Boxing Preview, November 11th and 12th.
Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images
This weekend of boxing is once again ‘headlined’ by an exhibition, albeit this time it’s a Floyd Mayweather feature so at least there’s one career boxer involved. There’s also a genuine ‘legends’ exhibition in the UK, between Ricky Hatton and Marco Antonio Barrera. As usual, they won’t be our focus, because there’s a pretty busy weekend of professional, relevant-now boxing going on, starting on Friday, so let’s take you through it.
Friday 11th November
Sunny Edwards vs Felix Alvarado
Flyweight
The outspoken and cocky Edwards isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s become an unquestionably effective fighter. A tricky and hard-to-pin-down outboxer who nonetheless throws a fair amount of volume, he showed in his last fight, against Muhammad Waseem, that he can work inside when he wants to. He might have to lean on that in this one at times, because Alvarado - former holder of this belt at light-flyweight- will be relentless.
It’s definitely a clash of styles. Alvarado is a 100+-punch-a-round pressure fighter, a whirlwind of aggression- but unlike some fighters with such high volume, he doesn’t pitter-pat, and almost everything is thrown with power. He also isn’t thoughtless about it, looking at how his opponent is reacting and looking to place punches in the weakspots.
It is fair to say that he’ll find those more difficult to find than usual on this occasion. Edwards’ footwork is a lot better than what he’s used to seeing, and while Alvarado likes to press, he tends to rely on opponents getting flustered by his constant aggression into fleeing in straight lines, rather than cutting the ring as such. We haven’t seen Edwards flustered before, and it remains to be seen if he can be. If he’s not, then his control of timing and his ability to circle smoothly in either direction - while throwing - will make him tough for Alvarado to pin down, especially since Alvarado is himself quite one-paced - the fastest pace possible, but that can be used against a fighter if they don’t layer it up.
Where Alvarado will hope to find success is that, although Edwards has as mentioned shown he can fight inside, he does still sometimes take risks on escape, taking the fastest possible route rather than the safest, sometimes leaving his chin up a little as he does. It’s something he’s done less with each fight, so the window to catch him that way is closing, but Alvarado does have a line in intercepting, looping overhangs once he does get an opponent to the ropes that could be dangerous.
All in all, it’s one of those where the probabilities might lie with Edwards’ better all-round technique giving him a greater number viable routes to a victory, especially since he is more tested at this weight- but if Alvarado can consistently get close he could make it very tricky indeed.
The undercard isn’t the deepest, but does include Jack Bateson vs Shabaz Masoud, two unbeaten British fighters looking to make an impression at super-batnamweight,
Saturday, November 12th
Janibek Alimkhanouly vs Denzel Bentley
Middleweight
The main event here is unfortunately a bit of a mismatch, but Alimkhanouly is seeking to cement himself as the name to watch in the middleweight division, so it’s worth keeping an eye on him in the long run. This matchup is a consequence of his unfortunate difficulties in getting the opponents who should be in with him - he’d been Demetrius Andrade’s mandatory challenger, but the champ couldn’t be having with an order to fight a real world class opponent, so he vacated and moved up to 168, promoting Janibek to the title in his absence.
Bentley is by no means a bad fighter, a dangerous puncher and British champion on merit, but British level is realistically where he tops out at. He simply doesn’t defend himself well enough while throwing, or close distance safely enough, to be able to live with Janibek’s slick footwork and sharp, hard counterpunching. It’d be a shock to see him win, but he’s likely to leave it all on the table, so it shouldn’t be dull.
The co-main is a women’s minimumweight title event, with Seniesa Estrada defending her minimumweight IBF belt against Jazmin Villarino. Estrada’s a sharp boxer mostly, good footwork to keep on the outside when she wants to and sharp, thudding shots at most times when in close, but she does have a weird- and unfortunate- tendency to over-swing and turn entirely side-on to her opponents, rather too often. Villarino hasn’t boxed anyone of her level, but she moves sharply enough herself that she should find openings when that happens. Other than those moments, she seems to look to work the body a lot, which may help her if the fight goes long but does leave her open to some big overhand shots that Estrada seems to favour. As ever at the moment in women’s boxing it’s hard to judge entirely where the challenger is, levels-wise, compared to the champ, but it could be a fun one.
Beyond that, the card is a stack of eight or six round fights, mostly of prospect-ish type guys looking to take the most of an opportunity.
Natasha Jonas vs Marie-Eve Dicaire
Women’s super-welterweight
This is actually the Hatton vs Barrera show, but- as fun as it will be to see those two legends in the ring for a show- we’re going to concern ourselves with the professional fights. Jonas continues her campaign at super-welter, seeking to add a third title to the two she’s already picked up. Her two fights since she jumped up the division from lightweight- comfortable victories giving her a title each- suggests that this is one of those instances where some divisions in women’s sport are still much less competitive than others. Dicaire will be seeking to disprove that idea, but while she moves quite well and seems to have a decent line in punching to the body, her seeming lack of any real defence at all - either head movement or guard- is likely to be a bad fit for the accuracy and timing Jonas brings to the table, especially since she needs to set herself in close before she throws whereas the Brit will be looking to catch her as she moves in.
The other significant fight here sees Dalton Smith defend his super-lightweight British title against Kaisee Benjamin. Smith is one of the best prospects currently coming up in Britain. Benjamin is not. That means there’s an obvious favourite here, especially since Benjamin simply hasn’t fought anywhere near Smith’s level before- but while he’s likely to find himself punished for a pretty ropey defence, involving moving around with a narrow base while having his chin in the air, he throws smart enough combinations, with enough power, to give Smith something to think about along the way.
Beyond that the card showcases some decent British prospects, including cruiserweight Vidal Riley and heavyweight Frazer Clarke.
Montana Love vs Steve Spark
Super-lightweight
The last card of the evening is proof that, for all the blanket coverage we get of almost every boxer talent scouting might consider significant, at least in America, surprises can still be found. Love was plucked from a career in obscurity- fighting almost entirely on small shows around his local area- to fight Ivan Baranczyk last May, almost entirely because he happens to be from Cleveland and Tyron Woodley was fighting Jake Paul there that day. He scored the upset victory, and hasn’t looked back. High-visibility wins on the undercards of Haney-Diaz and Canelo-Bivol followed, and now he gets to return to Cleveland as the main event. His opponent, Australian Steve Sparks, is another who has done the rounds, so to speak, including a sojourn up to 154lbs to fight Tim Tszyu last year. He’ll be hoping to be more successful with this opportunity.
This isn’t a world-level fight and it remains to be seen if Love can really be that level, but he’s fun to watch and has a big personality, so he’s a welcome presence on the scene. Style-wise, you might place him in the slightly vague category of boxer-puncher- preferring to keep things at range (and a bit sloppy when opponents get too close), but with a snap to his punches as his opponents get in range.
Spark will be looking to test that snap, being a fighter who’ll come forward when the situation calls for it. His being bullied by the far larger Tszyu shouldn’t mean much for this matchup, but the fact that he does seem to occasionally get too far ahead of himself and fall in when pressing might. But if he doesn’t get caught and he gets in close, the flaws in Love’s game- most notably, a bad tendency to almost throw himself back to distance when it gets too close for him, with no care for protecting his chin or keeping balance, might show. We saw it when he got knocked down early against Gabriel Valenzuela, and Spark will be looking to force more of those mistakes out of him. This is a good matchup, which might well turn out to be a bit of a scrap.
It’s not a big enough card to have drawn the really big prospects to the show, but Richardson Hitchins is a skilled super-lightweight who we may well see compete at world level some time soon, and Raymond Ford is still hoping to push his way to that level at featherweight.