This is essentially a crossroad’s fight at it’s finest. If Takam loses then he’ll never get near a world title again and is unlikely to get big fights afterwards while if Forrest loses then he just becomes a gatekeeper for American heavyweights.
Carlos Takam is an experienced veteran who has faced many of the divisions elite over the last 10 years. He has a good jab which he uses to set up his right hand which he seems to love to throw. He tries to get on the inside and go to work with hooks to the body and uppercuts. He isn’t the fastest fighter in the world and at 39 doesn’t have the gas tank that he used too. His power seems to be on the decline as well as while he was clearly hurting Fabio Maldonado he couldn’t KO him even when it seemed Fabio didn’t really want to be there.
Jerry Forrest isn’t the most active puncher I’ve seen but he has a good jab and his left hand seems to have real power in it. He’s not scared to get into exchanges though I think he prefers being the skillful boxer in his match ups. I think at this point in their careers he has a better gas tank than Takam though it is debatable. His defense isn’t bad and he has a weird rythem to it where opponents struggle to time him which will certainly benefit him in this fight.
I think this fight will be close as Takam will really push the pace until he starts to tire and Forrest takes over late on. I believe it’ll be a fight of two halves so i’m going to predict a draw or a tight Takam win with some of the scorecards being debatable because recently the judges have been awful.
Boxing Fulcrum 