By Coach Tim Walker – If you ever get the opportunity to visit Canada please go. This mountainesque country is visually stunning! The scenery is endless and feels enchanting. Vast sections of the countryside remain undisturbed and emulate sensations of being hundreds of years in the past. For nature enthusiast there is no end to what can be discovered and in that spirit of discovery we venture into the upper portion of North America to discover one of Canada’s hidden jewels and adopted sons. This week’s Weekly Stud, Dierry Jean.
Dierry Jean, light welterweight (17-0-0 KOs 11) – Dierry Jean, originally from the island country of Haiti, has called Laval, Quebec, Canada home since he was 10 years old. Like many of the Haiti’s inhabitants life for Jean and his family was hard. Hanging on street corners and generally causing trouble was a norm in his life.. His mother hoped a change in domicile would be enough to steer him in a more positive direction but there was little rest and seemingly even less hope for him once in Canada as well. It wasn’t long before he was up to the same old tricks and in the same trouble he got into in Haiti. With very few positively influential people surrounding him many of his role models were negative. In conversations he often recalls his older brother Reginald’s brushes with the law and numerous incarcerations. Dierry, admits now, that he was heading down a similar path. But life has a way of changing and he didn’t realize as a youth that his salvation from street violence would come in the discipline of the boxing ring.
Unlike many young fighters, Dierry didn’t grow up with desires of becoming a boxer. In fact he credits a vivid realistic-like dream for him becoming a boxer at all. In that dream he recalls his skin feeling as though it was on fire as he, in sort of an outer-body experience, saw himself standing in the middle of the boxing ring. He took this dream to have meaning and decided to act on it. A short time later he joined an amateur boxing gym. This lead to him winning the Canadian National Championship as an amateur in 2006. A few months later he embarked on his professional boxing career and with exception of one fight taking place in Hollywood, Florida has fought exclusively in Canada. The Hollywood fight is where I was introduced to his style of boxing.
As a professional he has amassed winning the Quebec Light Welterweight Championship in 2007 when he beat Sebastien Hamel by fifth round knock out. This success has come under the direction of Michel Moffa and the Yvon Michel Groupe which also works with many boxing stars including Juan Urango, Jean Pascal, Troy Ross and Hermann Ngoudjo.
Jean the fighter
Jean stands around 5’-6” and seems to easily make the 140 limit. He has fights at both the 140 and 147 pound divisions. His height and build suggest that he might even be able to make to 135 but 140 is an excellent fit for him nonetheless. I would not mind seeing him venture down to 135 though.
He is an orthodox stance fighter who gets his stoppages via relentless aggressive volume punching. His stance is never too wide and his balance is good. He is typically a slow starter though and has been that way since his amateur days. Not to the point that he losses rounds but in that he really uses the first round or two to figure out what his opponent has to offer. In similar fashion he uses the first 30-60 seconds of a round to get in the flow of the round.
Defensively you can see influences of Floyd Mayweather Junior’s style with economical ring movement and slight tuck and shoulder roles when he’s against the ropes. In addition to this his frequent jabs to the body knocks his opponents back a couple of feet. That is not suggesting that he is mistake free (no fighter is). He will often retreat straight back from the center of the ring while simultaneously leaning back to avoid punches. He is a quick handed fighter but not Roy Jones quick. He is there to be hit a bit primarily because he starts a bit slow. In rounds he will appear to be two different fighters. When he steps on the gas his offensive onslaught is persistent and unyielding.
He works the jab offensively and sets up off the jab nicely. He has a left hook but his main weapons are a very round quick upper cut (never seems to miss with that punch) and very good straights especially his right cross/right lead which he throws with bad intent.
He is a thinking fighter. He is patient. He watches his opponents, notices their tendencies and then exploits them. He produces highly energetic bursts of speed and power in a sort of 0-60 like fashion. Fans will love that.
Final Synopsis on Jean
Jean gets good elevation on his jab and in a division where the top ten fighters have less than 20 losses, nearly 300 combined wins and is highlighted by the likes of Manny Pacquiao not to mention a very good current crop of world champions such as Juan Urango (IBF), Devon Alexander (WBC), Amir Kahn (WBA) and Timothy Bradley (WBO) he will need to have a good jab.
Early in career his defense was primarily leaning back. I’m glad to see that though he still leans back a bit he has also added a decent cover, inside head movement and shoulder roles to his defense. Leaning back will work against most fighters who throw single shots but not nearly as well against fighters who throw 3 and 4 shot advancing combinations. Again, he will occasionally lean back but he makes an effort to keep his hands up when he does.
He has a strong right hand but doesn’t necessarily look to cut the ring off. He has good faints and an excellent boxing stance. He stays balanced. Early in his career he would throw his upper cut from distance as a lead punch and would also occasionally step back with his lead foot. This was not in attempt to compensate for positioning as a southpaw rather in retreat. Again I’m glad to see that he no longer does that either. He uses back half steps well, is a wicked body puncher and is very affective when his lead punching incorporates an attack to the body.
His current fighter rankings at Light Welterweight are #7 NABF, #12 NABO, #18 NABA. He is also the 2007 FNC Awards Prospect of the Year.
Conclusion on Jean
Personally I would love to see him go down to 135 but he will certainly enjoy some success at 140 and quite honestly there is more money at 140 so I don’t see him going down. He got a bit of a late start in boxing but seems to be learning at a good pace.
Note: Jean is trained by Michel Moffa and is promoted by the Yvon Michel Groupe.
Rumor Mill: He just scored his eleventh knock out in November by beating Hugo Armenta so there is no one on the menu just yet for Jean.
Championship Potential: The 140 pound division is thick. Really thick. Probably the thickest outside of 147. At his stage I don’t think he’s quite ready for the current crop of champions thus I rate his championship potential at this moment of outside chance. A few more fights and a little more development and that may change. Having said that I love watching this guy fight and will absolutely continue watching him.
(Scale: outside chance, decent, good, excellent, absolute).
Coach Tim Walker is a contributing writer for Eastsideboxing.com and his own blog at boxing4life.blogspot.com. For questions, comments or to suggest fighters for Weekly Stud please contact him at tpwalker@hotmail.com.