By Sean McDaniel: Big heavyweight prospects 6’4″ 262 pound Larry Olubamiwo (9-1, 8 KO’s) and 6’6″ unbeaten Tom Dallas (11-0, 8 KO’s) looked very impressive this past Friday night in getting past their opposition on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. John McDermott bout at the Brentwood Centre, Brentwood, Essex. Both Dallass and Olubamiwo performed on the undercard, but actually out-shown both McDermott and Fury in getting past their opponents in impressive fashion.

Olubamiwo, 31, came out fast against the tough Dave Ferguson (12-3, 4 KO’s) and quickly backed him up against the ropes and unloaded with some massive shots ending with a crunching right hand that dropped Ferguson to the canvas. He staggered to his feet but the fight was called off by referee Howard Foster at 1:52 of the 1st round.

This was Olubamiwo’s eighth knockout in ten fights and showed how strong he is by badly hurting a tough fighter can getting him out of their in quick fashion. Olubamiwo is a fighter that could make a mark in the heavyweight division in the near future. He may not be fast or all that flexible, but he has very real power and is capable of knocking out anyone in the heavyweight division if he can land his shots. He needs work on his footwork and in cutting off the ring. His opponents will no doubt be running from him in the future to avoid getting hit by his huge shots. Olubamiwo has got to get better at forcing them to fight.

Dallas, for his part, looked superb in dominating the usually tough Daniil Peretyatko (16-29, 6 KO’), beating him by a one-sided six round decision and hurting him a number of times in the fight with hard right hands. The referee scored it 60-54 for Dallas. Dallas looked a lot smoother and much more technical than Tyson Fury, and even looked quicker than David Price, who also fought on the same card.

Dallas pressured Peretyatko throughout, raining shots in on him at close range at on the outside. When Peretyatko attempted to smother Dallas on the inside, Dallas responded by landing hard uppercuts that hurt Peretyatko and caused him to back away quickly. Dallas kept the pressure on, following Peretyatko around the ring and continuing to punish for the entire six round fight. Had the fight gone at least 10, I strongly suspect that Dallas would have scored a knockout.

With Fury, Price, Dallas and Olubamiwo all fighting on the same card last Friday night, we saw perhaps the best heavyweights in the UK. Most boxing fans are already aware of Price and Fury. However, Olubamiwo and Dallas could be the diamonds that emerge at the top in a year or two.