Boxing Preview, 9th of October
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
The headliner of the week is, of course, Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder’s third meeting, but there’s more going on: not only is that itself a deep card with three other solid heavyweight matchups and several prospect watches, but the UK brings us two separate cards, both relevant at British-looking-to-world level.
ESPN Card, Las Vegas
Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III
The third fight grudge match between the two heavyweight big dogs is naturally the finale of the day’s boxing, but we’ll start off here anyway. They’re going to have to talk up a storm, because there’s no real indication that this will go much different than the first one. Of course, you can never count Wilder totally out, and maybe he’ll take less damage less early and still be hanging in dangerous later, but Fury is a better boxer than him on pretty much every level and a better athlete — beyond that one-hit equaliser, which he struggled to find the space for in the first one and will probably struggle to again unless Fury inexplicably reverts to a more defensive style, there’s not a lot of scope to give Wilder a chance. Yes, Fury does do things that might leave him vulnerable, but it’d take boxers other than Wilder to take advantage of that. Still, there’s genuine heat here so it should be a show and a half.
Robert Helenius vs. Adam Kownacki II
A rematch of their bout back in March 2020, Kownacki will be looking to avenge what was then a bit of an upset loss. Although nearly the same age — 33 and 32 — Kownacki is a lot younger in the boxing game and was looking to put himself into title contention, something he’ll want to work his way back towards starting with correcting what he will think was a not a reflection of his true ability. In truth, he’d probably be right, since in the first meeting the Pole spent most of the first three rounds chasing and pushing a seemingly gunshy Kownacki round the ring, before hurting him in the fourth round, getting too excited chasing a finish and getting dropped hard, from which he never recovered. Realistically, you’d expect something similar here and with a little more caution in the execution, Kownacki should be able to take this- but Helenius can hit hard and is clearly dangerous even when seemingly falling away, so don’t count him out.
Efe Ajagba vs. Frank Sanchez
Efe Ajagba is a powerful, well-rounded but to date sometimes ponderous boxer-puncher. Frank Sanchez is a smooth, quick (for heavyweight) but somewhat limited and straight-lined in-and-out boxer. The name of the game in this meeting of rising contenders is who can exploit whose weakness — will Sanchez’s more integrated game and feints that play with timing allow him to get at Ajagba before he can respond, or will his relative predictability and propensity to stand still and play to an opponent’s tempo when backed up give Ajagba the time he needs to set up? The winner here will be looking to move to the top levels of the division fairly soon, so both will also be wanting to show that they’ve been working on shoring up the holes in their game, something Ajagba in particular seems already to have been working on. Likely to be a tactical affair more than a war, but both fighters are capable of being explosive, so the finish when it comes could be big.
Jared Anderson vs. Vladimir Tereshkin
This one’s for the longer term, in theory — Anderson is a 22 year old American who might be the blue-chip heavyweight we’ve all been looking for. Or he might not. He looks like a fast, agile and creative counterpuncher, capable of leading when necessary, but needs to prove he can hang together when given some serious resistance or pressure. It’s not really certain that Tereshkin can provide that — he seems like a wiley-vet type, boxing since 2007 and undefeated, but he’s not fought at a high level, and not at all since 2019. Footage of him suggests Anderson will at least have to work past a nice and busy jab, but I wouldn’t expect the Russian to keep up with the movement necessary to look good here. Anderson will be hoping to make a splash on the big stage, so look for some showboating as well, since he likes a bit of that.
The Rest
The card also features two smaller prospects in step-up fights. The Cuban amateur standout Robeisy Ramires faces off at featherweight against Puerto Rican fellow prospect Orlando Gonzalez. This could be quite a classy one, with both fighters liking to throw volume but in educated, well-set-up combinations. Ramires seems a little more happy to work off the back foot than Gonzalez who prefers to pressure, but both can do either so we could see an entertaining little back-and-forth.
