Canelo vs Kovalev and the week’s boxing

Starting off this weekends boxing is a small card that I’d like to highlight from France, Cedrick Peynaud who headlines against Romain Nemery for the IBF European welter weight title. The reason this fight is interesting is because Peynaud fought Conor Benn twice and in many people’s eyes was unlucky to not come away with the verdict in the first fight. Peynaud is one of those fighters who has to fight in the away corner but still manages to pull off the upsets on a regular basis. Most recently he came back and beat Mohammed Kani who was 16-1 at the time. Peynaud is an embodiment of the reason people say records mean nothing as his 7-6-3 record masks a very decent fighter. Nemery himself is another of those fighters that are better than their record suggests and his 9-8-3 record hides a decent domestic level fighter. For me Peynaud should become the new IBF European Welterweight champion on points after a hard fought fight. If he does win it’ll be interesting to see where he goes next.

also on Friday a Mayweather promotions show full of up and coming prospects such as Rolando Romero, Richardson Hitchins and Xavier Martinez. All three prospects should win their respective bouts without to much difficulty however the fight thats most exciting on this card is Kevin Newman II vs Mark Anthony Hernandez. This is a rematch with their last fight taking place in 2017. Hernandez won almost every round last time out as the away fighter. I think he’s likely to win the rematch as well as he’s fought the better competition and been more active within those 2 years. He is again the away fighter and this might cause a problem with Vegas scorecards being notoriously bad however as long as he doesn’t get robbed I expect him to win on points in this rematch.

The first card on Saturday that interests me is a card out of Russia where various prospects are facing tough tests. I’m not going to list all of them but the ones that I think could go on to win a world title are Evgeny Tishchenko who’s a 6,5 cruiserweight who as a 5-0 pro is facing someone that is 20-0 which shows how fast they are going to move him. Magomed Kurbanov is a Russian superwelterwight prospect who could easily go on to win a title in that division as he’s only 24 and the super welterweight division doesn’t have a massive drop off from the champions to the contenders as shown by recent upsets in the division. Muhammedkhuja yaqubov is a super feather weight prospect whos in a decent test this weekend and considering he’s 24 I can see him winning a title at some point.

Out of the UK we have one of the weaker Matchroom shows of the year with katie Taylor moving up a weight to attempt to become a two weight world champion vs Christina Linardatou. Taylor should win this on points however I am a bit disappointed that instead of doing the Delfine Persoon rematch or fighting Amanda Serrano. If Katie Taylor had have won convincingly vs Delfine Persoon I feel that the fight with Serrano would have been made however recent comments made by Hearn about how Taylors fights over the years might be catching up with her suggests that his move up is a way of securing as much of a legacy as possible before fighting more of the big names in the division. Katie Taylor’s legacy is already great and becoming a two weight champ will add to it before she moves into the bigger fights next year.

Talking about legacy Anthony Crolla will be having his last fight on this card after an eventful but successful career. His last opponent will be Frank Urquiaga whos most notable achievement so far is losing a close decision to Edis Tatli for the EBU Light weight title. Crolla should win here in his last farewell in front of his home Manchester fan base and I wish him all the best in retirement after a career where he massively overachieved after early losses saw many count him out.

The rest of the undercard of this bill consists of Terri Harper defending her IBO title vs Viviane Obenauf who is most known in the UK for stopping Natasha Jonas last year. Terri Harper has worked her way from the small hall shows before signing a deal with Matchroom recently. I personally find myself supporting the fighters that come from the small shows more because of just how much harder it is to advance from beyond area level at these shows. Terri Harper so far has shown that she has decent punch power so far in her career and I think she gets a late stoppage in her fight Saturday. Elsewhere on the undercard Martin Bakole will be fighting Rodney Hernandez. I expect Bakole to win this but Hernandez is one of the better heavyweight journeymen so i’m not sure whether it’s on points or a late stoppage.

