The Fight Site Boxing Preview, 21st May
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
A busy weekend already saw James Metcalf fight Kerman Lejarraga and Jean Pascal continue the evening of his career against Meng Fanlong on Friday, but we’ll focus on the Saturday which still features three notable events, two in America and a decently deep card in England. Let’s take a look.
Joshua Buatsi vs Craig Richards
When Buatsi turned pro after a solid, impressive showing at the 2016 Olympics, it seemed like he might be one of those amateurs suited to be relatively fast-tracked in the professional ranks. That… hasn’t really happened, and in the last couple of years his career has been meandering a bit, something that can only partially be blamed on the pandemic. Richards, though, is a good step up for him - a fighter he’d reasonably expect to be beating if he’s the fighter we’re asked to believe, but one who’s not just mixed it at world level before - including a losing but honourable effort against Dmitry Bivol a year ago- but has a style specifically suited to drawing out some of the holes Buatsi’s performances against Bolotnics and Calics, if he hasn’t fixed them.
To get more specific, the biggest of those flaws is a longstanding tendency of Buatsi to not match his feet to his upper body, chasing combinations with his fists but not adjusting his feet when he does. This did improve against Bolotnics- early in the fight he would back his opponent up carefully with jabs and picked single shots and 1-2s but then waste the position by getting over-eager when he felt he had his man hurt, lean into flurries, and have to back off when feeling a counter, but as it went on he settled into throwing shorter combinations before recovering his stance, which allowed him to stay more continuously in his opponent’s face and led to Bolotniks defence ultimately unravelling leading to the KO.
Those skills will have to be even sharper against Richards, very much a back foot fighter who’ll be happy to invite Buatsi to work his way past the jab all evening. It is fair to say that making the fight exciting will be down to Buatsi - which isn’t to say that Richards won’t press forward, but his aim when he does is to take just enough space to persuade his opponent to respond so he can counter, and for the most part he’ll be moving back and inviting Buatsi to make up the ground himself. The biggest issue for the Buatsi in doing this will be that Richards is a distance first fighter but not a distance only one- he’s perfectly competent defending in the pocket and doesn’t fall into the trap of some fighters at the British sort of level of playing my-go-your-go, so if Buatsi does get sloppy trying to break his defences apart he will find himself countered.
It should be noted that despite that potential issue, Buatsi is a very good punch-picker and breaking apart solid defences is something he has an eye for, so as long as he does keep his balance checked he should have the advantage here, especially if he can at least establish his own jab. This might not be the most exciting war in the world but it could well be a good back-and-forth tactical one.
As well as being the best-matched at the top, of the cards of the day, this is probably the most interesting one overall. Chantelle Cameron defends her 140lbs world titles against Victoria Bustos, a common opponent of both Katie Taylor and Cecilia Braekhus, Alen Babic brings his brand of heavyweight chaos again, and Robbie Davies Jr and Javier Molina meet at 140 in what is probably for both a last stab at moving on to something relevant at world level.
David Benavidez Jr vs David Lemieux
On paper, Lemieux is possibly the biggest name on Benavidez’ resume to date, and might be expected to be the biggest threat too. In practice, that is unlikely to be true, as Lemieux is now on Benavidez’ 168lb turf and has left most of the one attribute that might have won him the day here - his booming one-shot power- back in his youth and at 160lbs. It’s not that Benavidez is particularly evasive, either, so even the older man’s lack of any real set-ups could have found an opening if he still had it, but the disparity in length, overall skill, and handspeed is going to be far too big and Lemieux is almost certainly going to find himself jabbed silly before being demolished by either a high-speed combination or a catch-and-counter of an attempted wide and sloppy hook (or possibly both). It might be spectacular but it’s unlikely to be competitive.
The most notable other name on the card is Victor Ortiz, facing off against Todd Manuel, but the real interest is in a slew of prospects. Cuban Yoelvis Gomez is an aggressive, power-punching livewire taking his toughest step in competition to date against Jorge Cota, Luis Nuñez is a classy counter-punching Dominican against a fellow prospect in Jonathan Fierro, and Richardson Hitchins will display his skills too albeit against probably a step down in level from his last fight
Janibek Alimkhanuly vs Danny Dignum
Alimkhanuly is currently the one big hope in a rather barren middleweight division - at 29, not young, but the one guy on the rise who seems like he might be on the level of the really quality fighters in the division’s recent past. He needs opponents to test that, though, and, well, all due respect to Danny Dignum who’s a fine contestant at British level but he isn’t anywhere near this. His last outing was a round six KO over Grant Dennis, which is fine, except that in the early rounds he had real trouble with Dennis’ jerky movement and awkward angles before stamina issues came to the fore and slowed him down enough for Dignum to take advantage of the positional mistakes and shortcuts he was making. Alimkhanuly’s style and skills will provide a lot of the same headache- lots of head movement, in-and-out footwork, and hard counters - but none of the fundamental flaws, more power, and as far as we know so far no fading gas tank. Dignum has a perfectly respectable set of fundamental skills, but he’s simply going to get outclassed here, his patient but straight-lined approach likely to leave his opponent coming at him from angles he’s not ready for.
The undercard here isn’t stacked with recognisable names, but it does feature Jamel Herring on the comeback trail after his loss to Shakur Stevenson, against unbeaten Jamaine Ortiz, and also sees Jessie Magdaleno apparently adjusting to a new training team with a tune-up fight - he’ll be hoping to regroup a career that somewhat spiralled after losing to Isaac Dogboe after this.