By Dominic Sauboorah: The up and coming fights this year consist of Floyd Mayweather vs. Saul Alvarez, Kell Brook vs. Vyacheslav Senchenko, Danny Garcia vs. Lucas Matthysse and Amir Khan vs. Devon Alexander. These are four interesting match ups; however, I have predictions for all of them.
Floyd Mayweather vs. Saul Alvarez – It’s been hyped up to be a super fight between a fighter from North America and a fighter from South America. Floyd Mayweather is regarded right now as pound for pound the best in the world and Saul Alvarez is regarded as the newest rising star in boxing alongside the likes of Gennady Golovkin and Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Despite the great offensive arsenal that Alvarez has I don’t think it’s going to help him much against Mayweather. Floyd is, in my eyes, the greatest defensive fighter ever and styles make fights, these two styles I don’t think clash well. Canelo lacks in lateral foot movement as he tends to remain flat footed, plod forward and close down the range; however against Floyd he’s going to have problems setting his feet so that he can let his combinations go since Mayweather is so fast on his feet and is able to use the whole circumference of the ring to his advantage so that he avoids getting hit.
Floyd also has a razor like jab and an extremely long reach so Alvarez may have problems getting out of the way of that punch if he simply plods forward like he’s done in his previous bouts. This then gives Floyd the opportunity to use his jab to keep a distance from Canelo, thereby allowing him to get of with his own punches, especially the straight right which is one of Mayweather’s trademarks.
Canelo I believe does have the edge in punching power but Mayweather’s faced huge punchers in the past and hasn’t been fazed majorly by them such as Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto. I believe Alvarez is tailor made for Mayweather to beat by a UD; however if Canelo is able to catch Floyd flush on the chin, the way Mosley did, then it could be an interesting fight.
Kell Brook vs. Vyacheslav Senchenko – To mainstream fans they would see this as a big opponent for Brook, considering that Senchenko was able to stop Ricky Hatton last November in Manchester. However hardcore fans will know that Senchenko isn’t a big name and in reality doesn’t pose much of a threat to Brook. Brook has all the advantages in reflexes, defence, offense, speed and power. After seeing Senchenko get stopped by Malignaggi I can see Brook winning this fight within 5 rounds and I can see him knocking Senchenko down twice. His power and accuracy will be too much for the Ukrainian and I can’t see Senchenko winning this bout whatsoever.
Danny Garcia vs. Lucas Matthysse – This is the bout I’ve been looking forward to the most. You’ve got two big punchers facing each other in the peak of their careers. Both are tough, skilful, well conditioned and have iron chins. Despite this I still fancy Matthysse to knock Garcia out in between rounds 8-10, mainly based on the demolition job that he did on Lamont Peterson who’s an extremely durable opponent with a good chin. Even if Garcia tries to box Matthysse I don’t think he has the defensively abilities to keep Matthysse off of him and if Matthysse is able to catch Garcia enough times it’ll wear him down. Garcia was hurt in his last bout against Zab Judah; imagine what Matthyse could do to him. Nevertheless Garcia is undefeated and will likely do anything to keep his “0”.
Amir Khan vs. Devon Alexander – this is probably the most interesting out of the four bouts. This fight hasn’t been verified yet however should inevitably be sealed in the next month or so. Amir Khan showed tremendous character in his last fight and Devon Alexander is really hitting his stride as he’s the reigning IBF welterweight champion and hasn’t lost since January 2011. Since then he’s beaten the likes of Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana and Randall Bailey. It’s an interesting match up that could potentially go either way however if I had to make a prediction I favour Khan to win on points.
The main reason is due to his immense hand speed. I believe this accompanied with his high work rate and accuracy will be the difference in the fight, considering that Khan throws a lot of punches. Alexander hasn’t got a work rate as high as Khan’s and is nowhere near as accurate. So long as Khan has be able to iron out the flaws in his game and has improved defensively then I believe he can beat Alexander.
Khan showed how he’s matured a lot from his last fight, whereby he was stunned on a few occasions; however chose to grab and hold rather than trade off like we’ve seen him do in previous fights. Nevertheless there will always be question marks about Amir Khan’s chin and if Alexander is able to catch him like he was able to against Juan Urango then it could end badly for Khan.
Overall the fights that I think should be made, if my predictions are correct, are Floyd Mayweather vs. Lucas Matthysse and Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook. Both fights would most likely happen at 147. The Khan Brook fight will be interesting for a global audience, due to Amir Khan’s global status, but it’ll be more interesting to the British fight fans as a lot of them are aware of the animosity between the two of them. Therefore to see two British fighters fight each other for a world title who don’t see eye to eye is inevitably going to raise public interest.
It’s a tough fight to call since both have great boxing ability; however the power department seems to favour Brook whilst the speed department seems to favour Khan. Finally Mayweather vs. Matthysse is an extremely interesting match up. Matthysse is a massive puncher but he’s also a great pressure fighter who is very clever at cutting the ring down by using good lateral foot movement, therefore Mayweather may have some issues keeping the Argentinean at range.
However, if I had to make a prediction I’d have to favour Mayweather, since he has the advantages in height and reach, therefore he’d be able to skip out of the way of most of Matthysse’s punches and in the process get his own punches off without needing to stay in the pocket with the hard hitting Argentinean.
Despite this Matthysse is regarded as the joint biggest puncher in the world for his weight class, alongside Gennady Golovkin, so even the slightest shot from Matthysse could rock Mayweather, considering that Matthysse was able to knock Lamont Peterson down with a glancing blow to the top of the head.
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