Felix Cash vs Jack Cullen is the most competitive match up on this card as they fight for Cash’s Middleweight commonwealth title. Cash was a decent amateur but hasn’t shown as much as might have been expected in the pro’s while Jack Cullen has come out of no where really to get himself into a big domestic tear up where he has a decent chance of winning. I have no idea who wins this however I’d like Cullen to win due to having one of boxing’s best nicknames in “Little Lever’s Meat Cleaver”

Qais Ashfaq a 2016 Olympian fights for his first title on the card vs Joe Ham. Over 10 rounds they’ll be competing for the WBA Continental super Bantam weight title. Ashfaq so far hasn’t put a foot wrong and I expect on Saturday for him to pick up another points win to advance his career. While Joe Ham is a solid domestic fighter he shouldn’t have enough to derail Ashfaq’s career. The other thing of note in this fight is that they met 4 times reportedly in the amateur’s however I don’t know who won the fight’s unfortunately. Elsewhere on the card Gamal Yafai makes a return after a year out vs Lee Clayton. He should pick up a victory here and most likely inside the distance as well. Both Dalton Smith and Nathan Farrell build their young records up against journeymen as well on this card.

Miguel Berchelt vs Jason Sosa headlines a card in California for Berchelt’s WBC super featherweight world title, this will be Berchelt’s 6th defense of his title and I expect him to successfully defend his title here again. Sosa is a good fighter but I think Berchelt is in the prime of his career while for me Sosa has declined a little bit. Hopefully whoever wins this fight does go on to unify the division vs one of the other champions.

The other big card coming out of the USA is Canelo Alvarez vs Sergey Kovalev. Canelo is one of the best fighters in the world right now and in this fight he moves up two divisions to fight the most recognizable name in the light heavyweight division. I’m very excited for this fight as even though Kovalev is past his best he is still a true light heavyweight while Canelo started his career at super welterweight. For me Canelo will have problems early with Kovalev’s solid jab before taking over with a consistent body attack on Kovalev’s body which has been shown to be weak before. Canelo should get massive credit for fighting the best and taking risk after risk and I wouldn’t be hugely surprised if he lost this however I think Canelo becomes the new WBO light heavyweight champion via a points decision or a late 9-12 stoppage.

Ryan Garcia fights Romero Duno in a step up from his other fights however I personally don’t see why so many people are thinking that Duno will beat Garcia as while Garcia isn’t nearly as good of a fighter as he is popular Duno is also nothing special. Ryan Garcia should pick up two minor titles via 12 round decision or late stoppage yet again.

Bakhram Murtazailev fights Jorge Fortea in a 10 round fight for the Eurasian Boxing Parliament Super Welterweight title in …. Las Vegas on the Canelo undercard which doesn’t make to much sense but it does give us the chance to see one of the top super welterweight prospects in Murtazailev who I expect to notch his 14th career stoppage in this fight. Also on the undercard Seniesa Estrada defends her interim WBA world Fly title vs Marlen Esparza. I haven’t watched either of these ladies so I can’t make a pick but looking at the records it should be a good competitive fight.

Blair Cobbs fights Carlos Cervantes for the NABF Welter title in a 10 round contest on this same card. Blair Cobbs is a very entertaining fighter with a great backstory and while I think he should win this fight quite comfortably h’es been matched quite hard. If you want to learn more about his pretty insane backstory then search him up on google and you should find a piece thats been written on him relatively recently.

Meiirim Nursultanov fights Cristian Olivas over 10 rounds in what is a standard test for up and coming prospects in the middleweight division. Olivas has fought three prospects in his last three fights and while he’s lost them all he comes to fight and provides a decent test where the prospects could easily slip up. Bektemir Melikuziev fights Clay Collard where I expect him to win by KO as while Collard is a tough guy who has beaten multiple prospects I think Bektemir even at 2-0 is one of the best prospects in the world right now. Evan Holyfield makes his pro debut on this card as well which will be interesting as he is the son of Evander Holyfield one of the best fighters in the last 50 years having been the Undisputed Cruiserweight champion and the Undisputed Heavyweight champion. Hopefully his son can follow in his footsteps albeit at a smaller weight of super welterweight. Another prospect in Tristan Kalkreuth faces a step up in competition vs Twon Smith who has caused some problems to prospects in the past.

