This Weekends Action

Take a 5 minute break from creaming over Froch Groves 2 and look to something a little more immediate.

This weekend coming up action, we have:

Tony Bellew on his first move up to Cruiserweight. Opponent isn't terrible in Brudov, but nothing special. Have to imagine that Bellew wins this one.

Have Brook fighting against some relatively straight forward (I wanna say Argentinian) just a tune-up fight for Brook as he is mandated to fight Shawn Porter next.

Fielding versus Adamu, both guys a bit crude, Fielding with the slightly better skills and maybe the harder hitter, but Adamu can upset the odds in this one would go with Fielding though.

Paul Smith in my view an easy fight against Webb, think it's for him to win the British outright. Webb's got a decent record but the only decent guy he faced is Fielding, and I'm pretty sure that was stopped in 1 at Prizefighter in that one.

Mitchell's fighting another pudding in his keep busy comeback.

Over to the American fights, or rather Puerto Rican and we have Daniel Ponce De Leon against JuanMa Lopez. See if Lopez has anything left, the fights against Salido must have taken something out of him, but then Garcia having his way with him must have been demoralising. Got to imagine De Leon has enough to either win a decision or stop JuanMa late.

Deontay Wilder Vs. Malik Scott, hardest fight of Deontay's career thus far, first guy that will be coming in against him believing he can win. Scott has good skills, quick on his feet, but not a serious puncher. Will be interesting to see how Wilder deals with him, the only other boxer Wilder has fought with good foot movement was Kelvin Price, he couldn't get close to Price at all until he landed a right out of nowhere to end it in the third, and Price is nowhere near as good as Scott. If Wilder beats Scott no problem in 4 you have to think he is a serious guy in the HW contenders, up to now he has fought nobodies.

Danny Garcia Vs. Mauricio Herrera, not a great fight really, though Garcia has won the hearts of a lot of boxing fans with his performances against Khan, Judah and especially Matthysse. Herrera has virtually no power and Garcia has an excellent chin, you get the feeling that this is merely a homecoming fight to celebrate Garcia and will be surprised if anything goes wrong. Herrera has a good chin, quick hands and decent flashy skills, holds an extremely contentious win over Provodnikov, but ultimately you get the feeling that Garcia will be far too good for him.

Putting on an accumulator of
Brook to win
Bellew to win
Smith to win
Fielding to win
Robbie Davis Jr to win
Mitchell to win
Wilder to win
Garcia to win
Ponce De Leon to win

Put £50 on it and see what happens, thoughts?

Agree with most of what you've put, Alex, particularly that the only real tricky ones here in theory should be Wilder-Scott and De Leon-Lopez.

Scott's a good technician with a really sharp jab and he can move a bit, too. If Wilder just goes in with an attitude of, "Right, I'll load up massive power shots and nothing else" then I think there's a chance Scott could make him struggle for a while. Scott just isn't a puncher though, and is susceptible to lulls in output and activity, which cost him against Glazkov (bad decision, mind you) and also against Chisora you could argue, as he was a bit dozy and too lackadaisical in dealing with the knockdown).

Wilder will probably force a stoppage at some stage, but I think we might finally see him get a decent number of rounds in the bank.

I wouldn't like to bet on the outcome of De Leon against JuanMa, really. Both are so unpredictable. JuanMa has come back down to earth with a massive thud these past two years, but he's dealt with De Leon conclusively in the past and still has a puncher's chance against anyone. De Leon's stock on the other hand has risen recently, what with his surprise performance against Broner and brief stint as world champion again, but he blows hot and cold and always has.

I don't know, I'm more or less on the fence with that one as neither of them really interest me too much at the minute....If I had to pick one, I'd say that Lopez comes through a shootout to get an early stoppage. But who knows.

The Matchroom card looks dross, all mismatches.  The only thing I would be interested in on that card would be how Bellew looks at 200lbs.

The American card is better.  I don't expect Scott to put up much of a show against Wilder.  I see Wilder charging in and ending it early. I don't see Scott having the fire power and the way he failed to beat the 10 count against Chis makes me question how much stomach he has for it when bombs are reigning down on him.

The fight of the night has to be Lopez v DeLeon.  There are so many variables I haven't a clue who will win. I'm guessing Juanma early or Ponce by UD.

Yeah, I'm just praying that De Leon doesn't get caught early again, like last time. But for me Lopez looks a shot fighter after the beatings Garcia and Salido (Twice) put onto him.

No the most exciting cards really.

A 'circle of life' fight for juanma. Sparking the poncemeister announced him on the world scene. Now he needs to do it again to avoid it being his farewell. De Leon has seen better days, Lopez has been found out. Take your pick. Given both fighters know that Lopez can knock him out, you'd err to Lopez on balance but from what we've learnt since the first fight the opposite is possible too.

Poor bill.......No 50/50s in sight...............

Hope SKY aren't going to let Eddie coast now he's landed the big one..

