Anselmo Moreno vs. William Urina: Preview and Prediction for Title Fight

The WBA bantamweight championship will be on the line this Saturday night in Panama City, Panama, as champion Anselmo Moreno defends against Willliam Urina. 

Moreno has held the title since winning it back in 2008. He's successfully defended it 10 times, but is coming off his second career loss when he moved to super bantamweight and was defeated by Abner Mares last November. He will be looking to reestablish his dominance at 118 pounds with a victory.

Urina has won seven consecutive bouts since dropping a lopsided decision to Omar Narvaez in his lone world title challenge in 2011. He will be a heavy underdog entering this bout.

Read on for our complete preview and prediction of this Saturday's big title fight!

Tale of the Tape

With just a cursory look at the numbers you can see that Anselmo Moreno is a boxer, and William Urina is more of a puncher. Both are southpaws, which makes for a tricky stylistic matchup, but Moreno has spent more than twice the amount of time in the ring. 

It's clear that the champion will be looking to box, pick his spots and take this fight the distance. His opponent will be trying to do what he does best—try and get his guy out of there.

Record:	Anselmo Moreno 33-2-1, 12 KO	William Urina 24-2, 20 KO
Height:	5'6 1/2"	Unlisted
Reach:	69.5"	Unlisted
Weight:	118 lbs	118 lbs
Stance:	Southpaw	Southpaw
Hometown:	El Martillo, Panama	Barranquilla, Colombia
Rounds:	268	108

*Profiles via BoxRec.

Main Storylines

Anselmo Moreno is making his return to the bantamweight division after unsuccessfully challenging Abner Mares for a share of the 122-pound title last November. In that fight he was roughed up and beaten convincingly. 

He will be looking to make a statement in this fight. The bantamweight division has some very good fighters and possibly intriguing matches for Moreno should he win.

Moreno will enter this fight as the boxer, and he'll be facing an opponent that likes to slug. In order to win he'll want to keep this a boxing match and not allow it to become a fight.

William Urina is making his second attempt at capturing a world championship. He unsuccessfully challenged Omar Narvaez in 2011 for the WBO super flyweight title.

This will be Urina's first fight outside his native Colombia, but he won't have to go far to get to Panama. He's demonstrated good punching power in his career but doesn't hold a single victory over an opponent of note.

Strengths

Anselmo Moreno is as slick a fighter as you will find in the sport. He keeps the fight at a distance, and he very rarely allows his opponents to get close enough to land damaging shots.

The 28-year-old Panamanian uses his height and reach to force his opponent to fight on the outside where he can dominate the action. His style doesn't always lead to excitement, but it's highly effective. 

Moreno is also a tremendously skilled defensive fighter. He slips punches well and has good head movement. 

William Urina has never fought outside of his native Colombia, and not a lot is known about him. A look at his resume would give you the indication that he has good punching power. 

He has scored 20 of his 24 victories inside the distance. But without any decent names on his resume it's hard to tell whether this is a function of his actual power, or if his opponents are just scrubs.

Weaknesses

Anselmo Moreno is not known as much of a puncher. Well, maybe that's putting it lightly.

The champ has only scored 12 of his 33 victories inside the distance, and he doesn't figure to be looking for a knockout in this fight either. 

Moreno likes to fight at distance and control the tempo. Abner Mares didn't allow him to do that. He kept the fight in close where he was able to exploit his superior in-fighting and more than a few fouls to do damage. But it takes a special type of fighter to bull Moreno that way, and Urina is no Mares.

William Urina has two losses on his resume, and he was outboxed in both of those bouts. In other words, he's perfect fodder for a guy like Moreno.

Omar Narvaez completely wiped the floor with this guy, and he won a lopsided unanimous decision in 2011 by outboxing him and keeping the fight at a comfortable distance. That's exactly what Moreno will try to do, and he's most would probably consider him better at it than Narvaez.

Anselmo Moreno Will Win If...

Anselmo Moreno will win this fight if he's able to do what he does best—box. 

The champion will look to utilize his height, reach and superior boxing ability to keep Urina on the outside all night long. There he will be able to neutralize his power, make him miss and make him pay. That's what he does, and he does it pretty well.

Moreno will need to make sure this stays a boxing match, and he doesn't allow himself to get bullied the way he did against Abner Mares.

William Urina Will Win If...

William Urina's best chance to win this fight is to make it a brawl. That's easier said than done against a slick boxer like Moreno, but it's hard to see how he can win any other way.

Abner Mares—who is on an entirely different level—found success by keeping the fight in close quarters and bullying Moreno on the inside. That's a winning strategy, but it takes an elite fighter to pull it off.

Urina has shown nothing to this point that proves he's an elite fighter, or anything close. But that's what he'll need to do in order to win.

And the Winner Will Be...

Unless Anselmo Moreno is severely diminished after his ill-fated move to super bantamweight, or William Urina is much better than we give him credit for being it's very hard to see an upset here.

Moreno is much more polished as a boxer, he's extremely tough to hit and he'll be pumped up fighting in front of his hometown fans. He definitely needs to be aware of Urina's power, but he should be able to box efficiently and win a pretty wide unanimous decision that will help reestablish his position at 118-pounds.

Moreno UD 12 (118-110)