That is all this week for the significant boxing cards this week as we are treated to yet another monster fight in Canelo vs Kovalev after having multiple weekends of great action in Josh Taylor vs Regis Prograis and Beterbiev vs Gvozdyk. I hope that all the fighters this week get home safely and that we have another great weekend of fights. I’ll do my weekly write up on Thursday next week a long with a few other posts as I was a little late this week so I apologize for that. Until next week,enjoy the fights this weekend friends.

Preview of Prograis vs Taylor and the weeks boxing

There’s lots of boxing this week and while the two main cards are Prograis vs Taylor and Shakur Stevenson vs Joet Gonzalez theres plenty of other good cards starting on Thursday. The card to look out for on thursday contains a light fly weight world championship between the defending champion Elwin Soto (His first defense) and Edward Heno. The last time we saw Elwin Soto was when he won the title via a 12th round tko of Angel Acosta, he was behind on all 3 cards heading into the final round but showing he carries his power late he was able to rock Angel Acosta and force the referee to stop the fight. Many people felt including myself that this was an early stoppage and that given the chance Angel Acosta likely would have been able to make it out of the 12th round and pick up a hard earned decision. Either way that doesn’t matter now and he’s making his first defense against the number one rated WBO light fly contender Edward Heno. I expect it to be competitive in the early rounds until Elwin Soto starts to break Heno down and will likely stop him between rounds 6-10. The other notable fight on this card is Angel Acosta the former WBO light flyweight champ who is making his first comeback fight since to losing his title to the above mentioned Elwin Soto. He’ll be fighting Raymond Tabugon a fighter more known for the people he’s lost to such as Luis Nery, Juan Francisco Estrada and more recently Andrew Moloney. while he’s better than his 22-10-1 record suggests expect Acosta to take care of business in the first half of this 10 rounder. With both Acosta and Soto on the same card I imagine that if both win their fights a rematch will be made for early next year so be on the lookout for that.

The next card along is in Italy headlined by Francisco Patera defending his EBU light weight title vs Domenico Valentino. Patera is on an excellent run at the moment having beaten Lewis Ritson in a fight where he was a underdog , to then make two defenses of the EBU title he now holds and on Friday will be making his 3rd defense. Valentino was a decent amateur but at the age of 35 he’s done nothing in the pro’s which suggests to me he’ll be able to stop Patera’s run of good form. Expect Patera to win wide on points or via a late stoppage if he can wear Valentino down by being a class or two above him. The only real chance I give Valentino is if he goes through 12 rounds and because he’s Italian and he’s fighting in Italy they rob Patera. Maxim Prodan is fighting Tony Dixon in a defense of his IBF international welter weight title , I expect Prodan to stop Dixon who has struggled and been knocked down at area level in the UK. The other notable fight on this card is one of Italy’s best prospects in Daniele Scardina defending his own IBF International title but this one at super middle. He’s fighting llias Achergui who is a step down in competition compared to Scardina’s last fight and while I’m sure he’ll give it a go he’s been brought in to help Scardina progress up the IBF rankings. Whether Scardina will KO him or not i’m not sure as Scardina’s record is heavily padded to make him look like much more of a puncher than he really is.

Next up on Friday and the last major card before Saturday is Chayaphon Moonsri vs Simpiwe Konkco for the WBC Minimum weight title. Moonsri is currently the longest active reigning world champion but also one of the least well known. At 53-0 he is also the boxer with the largest win streak that’s still active. If you want to watch this fight then you’ll likely have to wait to find it on youtube afterwards as no major promotion or broadcaster has taken the fight on. Moonsri has only fought in Thailand and never unified and shows no sign of doing so in the future so it’s likely he’ll continue to be boxing’s best kept secret. Konkco is a good fighter and likely the best contender in the minimum weight division however he’ll be up against it having to travel to Thailand and also having had only 4 rounds in the last year due to inactivity and his last fight being called a no contest due to a headbutt. He was perhaps lucky that it was ended in the fourth however because in the second he’d been dropped by Joey Canoy who isn’t near the level of Moonsri. I expect Moonsri to win on points and improve his record to 54-0

