LAS VEGAS – “Well, you know, we’re very fortunate,” smiled coach Bob Santos. “I call them the Cuban Klitschkos. I got Dainier “The Fear” Pero, and then I happen to have his brother, Lenier “El Justiciero” Pero. And he, the older Pero – a 2016 Olympian – had that great win over the Ukrainian, undefeated, [11-0 Viktor Vykhurst]. Unfortunately, he had some contractual disputes, was out of the ring for about a year and a half. He’ll be fighting again April 18th at the Caribe Royale on DAZN, fight, get his feet back wet, get him going.
“And then, obviously his brother, was up for prospect of the year by Ring Magazine. Didn’t win it, but was in the top five in all weight classes. And by everybody’s account, he’s one of the best young fighters in the world. The 2020 Olympian, the youngest Cuban to do it, so I’m very excited about both brothers.”
Southpaw Lenier, 32 years of age, is 11-0 (8 KOs), and Dainier, who is 25, is 10-0 (8 KOs). The older brother is slated to face Detrailous Webster in Florida next month.
Santos has high hopes for both, and is ready to put them in tough. He believes that, despite their comparative professional inexperience, they could be in a position to meet the heavyweights of the current generation. If there are chances to do so, Santos is ready to accept.
“You know, in this day and age, with nutrition, technology, guys taking care of their bodies better, and what we know now too is – with heavyweights – they mature a lot later, obviously, in this generation, for sure,” said Santos. “With [Oleksandr] Usyk, he’s showing no signs of slowing down. I think he might be there for a point. Maybe we can get one of those guys sooner than later. Obviously the older brother’s closer, because he’s 32 years old. One or two fights and he’ll be ready to be thrown in with any of those guys. The younger brother, the only problem we’re having with him right now at 25 years old, nobody wants to get in the ring with him. We’ve offered guys career-high paydays. One of the fights we had, we went through 17 opponents for career-high paydays and couldn’t get one of them in the ring.”
Santos compares the younger brother to current divisional No. 1 Usyk.
“I’m not saying he’s gonna be Usyk, but he has a lot of similarities to Usyk, could do a lot of things Usyk can do,” Santos explained. “Obviously when the money comes, we’ll see if the hunger and the desire’s still there. If that’s the case, the skillset’s there. I think he can do a plethora of different things. And he’s actually bigger than Usyk. He’s a naturally bigger guy.
“He’s not as big as the super heavyweights, but he’s not a small guy either. So he’s not Usyk tiny but he’s not like [Zhilei] Zhang or one of those types of guys. He’s right in between. I think he’s gonna give guys a lot of problems because of that. To me, he still has power like the big guys, but he has the stamina of some of the littler guys.”
Santos believes the young heavyweight is in the sweet spot; agile but strong, fast but physical. And there is another emerging heavyweight that Santos would like to see Dainier paired with sooner than later. In fact, Santos said he would welcome a fight with British heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Santos, “we’ll be ready for it [Itauma], willing and able. We would love that fight. I think, obviously the promoters are probably gonna wanna marinate it. Sometimes as coaches, we’d like to get in there sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t mind doing that fight in our next fight. If we can get it done to go into the next fight, we’ll fight Itauma no problem. I’m very impressed with him. I just think my guy has more experience with the Cuban amateur pedigree in the Olympics; he’s been doing this since he was eight years old. I think that’s hard to match sometimes in the pros. I think we got a plethora more experience than he did from the amateurs. Obviously, the amateurs are the amateurs, and the pros are the pros, but we’re showing no signs of slowing down in the pros, as is he. Like I said, I would do that fight in the next fight. I don’t know if the promoters would be willing to do it, but I would be willing to do it.”
