British Boxing Preview: Fight Camp 2, part 1
(Photo by Tom Hogan/Golden Boy/Getty Images)
British domestic boxing continues on its nice little roll this weekend, this time heading on over to DAZN and a return to Eddie Hearn’s impressive back garden with the second series of his Fight Camp shows, which will run over the next three weekends. Today we’ll stick to just this Saturday, a card which was meant to be headlined by Conor Benn but due to a last minute positive Covid test (get better soon), will now be headlined by the Chinese featherweight Xu Can against his British challenger Leigh Wood. It had been a pretty deep card so even without the headline act there’s a lot going on: let’s get to it.
Xu Can vs. Leigh Wood
Moving this to headliner makes sense, since Xu was already the most accomplished of the fighters on this card, having won the WBA title in a bit of an upset against Jesus Rojas in 2019 and then defended it in impressive performances against Shun Kubo and Manny Robles III. He’s been inactive since that last fight, at the tail end of 2019, so Wood could be forgiven for hoping for a bit of ring rust- something he’ll probably need, because we have to be honest, he’s a good contender at British level and has a tight loss to Jazza Dickens on his record, but he’s never faced anything like what he will if Xu is at his best.
That’s not just in skill, but sometimes breathtaking volume — according to compubox, he threw over 1500 punches against Robles. He isn’t some brainless brawler either - he’s hittable, which obviously he has to be, anyone who throws that much will be caught, but he chains his combinations together with thought, one punch setting up the next, shifting and stepping around on the inside to both make himself a little less hittable and open up the angles. Wood is no shrinking violet, he’ll come to fight, and he’s not lacking in craft, liking to lure his opponents in to punish them as they move, but he does have a habit of throwing one intercepting shot as his opponent comes in and then sitting tight behind a guard and waiting till they finish punching before his next move, a habit that if he doesn’t catch Xu with that one clean knockout punch is likely to see him get overwhelmed.
Because of that, you have to fancy the champion for the win, and if he gets it you’d expect him to call out the winner of Josh Warrington vs Mauricio Lara- he’s wanted that Warrington fight for ages, and really, whoever wins, we should want it too, because either one would likely be a doozy.
Tommy McCarthy vs. Chris Billam-Smith
This one’s a good, even matchup for a whole bunch of cruiserweight marbles at just-below-world level, bringing together McCarthy’s European belt, Billam-Smith’s commonwealth title, and the currently vacant British belt. Both fighters have a loss to the last man to hold that belt- Richard Riakporhe- on the record, which isn’t necessarily a good look given Riakporhe’s basicness and lack of speed, but hey, Billam-Smith in particular had a good shout for the win in that one (McCarthy didn’t, he got clocked and knocked out), and both fighters have been improving since then.
Out of the pair, McCarthy is probably a little rawer, more likely to make the big error, and a bit more prone to gassing, but also a bit more unorthodox and liable to surprise his opponent. Billam-Smith is a more fundamentally solid fighter, a bit more measured, but you could perhaps accuse him of being a bit too measured, backing off when he gets his opponent uncomfortable. As such, this probably won’t be a consistent toe-to-toe war, but it should be a nice back-and-forth series of exchanges as each tries to get it the other on the back foot a bit. If I had to pick I’d nod Billam-Smith on grounds of his greater consistency, but it’s liable to be a tight one.
Anthony Fowler vs. Rico Meuller
Since losing to Scott Fitzgerald in 2019 - to the glee of online boxing communities, among whom he had built up a generous dislike- Fowler has become something of a forgotten man on the weekend cards, fighting what has essentially been a series of tune-ups waiting for his moment to break again. On paper, this could be more of the same, but in truth, this one could be interesting — Mueller is no world star, but barring one early slip-up, his only losses have been at decent level, once to Jeff Horn and one to Jeremias Ponce, the rising Argentine who recently showed Lewis Ritson a thing or two. Yes, if he wants to be aiming for world level again, Fowler should win this comfortably, but really, we don’t know if Fowler was ever really at that kind of level and Mueller could test that.
Stylistically, they’re not dissimilar to each other- both having decent bread-and-butter fundamentals, but a lack of added tools, both in-and-out movers with a willingness to engage. Both are prone to ‘my-go-your-go’ boxing, which is a problem at higher levels when opponents can break into their rhythm but here is likely to leave each other fighting to be the first one to engage as that guy will likely win that exchange. The reasonable guess is to suggest Fowler should have a bit too much, but I’m just not sure. Could be good.
And More
The other notable name on the card is Avni Yildirim, who feels like he should be nearly 40 but is actually 29 and seeking to prove he’s still got something closer to world level against the British-level, magnificently nicknamed, Jack ‘Little Lever’s Meat Cleaver’ Cullen, who’ll want to keep momentum going on a career reroute after losing a British and Commonwealth shot to Felix Cash in 2019. Apart from that, we’ve got the further adventures of Campbell Hatton to look forward to. All in all, another good British card- honestly, after years of trademark deep-but-shallow cards with lots of names fighting one-sided bouts, it’s good to see Hearn getting the hang of throwing in a hatful of competitive bouts not just the name at the top, matching Frank Warren who for all that some promotional issues can be hung at his door has been doing the same for a bit now - and we hope to see it deliver so we can get more of the same.