Next up is the card that i’m most looking forward to this weekend. The Josh Taylor vs Regis Prograis card , this card is stacked top to bottom and is in my opinion the best card thats being put on in the UK this year. Starting from the bottom of the card you have Austin “Ammo” Williams and Shannon Courtenay both in 4 rounders versus opposition they should easily beat. Like all prospects these two are both in learning fights to get the experience they’ll need later on in their careers however I’d like both of them to be stepped up a little bit now as how much you can actually learn from fighting someone thats 1-3 and 0-1 respectively is debatable. Both Denis Radovan and Abass Baraou are in fights they should win quite comfortably. Luke Blackledge who’s fighting Radovan has become a more of a Journeyman in the latter part of his career and Radovan shouldn’t have much trouble winning on points here. Abass Baraou is a prospect that I rate quite highly and while the guy he’s fighting John O’Donnell has a nice looking record of 33-2 he’s been inactive and never gone beyond British level. Baraou should be able to stop O’Donnell who having made his debut in 2004 is at the end of his career. Connor Benn is in a good fight with Steve Jamoye who’s operated at European level for a few years now. Connor Benn could easily lose this fight because of his lack of amateur experience and the way he fights makes it so it’s either him being knocked out or his opponent and you never really know who it’s going to be until someones on the floor. I favour Connor Benn in this matchup mostly because of Jamoye’s lack of power and that he’s a late notice replacement expect Connor Benn to win by KO in rounds 4-8. The next fight on this stacked undercard is Yves Ngabu vs Lawrence Okolie , this is a fascinating fight because it’s a big step up for Okolie who in only 13 fights has won the British , Commonwealth twice and a continental belt. Yves Ngabu is a very solid fighter who could very well upset Okolie’s dream of becoming World champion for the immediate future. For me this is a 50/50 fight where the winner likely fights for a world title in their next few fights so whoever wins your likely to see them in big fights in the future. I don’t think Okolie gets the credit he deserves for stepping up this quickly and showing in every test so far that he’s worthy of carrying on the fast track towards a world title. He gets a lot of hate for the Matty Askin fight which while terrible was also over a year ago now. I think he’s the British prospect who’s most likely to win a world title in the next 12 months because of his awkward style and that he doesn’t try to please the fans in the ring he just gets the job done and moves on. I expect a hard fight however I think Okolie can become European Champion by using his range and awkward style to get a decision over Yves Ngabu. Ricky Burns vs Lee Selby is the next fight along and one that no one would have expected to see a year ago as Selby has jumped up two weight divisions since then and Burns has gone down one. Both are former world champions who have seen better days and for the loser of this fight its unlikely they’ll be in any big fights again. The reward for the winner? most likely a title shot vs the newly elevated Devin Haney next year in America. For this fight I can’t really pick a winner however if I had to bet I’d go with Ricky Burns becuase of his experience at lightweight. Now on to the Heavyweights where we have Dereck Chisora vs David Price. This fight seems more suited to 6 or 7 years ago when both were coming up the ranks than now but here we have it. Both have seen a resurgence in their careers as of late which could end up making this a very entertaining fight. Both are unreliable when it comes to their performances in the ring with David Price often gassing out after 4 or 5 rounds and Chisora not being motivated for fights so if your betting on fights this weekend don’t go on this one. For me while Price had a good win against David Allen I feel that Chisora is levels above Allen and will bring the pressure to Price and likely KO him anywhere from the 3rd round onwards. If Price can pull it off I’d be happy for him because his career has been derailed by drug cheats such as Tony Thompson and Erkan Teper and he deserves something back for the sport treating him so cruelly. The main event of this card is one of the best fights on paper of the year. Champion vs Champion , Prime vs Prime , undefeated vs undefeated. If your going to watch any fight this weekend watch this one , it’s a complete 50/50 where I can’t pick a winner. One day i’m Leaning towards Taylor then the next towards Prograis. For me this has potential fight of the year written all over it and as a boxing fan has to be close to the peak of the sport. A massive shoutout has to be given to the World boxing super series who have made this match up happen by building a tournament of the 8 best fighters in the super lightweight division and having them fight each other in match ups of the best versus the best again and again. On the line in their fight on Saturday night are two world titles the IBF and the WBA ( the IBF being Taylors belt and the WBA being Prograis) also on the line is the Muhammed Ali trophy which can only be won by Winners of the World boxing super series and for the fighters is a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete for it. I have no clear pick for this fight but for both of these fighters this is their breakout fight and I’m just excited to watch the fight come saturday.