Strongback wrote:The Matchroom card looks dross, all mismatches.  The only thing I would be interested in on that card would be how Bellew looks at 200lbs.....

I'm thinking quite buff.

You and Purple Aki should be in for a treat.

Whereas I think Bellew will look a bit "moobish" like Enzo did.

Its a waste of Sky slot given they are meant to be limited. All of these fights would barely even be average supports for a half decent headline fight.

Bellew would be a fool to weigh in at 200.......

Speed is the key with naturally bigger guys..........If he could make 175.......He should be looking at a 190ish tops weight and keeping his speed........

Because let's face it his durability will be the same at 190 or 200..........

Was posting on Twitter about the fact he's at 200 now (think he was suggesting he'll come in less) and that it emphasises how hard it was for him to burn down to 175 given that he'd only have a week left to lose those 25 lbs if still at LHW.

Bellew was 190 on fight night against Stevenson (according to HBO), and then told Liverpool's local papers that he was "17 lb heavier than I was in the ring" only about a week and a half after the fight.

If he really is nudging towards fifteen stone between bouts then he's got little option but to move up as he moves in to his thirties, really. Anthony Farnell was saying a long time ago that cutting down to 175 meant that his legs and stamina were betraying him in the championship rounds of fights.

Me and the other podcast lads talked about this a while ago, and if I remember correctly all of us were a little bit doubtful that Bellew's chin will be able to withstand clean shots from the heavier-handed Cruisers. Quite like Bellew's attitude and approach to the game but I was never really convinced that he'd come on as much as some others seemed to think after the Cleverly defeat, and I'll be surprised if he makes major, major waves at 200 lb.

Hope I'm wrong though, and wish him all the best.

I'm biased as I'm a Mathysse fan, but looking at Garcia's opponent I can't help but think, why not have a rematch?? He'd make a shed load more money for that than for a resting fight against Herrera. Given how exciting and close the first fight was, along with the variables (a billion unpunished low blows and Mathysse's eye exploding just as he seemed to be getting on top) I respect Garcia's run of opp massively and he really proved me wrong, but it seems like a wasted opportunity for loadsa money and another great fight.

As for the fights that ARE happening, Juanma v De Leon and Wilder v Scott are the only really interesting ones. I'm sticking with Juanma for now. De Leon's a solid guy who's never had any really amazing physical attributes so sliding physically wouldn't cause such a problem for him. You've got to imagine Juanma's fired up, and if the beatings haven't taken too much out of him he may have actually learned from them. De Leon really came at Lopez last time, he'll be smarter this time you would think.

I've seen nothing from Wilder that tells me he can deal with a tall, awkward, athletic guy so I wouldn't be surprised if he was at sea, especially early on. Wilder's power is an equaliser so I back him by KO, but wouldn't be surprised to see him lose.

What odds does this accumalator get you?

It's a fair question, JBW.

But I did see an interview with Angel Garcia a little while back in which he said most people don't realise how much of a toll the Matthysse fight took on Danny, even though he won it, and that he'd steered Danny to a slightly less daunting fight in the meantime deliberately.

He mentioned that he'd allowed Danny a lot longer off from the gym after a fight than he'd normally allow as a result of this, and said that one of Danny's ears was badly damaged in the fight, and was apparently ringing for weeks afterwards.

The basic theme seemed to be that he is mindful of Danny taking too much punishment in too short a space of time and that, after such a hard fight in which his body got put through the ringer (he made special reference to that monster shot which sent his mouth piece flying in to the crowd!), he wanted him to have lower-key fight before getting back in there with a big name later in 2014.

I hope its not a case of Mclellan or Ibebuchi - they took brutish shots - serious brain damage only evident afterwards.

Surprisingly honest from Angel there. It wouldn't be a shock if it had taken a lasting toll, as there's a reason good fighters usually end up in pieces against Mathysse. The brain switches off to protect itself from further damage, so the tough guys who don't switch off take more than they should.

Having your father in your camp is always questioned, but maybe a less attached, more money hungry associate wouldn't make such a compassionate decision to give you an easy fight.

Starting to feel more obliged to pick JuanMa for this actually.

And you can get 13/8 on Paddypower just a single for JuanMa to win

AlexHuckerby wrote:Starting to feel more obliged to pick JuanMa for this actually.

And you can get 13/8 on Paddypower just a single for JuanMa to win

Some interesting value there.

STC wrote:

Strongback wrote:The Matchroom card looks dross, all mismatches.  The only thing I would be interested in on that card would be how Bellew looks at 200lbs.....

I'm thinking quite buff.

You and Purple Aki should be in for a treat.

Hey, I never said I wanted to feel his biceps.

You'll need to take Paul Smith out of the accy Alex as he's had elbow surgery today I believe.

ShahenshahG wrote:I hope its not a case of Mclellan or Ibebuchi - they took brutish shots - serious brain damage only evident afterwards.

Not sure Ike's mental problems are due to boxing though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!