This
weekend, Sky Sports have picked up two cards, one from the O2 Arena in London
where IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua takes on unbeaten American
Dominic Brezeale and across the pond in America WBA welterweight champion Keith
Thurman, takes on Shawn Porter at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York.
Both cards have their strengths and weaknesses but both have the potential to
be intriguing nights of boxing.
At
the O2 Arena, the main event is overshadowed by its co-feature as George Groves
takes on Martin Murray in a fascinating domestic clash which, for the loser,
will spell the end of his career at the elite level. Martin Murray has had a
tough time since he moved up to super-middleweight. The fighter from St. Helens
lost to Arthur Abraham in a split decision and that defeat would have hurt even
more when he saw Gilberto Ramirez dismantle the veteran German six months
later.
He
is in a contest with a seemingly rejuvenated George Groves who is on the
comeback trail with new trainer Shane McGuigan after he lost to Badou Jack back
in September. This should be an easy night’s work for Groves who should control
the pace and range of the fight with his ever-present jab and with Murray’s
power lacking at the 168 lb limit there is little Groves has to worry about
coming back the other way.
The
rest of the card is very typical of Matchroom Sports and Eddie Hearn’s style of
card. Joshua is 1/33 to win, Chris Eubank Jr. is 1/20 to win, Dillian Whyte was
1/33 before his opponent pulled out and then Kal Yafai’s opponent is yet to be
announced. This is what happens in every major PPV event that Hearn puts on; he
attracts the casual fans by putting big names on the card in meaningless fights
and because Joe Bloggs has heard of the fighters he buys the event on Sky.
It
is safe to say that all these fighters mentioned above will win in relatively
easy fashion and if by some miracle one of them is in a hard fight then Hearn
will claim that he matched them well. One cannot deny Hearn’s ability as a
promoter; he could sell sand to the Arabs however he could be matching his
fighters far harder which would improve the Matchroom brand and more
importantly make his fighters better so when they reach world level they have already had the experience required to deal with difficult situations.
In the
States, Keith ‘Onetime’ Thurman’s fight with Shawn ‘Showtime’ Porter is a mouth-watering
encounter which can certainly be labelled as a genuine 50/50 fight. Porter is a pressure fighter, that is his main strength,
however against a fully-fledged welterweight such as Thurman Porter will not be
able to 'bully' him as he has been doing against his other fighters.
This was highlighted in the fight against Kell Brook, Porter was
unable to put the required pressure on Kell to get the victory and this could
very much be the same in a fight against Thurman. If Porter is able to get on
the inside then he could have a chance of winning the fight, however I think
Thurman's strength and power will not allow him to do that. Porter will
certainly have to answer a lot of questions over his ability to dominate the
best welterweights like he has been able to do against other fighters.
I just think this fight is all wrong for Porter, unless Thurman
tries to start trading shots with him, the undefeated Thurman should win this
fight, however it is a tough one to call and this is boxing – anything could
happen.
With the Mares vs Cuellar fight being cancelled and the PBC not
replacing it, the undercard is extremely weak with the co-main feature being
Jarrett Hurd vs Oscar Molina. However with the main event being of the highest
calibre it is difficult to knock the PBC for this one and it is fantastic that
Sky have picked up this card.
Tom Eckett
@boxingguru44
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