. Good fighters — names that even hardcore fans struggle to place on a world map.
Iglesias has everything it takes to become a superstar: the power, the style, the nickname. El Tornado. What he’s missing is a plan.
Photo: Fightmag – Oliver Zaren vs Osleys Iglesias
Here’s one.
The diagnosis: a résumé without recognizable names
Too often, throughout my long career as a boxing expert, I’ve seen champions fall into the trap of the sanctioning bodies, rack up wins without making a sound, and never receive international recognition. I’ll name Sergiy Dzinziruk, Robert Stieglitz, and others whose names I’ll spare you from having to hear.
The point is that Iglesias can’t keep fighting a top-15 contender and an IBF mandatory challenger year after year if we want to turn him into a superstar. Because who has he beaten so far? Two Russians and a Dane. Even if hardcore fans like me — and Maxime Gabriel — know that knocking out Shishkin, Silyagin, and Zaren is impressive, the average boxing fan, the one we’re trying to get interested in the sport again, is more familiar with names like Caleb Plant, Jermall Charlo, Jaime Munguía, and Diego Pacheco. Those are the fighters he needs to target if we believe he’s cut from the same cloth as Artur Beterbiev, or belongs in a class of his own, as Réjean Tremblay wrote. Because I believe it too — or at least, I really want to believe it — but to build a legend, you have to beat other fighters who are legends in the making.
Photo: Vitor Munhoz – Oliver Zaren vs Osleys Iglesias
The old-school formula
Lucas and Bute were champions in this same division. A steady fight schedule, mainstream television exposure, bigger and bigger venues, right up to a packed Bell Centre. Bute was Romanian: proof that an adopted outsider can become one of our own. Pascal drew more than 17,000 people to the Bell Centre.
Noé Cloutier, it’s your turn to step up: Tout le monde en parle, Jean-Charles Lajoie, Le 5 à 7, Laurent s’écoute parler — it’s time to put him in front of everyone. All while targeting an international audience: Tris Dixon’s Boxing Life Stories, 5 Live Boxing with Mike Costello and Steve Bunce, and Chris Mannix.
The global strategy: make him impossible to ignore
Next, we need to put him in the front row, alongside his partner — who is gorgeous — and his team (Noé Cloutier, Marc Ramsay, Camille Estephan, Virginie Assaly, and others) at every world championship fight in the 168-pound division. The other champions will start waking up at night, afraid of the Cuban boogeyman. Then the forums and boxing experts will do their part to make him impossible for the division’s other champions to ignore. David Benavidez is a great example of a fighter who has successfully generated buzz around himself.
Iglesias also needs to provoke his rivals and stay active on social media, because that’s part of living in 2026.
Photo: Vitor Munhoz – Antonin Décarie, Osleys Iglesias and Camille Estephan
The Quebec strategy: make him one of our own
It’s time for a major showdown at the Videotron Centre. After all, Quebec City fans pack venues for boxing, and having Wilkens Mathieu and Leïla Beaudoin on the card will help sell tickets. We need to promote him everywhere: French lessons every day, appearances at telethons and the annual media food drive. We need to push “El Tornado” everywhere and float rumors of fights against Wilkens Mathieu and Christian Mbilli — even a detour up to 175 pounds to face Artur Beterbiev is on the table, if that’s what it takes to fill the Videotron Centre. Let the public dream. We’ll cut Marc Ramsay in half when the time is right.
He dodged the question last Thursday, but sorry, Marc: this is my plan, whether you like it or not.
It’s all there. The talent, the belt, the power, the nickname. All that’s missing is the will to follow the plan.
Because the window won’t wait. Iglesias is 28. Canelo is 36 and coming off a loss. The super middleweight division has never been more wide open — but open divisions close quickly, and tornadoes don’t spin forever.
Photo: Vitor Munhoz – Oliver Zaren vs Osleys Iglesias
Quebec has done this before. We took a Romanian and turned him into a star who packed the Bell Centre. We put 20,479 people in that same building to watch two of our own fight each other. We know the formula by heart — it’s written into the history of boxing here.
The real question is whether Eye of the Tiger wants a superstar, or just another champion with a belt sitting in a display case.
El Tornado is ready. All that’s left is to execute the plan.