Going over to America next on Saturday we have a card headlined by Erickson Lubin vs Nathaniel Gallimore. Lubin is working his way towards a 2nd world title shot after he was KO’ed in the first round vs Jermell Charlo in 2017. Gallimore will be wanting to upset the odds and get himself a title shot by beating Lubin and revitalising his career. My pick is Lubin points or late stoppage here as both are decent punchers. The other notable fight on this card is Robert Easter Jr vs Adrian Granados . This is another fight where both fighters are looking to get towards a title shot, for me I don’t think Granados will get to that level as I feel he is now on the decline in his career and if he loses this he won’t have had a good win since 2015 when he knocked out Amir Imam. Easter is also chasing a win after drawing earlier this year vs Rances Barthelemy in what was one of the worst fights of the year with each fighter barely throwing 10 punches a round. My pick is Easter on points.

The other good card coming out of America on Saturday is Shakur Stevenson vs Joet Gonzalev which is a great fight for the vacant WBO featherweight world title. Both are unbeaten prospects with Shakur Stevenson being a 2016 Olympian. Stevenson is expected to win here but I think this fight will be closer than most think especially with the bad blood between the pair. I expect a close competitive fight with Stevenson taking a decision perhaps controversially due to him being the house fighter. The other notable fights are Joshua Greer Jr vs Antonio Nieves in what is a slight step down in competition after many felt he was lucky to get the decision last time out , also worth noting that his last opponent has actually already beaten Antonio Nieves so whether they are setting up the rematch or its a coincidence I don’t know. Mikaela Mayer is facing Alejandra Soledad Zamora in a 10 round fight for the NABF Female super feather weight title. Mayer should win comfortably on points here but its worth noting that Zamora is from Argentina but can fight for the North American Boxing federations belt which doesn’t quite make sense considering Argentina is in South America. Mayer is Top Ranks top Woman prospect so expect her in a world title bout within the next 12 months. The other two fights that I’m looking forward to on this card are the debut’s of Xander Zayas who was signed by Top Rank at the age of 16 in a record breaking deal and Jared Anderson who is a top American amateur that Top Rank have signed at the age of 19. Anderson will be campaigning at heavyweight while Zayas will be at Welterweight.

That was a long write up but it just shows how much quality boxing we have this week and the schedule towards the end of the year is looking just as good. As always I’m hoping that all the boxers make it through their fights without coming to serious harm and you’ll find the next weekly preview of the boxing next Thursday.

Introduction

Starting Off

Commitment is an act , not a word

Jean Paul Sartre

My first post isn’t going to be about any specific boxing topic but more about what you can expect from this blog and what I intend to write about. A little background on me is that I’m from England (so expect more in depth posts about UK boxing compared to other countries) and have followed boxing closely for almost a year now. Before then I was like most of the world and only watched the biggest fights and names such as Anthony Joshua , Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. However since the build up to Wilder vs Fury almost a year ago I’ve become much more of a hardcore boxing fan and I can appreciate the hundreds of great boxers that haven’t broken into the mainstream casual audience.

What you can expect

A lot of the time I’ll be posting my opinions on anything boxing and previewing the upcoming week’s boxing from all over the world with picks , analysis and what the fights mean for the fighter’s career and also their division. I also plan to write reviews about boxing equipment that I’ve used and any books on boxing that I end up reading. My reviews on equipment will be much more suited to those who want to use them for exercise and enjoyment rather than training for a fight because I’m no boxer and wouldn’t be able to recommend if they are good or bad in that sense. I have no specific amount of posts that I’ll do a week or a month so you might end up seeing five different posts one week and then twelve the next and so on. The only thing you can be assured of is that I’ll post weekly at least once and won’t leave this website to gather cobwebs as just another failed .com on the internet. As Jean Paul Sartre’s quote says “Commitment is an act and not a word” and I’ll endeavor to stick to that.