Fight Picks for this Weekend

Real life boxing
1

Some good fight cards today and tomorrow, here’s the fights that I’m interested in and how I think they’ll go:

Today’s DAZN/ESPN+ card in Italy

Ivan Zucco vs Germaine Brown (10 rounds for the WBC International Super Middleweight title): Zucco via Decision

No other fights on the card are particularly interesting, but I think Zucco/Brown is a good enough matchup to spotlight on this post. Watch it if you can.

Tomorrow’s Mexico DAZN card

Jose Zepeda vs Neeraj Goyat (10 rounds @ Super Lightweight): Zepeda via TKO round 6

I would pick for the Carlos Ocampo and Rafael Espinoza fights, but they still haven’t announced their opponents, which is odd and terrible for the promotion. Is it just me, or has Boxing as a whole taken a huge step back in the way of hyping fights? No one seems to care about fights unless Canelo or Fury is fighting, with very few exceptions.

Tomorrow’s SKY sports/ProBox TV card

Lawrence Okolie vs David Light (12 rounds for the WBO Cruiserweight title): Okolie via Decision

Michael Gomez Jr vs Levi Giles (10 rounds for the BBBofC Super Featherweight title): Giles via close Decision

Frazer Clarke vs Bogdan Dinu (8 rounds @ Heavyweight): Clarke via KO/TKO round 5

Like the DAZN card, I would like to predict the Aaron McKenna fight, but he has yet to get his opponent announced. Shame

Tomorrow’s ESPN card

Jose Carlos Ramirez vs Richard Commey (12 rounds @ Super Lightweight): Ramirez via close Decision (best matchup of any main event this weekend, at least for boxing)

Seniesa Estrada vs Tina Rupprecht (10x2 for the WBA and WBA Women’s Minimum titles): Estrada via Decision

Raymond Muratalla vs who cares (10 rounds @ Lightweight): Muratalla via KO/TKO Round 8

Antonio Mireles vs Humberto Galindo (6 rounds @ Heavyweight): Mireles via KO/TKO Round 2

Charlie Sheehy vs Angel Rebollar (6 rounds @ Lightweight): Sheehy via Decision

Tomorrow’s Showtime PPV card

David Benavidez vs Caleb Plant: Plant via super close Decision (I think he probably gets knocked down early, but Plant is the better boxer IQ wise imo and I think has the ability to gameplay around Benavidez’ crazy power and aggressiveness. This’ll be the most fun fight either way, ad is the prediction I feel worst about)

Cody Crowley vs Abel Ramos (12 rounds @ Welterweight): Crowley via KO/TKO Round 4

Jesus Alejandro Ramos vs Joseph Spencer (10 rounds @ Super Welterweight): Spencer via close Decision

Daniel Blancas vs Nicholas Molina (6 rounds @ Super Middleweight): Blancas via KO/TKO Round 4

UFC Fight Night: Vera vs Sandhagen

Marlon Vera vs Cory Sandhagen (Bantamweight): Sandhagen via Decision

Holly Holm vs Yana Santos (Women’s Bantamweight): Holm via Decision

Alex Perez vs Manel Kape (Flyweight): Kape via TKO/KO

Chidi Njokuani vs Albert Duraev (Middleweight): Njukuani via KO/TKO

Steven Peterson vs Lucas Alexander (Featherweight): Alexander via Decision

Trevin Giles vs Preston Parsons (Welterweight): Parsons via Decision

Manuel Torres vs Trey Ogden (Lightweight): Torres via KO/TKO

How I’d Prioritize watching these events

  1. UFC Fight Night (Depth and title implications make this the most intriguing event to watch. UFC is surpassing boxing in my book as far as entertainment value goes)

  2. Showtime PPV Event (Should be a great main event and pretty good card. Shouldn’t be a PPV though)

  3. SKY/ProBox card (Intriguing main event and Okolie is always entertaining. Decent card, like Frazer Clarke but not enough to surpass the Showtime event)

  4. ESPN card (Only watching for the prospects, couldn’t care less about the main event. Mireles is entertaining enough by himself to make me want to watch this card)

  5. Mexico DAZN card (Only 1 remotely interesting fight, but it’ll be fun with Zepeda. I like him quite a bit)

  6. Italy DAZN/ESPN+ card (Nothing of value but main event, and Zucco isn’t a title challenger. whole lot of nothing but is not a Saturday card so bonus points for that)

2

Dominant performance by Zucco. Not a top flight 168er but with more experience could maybe be something. Would love to see him fight an experienced guy who’s a former challenger next, just to gauge his potential. Danny Jacobs?

1-0

3

It’s crazy yet totally unsurprising how much boxing as a disfunctional sport and associated even more dysfunctional businesses/title organisations/promotions is letting one well-run business eat it’s lunch.

4

I think the UFC and other MMA organizations have an easier time making big fights happen, as they’ve created an organization similar to a sports league, like the NFL. They control ALL of the promoting, payment, sponsors, everything. This gives the organization pretty much 100% of the matchmaking leverage, and makes it much harder for fighters to whine about their cut/who they’re fighting.

The over-abundance of title organizations, promotions, and the politics surrounding purse bids and other critical matchmaking issues make boxing slow to the punch, pun unintended, when compared to MMA.

Huge shame for what used to widely be considered the best combat sport in the world

1 Like
5

14-4 with a good amount of fights getting cancelled/unknown results due to cutting from televised portions makes for a still good weekend for my predictions.

Manel Kape deserves better than Alex ‘Duck’ Perez. Why the hell the UFC keeps Perez on their roster is lost on me. Edit: reports have finally come out, stating that Perez had a seizure in the locker room, forcing his withdrawal from the fight. I’d assumed, given his track record, that he’d simply not shown up (again), but I do wish him the best.

73-28 on the year