Up-and-coming strawweight Alex Winwood will take on the more vastly more experienced Cris Ganoza at the Metro City, Northbridge, Australia on Friday.

Winwood, who represented Australia at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, the delayed 2020 Olympics and the 2022 Commonwealth games before turning professional, is now looking to move quickly to become a world champion in boxing’s lightest weight class.

The next step comes against Ganoza and a win will set him up for bigger business.

“Ganoza is tough and he comes to fight so I am very aware he is a top opponent,” Winwood (3-0, 2 knockouts) told The Ring.

“A win will have massive implications on my career and early next year will be another big fight with a WBC title eliminator against Luis Castillo.”

While Winwood has a world title in his crosshairs, he wants to do so and break a near 40-year national record in the process.

“My main goal is to be a world champion,” he said. “But at the pace we are heading towards that goal beating Jeff Fenech’s record [of winning a world title before my seventh fight, which] will be another accomplishment.”

In order to go down that route which appears their preferred path Winwood would have to go through recently minted WBC titlist Yudai Shigeoka.

The 26-year-old appreciates the talent of the champion and knows he’s a few fights away but hopes to secure his opportunity in the not too distant future.

“Yudai is a very skilled fighter and has a classy style, he is a very entertaining fighter,” he said. “All roads lead to the champion. Right now I have to beat everyone in front of me then I can fully focus on him, I believe it will happen in the second half of 2024.”

Winwood’s manager, Tony Tolj, famed for his work with Jason and Andrew Moloney, recognizes this fight is an important step in his fighters evolution.

“I believe Ganoza is a quality opponent in Alex’s fourth fight, WBC [titlist] Yudai fought him in his fifth fight, so it’s a great litmus test for Winwood,” explained Tolj. “Also, it’s Alex’s first Filipino opponent and we have great respect for Filipino boxers and work closely together with Filipinos.

“Ganoza is a southpaw and these rounds will play a pivotal role and Alex’s progression [Editors Note: Shigeoka is also a southpaw.] It’s great when you have someone such as Alex’s that pushes himself to the limit to achieve greatness. December 1st will be the perfect prep for a world championship final eliminator.”

Winwood is a young man in a hurry and as such I expect his aggressive, all-action fighting style to be too much for Ganoza, who has been stopped three times in his five loses. I think Winwood gets the stoppage in around five-rounds.

Ganoza (20-5, 10 KOs) has been a professional since 2014. He won his first 10 fights before losing for the first time against Edward Heno (KO 9) for the Filipino national title at junior flyweight. After returning to winning ways, he narrowly lost to John Michael Zulueta (SD 12) and future world title challenger Ar Ar Andales (UD 10).

The 29-year-old was stopped in his two fights last year against future WBC strawweight titleholder Yudai Shigeoka (TKO 3) and Goki Kobayashi (KO 2). However, he did return with a win over a journeyman in July.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected].

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