Before that, the much-hyped super-middleweight Puerto Rican Edgar Berlanga moves from the first full-distance fight of his career in another step up, against Marcelo Coceres — who’s more usually a 160lber but has fought at 168 before, including against Billy Joe Saunders. Berlanga will be favoured here, but honestly, the Argentine is a decent all-rounder and isn’t going to give him an easy out.
DAZN Card, Liverpool
Liam Smith vs. Anthony Fowler
On paper and in the headlines, this is the biggest fight coming to us out of the UK, despite no belts being on the line — Smith looking to rebound from a rather controversial loss to Magomed Kurbanov in what had been his 3rd attempt to win the WBO belt at 154. They’re also both fairly active fighters — not out-and-out pressure, but both fitting that in-and-out punches-in-bunches archetype of a British fighter that was so dominant for a while. So it shouldn’t be dull. In practice, though, Smith has fought and shown competence at a far higher level than Fowler, dragging a fight out of the much bigger Jaime Munguia and as mentioned arguably winning his most recent world title challenge. Fowler, meanwhile, was comprehensively outboxed by Scott Fitzgerald, and his struggle to control the space and break down the much, much smaller Rico Mueller doesn’t suggest he’s improved to the point he’ll have much joy at stopping Smith doing basically what he wants in there. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bit of a boxing lesson here.
Ted Cheeseman vs. Troy Williamson
This one, for Cheeseman’s 154lbs British belt, should be a firefight, because when is a Ted Cheeseman fight ever not? Even in fights where he’s outclassed, and heck, even in fights where he’s doing the outclassing, he brings the action. The same is pretty much true of Troy Williamson, who comes into this off a pretty brutal finish over Keiran Smith in what had until the 6th round been a fairly even fight. I’d favour Cheeseman here, because for all that he’s fallen short at world level, in this sort of class he tends to have smoother footwork and even occasional head movement in a way Williamson doesn’t, but he does have a tendency to switch off and the Smith fight showed a pretty good example why that is a bad idea against this opponent. Expect fireworks.
The Rest
The card also features Shannon Courtenay in her first fight since victory in a war with Ebanie Bridges back in April. Courtenay can be fun to watch, but her opponent, Jamie Mitchell, is a 36 year old who has never fought a 10 rounder or an opponent with a winning record, so this mostly seems like a tune-up. Also featured is the third 154lbs fight of the evening, between Jamie Metcalf and Keiron Conway (a fight which could well determine the next challenger for the British belt).
BT Sports card, Birmingham
Both of the top fights on this card are for both Commonwealth and British belts. This one, at 122lbs where Foster holds both belts, also brings Cunningham’s European title into the mix. Foster is 23 but has held the British belt for a while now, so he’ll be looking to take care of this defence so he can move on to higher levels. Cunningham’s been around the block — he’s tended to lose when coming up to this sort of level before, but he’s held the Commonwealth belt twice before, once at 118 and once in this division, and he won the European belt in a surprise victory over Gamal Yafai in which he dropped the younger man three times to earn one last shot at all the marbles. Foster is likely to be the aggressor with Cunningham more willing to play it cute and try to control the distance, but neither fighter is shy about throwing and neither has a watertight defence, so expect action.
Ekow Essuman vs. Danny Ball
This welterweight matchup features two undefeated fighters — Ball with one draw. Essuman probably has a bit more push behind him, but at 32 he also has less time, though Ball won’t be wanting to hang around either. Style-wise, Essuman is an out-boxer, but an aggressive one, looking to go first and push opponents back with his jab before stepping in, throwing mid-range combinations and leaving. He’s fast, sharp, and carries a thud if not outright concussive power, he’s hard to knock out of his rhythm, and he’s quite relentless, so Ball will be up against it as he tends not to throw until much closer in. He’s pretty classy once he is inside, so if that happens he could give Essuman trouble, but I’d fancy the older man to get the better of it on this occasion.