This should be a relatively easy win for Thun who is a rising prospect in the heavyweight division. He’s very tall, has a good jab and works to the body well. Mirko Tintor is coming in as a late replacement and often doesn’t come in shape. Almost every time hes stepped up in competition hes been stopped.
I expect Christian Thun to win by stoppage in the 5th or 6th round due to being in better shape.
This should be an easy fight for Tommy Fury as hes fighting a journeyman who has lost 11 times but never won a fight. I have to question the match making for this fight honestly as I think Tommy Fury has proved hes beyond this level of opponent at this point. For the sake of optics and casual fans eyes the match maker could have found someone that was 2-0 that would give a small test but still lose instead of bringing in a guy who turned professional with the objective of losing as many times as possible.
Considering how much attention Tommy Fury gets because of being on Love Island I think Frank Warren and the match makers could at least try to make less embarrassing match ups.
Tommy Fury should win by first or second round knockout.
This should be a really good fight and the first one was a decent fight though didn’t quite live up to the hype it had behind it. Both are currently domestic level but a win here will progress them onto bigger fights and potentially being consistent headliners on BT Sport.
I think this fight will play out similarly to the first fight where Heffron is pushing the pace on the front foot while Bentley counters off the back foot. I don’t think Heffron can improve much beyond what he showed in the first fight while Bentley should improve as hes now gone ten rounds for the first time in his career and can perhaps try and hold the center of the ring more. I think Bentley should have more success this time around and clearly has more power than Heffron though both have proved they can hurt each other.
I expect Bentley to win a decision after countering well off the back foot and potentially dropping Heffron once or twice with well timed punches
This is Coceres first fight back since losing to Billy Joe Saunders last year in America. I thought Coceres had an impressive showing in that fight and showed he can compete at world level so I’d be surprised if he struggled here. Papeschi is a domestic guy in Argentina who was stopped when he stepped up in class versus William Scull.
I expect Coceres to show hes above domestic level and win this fight by decision due to having the better technical skills combined with more experience.
This is a tune up fight for Ponce who is an underrated contender at super lightweight. He’s quite tall for the weight and fights well at range. He does pretty much everything better than Ruben Dario Lopez who is a journeyman.
I think Jeremias Nicolas Ponce should win this fight by knockout in the 7th or 8th round
It’s been reported by @ChavaESPN on twitter that Canelo will fight Callum Smith in December in what is a slightly strange move in my opinion.
I like the fight and think Smith is a good opponent for Canelo but presumably this fight will be broadcast on Dazn and Canelo recently got out of a long time contract with Dazn in what was a bitter parting between the two. It does lead me to think a lot of the bad feeling Canelo had was actually towards Golden Boy and now that hes a free agent hes happy to work with anyone because hes his own boss now.
Hopefully this fight gets made official soon and if it does i’m really looking forward to it.
This is the first big step up for Jack Rafferty as so far he has mostly been fighting journeymen and in doing so built a 12-0 record. Tom Hill is 9-1 but lost in his first big test.
Jack Rafferty has a good one two and unlike a lot of prospects throws a variety of different uppercuts both short and long. His defence is solid as he keeps a high guard up and does a lot of catching and countering. He could jab a bit more but otherwise seems like a good combination puncher with a bit of power.
Tom Hill is a good technical boxer himself and has a decent jab when he can get it going but is flawed defensively. He keeps his chin high and often drops his hands below his chin so hes open for punches. He has a little power himself and works well to the body.
I think Jack Rafferty will likely win by knockout late on due to Tom Hill’s defensive flaws though if hes fixed them this will be a close fight.
This is a solid step up fight for Kulakhmet who looked like he could be a future world champion when he debuted earlier this year. McGowan is a domestic level operator in the UK who hasn’t shown a huge amount of power or got to British level yet.
I don’t think McGowan does anything better than Kulakhmet and the only advantage he has is pro experience but Kulakhmet had much more experience as an amateur.
I think Kulakhmet will win this fight comfortably by stoppage because of his superior technical skills and huge amateur background. McGowan isn’t really seen as a big prospect and has had mixed results and close fights around area level in the UK so I can’t see how he beats a world class amateur like Kulakhmet.
This should be a fun 4 man tournament between four domestic super middleweights in the UK. I personally wish we had more tournaments in boxing as they create good narratives and normally make good fighters fight each other which doesn’t happen often enough in normal boxing.
The first semi-final of the tournament is Zak Chelli versus Vladimir Georgiev. I think Zak Chelli should be a favorite in this fight as he has much more experience fighting at a higher level and has performed well at around British title level. Georgiev on the other hand arguably didn’t win his last fight versus Jan Ardon who while being a bit better than his record suggests is still a journeyman and levels below Chelli. My prediction for this one is that Zak Chelli very clearly wins.
The second semi-final is between Mike McGoldrick versus Harry Woods in what is a bit of a harder fight to call. I don’t think skill wise there is a lot between them and in these tournaments that doesn’t necessarily matter as much because of the three round sprint format. I’m predicting Harry Woods to win because hes the younger fight who should be more explosive and that matters a lot in these shoot out tournaments.
My prediction for the overall winner of this tournament is Zak Chelli due to him having more experience and showing he has decent power at a higher level than any of the others have fought at.
This should be a competitive fight between two fighters who don’t have a huge amount of experience as pro’s. Timur Sakulin is 9-0 but hasn’t faced stiff competition yet while Novopashyn is 6-1 but has faced the better opposition.
Timur Sakulin is an aggressive fighter who uses a lot of feints before jumping in with three or four punch combinations. He almost constantly bounces in and out of range using his lead foot though hes not perfect at doing this and there are times where he can get caught standing in range but not punching. His record makes it look like he has a lot of power but I personally think he doesn’t hit all that hard especially for a cruiser weight. Hes technically decent though could set his punches up more instead of jumping in where he can get easily countered by someone with good timing.
Vadym Novopashyn is a come forward brawler who doesn’t have a good defence and unfortunately doesn’t have the power to make up for it. He’s not particularly accurate but does throw a decent amount of punches. Not relevant to his fighting but he is certainly the oldest looking 32 year old I’ve ever seen.
Timur Sakulin should win this fight by knockout late on because I think hes much better technically in both his punches and footwork. He also seems to have more behind his punches and looks to be the fresher fighter.
Boxing Fulcrum