Photos: Vincent Ethier / EOTTM – Dzmitry Asanau
By the time the opening bell sounds for his bout against Francesco Patera on April 10, Dzmitry Asanau will have achieved a pair of important milestones.
It’s his first main event since signing with Eye of the Tiger last year, and it’s the first defense of Asanau’s first professional championship. He and Patera will fight for the WBC Continental Americas Lightweight title, a significant steppingstone for two boxers looking to join the lightweight division’s elite.
For Patera, a 31-year-old veteran from Belgium, it’s a classic crossroads bout. A win sets up bigger fights with bigger names; a loss might mean ceding his place in the lightweight division to younger, hungrier fighters.
Like Asanau, for whom April 10 is less a crossroads than a chance to cross the threshold from prospect to contender. His 9-0 record suggests he needs more experience before making a serious bid for a world title. But Asanau has experience – he’s a two-time Olympian with more than 101 high-level amateur wins to his credit. He’s also 28 years old. If he’s not in his athletic prime, he’ll be there soon.
As he zones in on the Patera bout, Asanau says he’s not concerned with padding his résumé. He’s focused on advancing his career.
“One year of boxing is like five years of normal life,” Asanau said. “We need to win this upcoming fight and keep growing. Keep growing in the rankings and keep growing in my skills.”
Patera, who is 30-5 with 11 knockouts, presents a new challenge for Asanau. He’s not a power puncher, but he’s a patient, persistent boxer who is equally comfortable moving forward or backward. He also has a concrete chin – all of his five losses have gone the distance.
For his part, Asanau has treated April 10 like a world title bout, spending the first four weeks of camp training at high altitude in Armenia, and the final month at the Pound 4 Pound Gym with Samuel Décarie-Drolet, sparring with fighters like Luis Santana and Canadian Olympic medalist Wyatt Sanford.
“Good rounds with top guys,” Asanau said. “Those guys have skills. They have power. They have technique. They have everything.”
Asanau says he’s two or three wins away from a top 10 ranking in the 135-pound division, where the current champions – Tank, Loma, Shakur – are so well-known among boxing fans that we don’t even need to use their full names anymore.
But there’s also uncertainty among the lightweight elites.
Vasiliy Lomachenko, the IBF champion, hasn’t fought since last May, and it isn’t clear when he’ll return.
WBA champ Shakur Stevenson has publicly mused about moving up to 140 pounds to fight Teofimo Lopez.
And WBC champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis? After escaping his March title defense against Lamont Roach with a controversial draw, the undefeated power puncher suddenly looks vulnerable.
Amid all that turmoil, Asanau says his job isn’t just to keep winning – it’s to win decisively, and showcase a blend of speed, precision and punching power that will make impossible for boxing fans, decision-makers, and lightweight title holders to ignore him.
“I don’t want to mention any names in my division,” said Asanau, when asked which champion he’d like to challenge. “I want people to call my name. That means I’m in a really good position.”
His most recent win, a 5th-round TKO over Matias Rueda, was a case in point. Asanau deployed a fast, accurate jab to Rueda’s head and body, and tagged him with right hands from a variety of angles and launch points. Asanau is just as likely to land a roundhouse right as he is to connect with a right cross, but he also hit Rueda with overhand rights, and right hands straight through his guard. The sequence that prompted the referee to stop the fight started with a left uppercut that snuck between Rueda’s gloves and clipped his chin.
“I like to show my style. Wasp Style,” he said. “A lot of movement. Good jab. Hit and don’t get hit.”
A win on April 10 would secure Asanau’s place alongside boxers like Andy Cruz and Keyshawn Davis among a cohort of lightweights that look like future superstars. Cruz, of course, is the 2020 Olympic gold medalist who signed a seven-figure deal with Matchroom Boxing after defecting from Cuba in 2023. And Davis, the 2020 silver medalist who won the vacant WBO title in February in just his 13th pro fight, dispatching the previously undefeated Denys Berinchyk in four rounds.
Davis and Cruz clashed four times as amateurs, and have generated buzz for a future showdown by continuing to taunt each other as professionals. But unlike Davis, Asanau has actually defeated Cruz, winning a decision in the 2015 world championship quarterfinals.
Davis also scored a 10-round unanimous decision win over Patera in 2023, a common opponent that establishes a straightforward measure of Asanau’s progress. A similar one-sided decision signals that he’s on the right trajectory, while a knockout would hint that he’s even further ahead than most observers suspected.
“Styles make fights, and every one of those guys is a tough guy,” said Asanau, when asked how he fits among the lightweight division’s big names. “I hope that soon you will include my name.”
