Next victim?

The camp of rising star Kenneth Llover believes the Filipino southpaw is at par or even slightly better than his South African rival on 26 October in Kyrgyzstan.

“Stylist,” two-division world champion Gerry Peñalosa said following Llover’s eighth-round knockout victory over the iron-jawed Panamanian Luis Concepcion over the weekend.

Landi Ngxeke is Llover’s next opponent and Peñalosa describes him as a “hit-and-run” type of foe but “has skills, footwork and power.”

Still, Llover and Ngxeke seem to be evenly matched since they almost have the same number of fights.

Llover, 22, has a 15-0-0 win-loss-draw card with ten knockouts while Ngxeke, 30, parades a 16-1-1 mark with eight knockouts.

One thing that stands out in the eyes of Peñalosa is Ngxeke being someone who can’t take a hard punch.

“He was beaten by a Filipino and it shows that he doesn’t have a granite chin,” Peñalosa said.

It was Jayr Raquinel who inflicted Ngxeke his lone loss when they fought in East London, South Africa.

Llover is expected to report back to the gym anytime soon as the Kyrgyzstan fight that will serve as a world title eliminator for the International Boxing Federation’s No. 1 spot in the bantamweight rankings is just a little over two months away.

“I will give him a break but it’s just going to be a short one,” said Peñalosa, who is promoting the Cavite-based puncher alongside Koki Kameda of Japan.

While Llover succeeded in crushing Concepcion, Peñalosa admits it wasn’t a Perfect 10.

“It was an 8 (out of 10) but I am still very happy with his performance,” added Peñalosa, noting that Concepcion was a wily veteran who lived up to his promise before the fight that he came to win.

After getting knocked down in the second and third rounds, Concepcion, 39 and inactive for almost two years, battled back and even landed a few good shots.

In the end, Llover’s youth prevailed as he forced referee Carlo Baluyut to intervene at the 2:27 mark when Concepcion’s knees wobbled after absorbing a solid left to the head.