By Ian S Palmer
The Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) television series will feature a card in Quebec City this Friday, July 29th at the Videotron Centre. The main event will see Adonis Stevenson defending his WBC Light Heavyweight title against American challenger Thomas Williams Jr. The undercard will feature another light heavyweight tilt between undefeated Eleider Alvarez of Columbia and Robert Berridge of New Zealand. The 10-round bout will be broadcast live in America on the Spike television network while Canadian fans will likely need to cough up some cash for the pay-per-view broadcast. Alvarez last fought in November when he beat Isaac Chilemba by a 12-round majority decision. Berridge’s last bout was in November he lost to Reece Papuni by split decision.
The 32-year-old Alvarez now fights out of Canada and will enter the ring with a perfect record of 19-0 along with 10 Kos. He’s a former Colombian Olympian who fought at the 2008 Games in Beijing, China and also has pro victories over Ryno Liebenberg, Andrew Gardner, Edison Miranda, Alexander Johnson, Anatoliy Dudchenko and Isidro Ranon Prieto. Alvarez is 6-feet tall and has a wingspan of 75.5 inches. He isn’t really known as a one-punch knockout artist and his current knockout ratio is 53 per cent. Alvarez turned pro in 2009 and has boxed 117 rounds since then.
The 31-year-old Berridge has a decent mark of 27-4-1 with 21 Kos to his name. Berridge is stepping in for former world champion Chad Dawson as he pulled out of the contest because of an injured shoulder. Berridge turned pro back in 2009 and has 148 rounds under his belt since then. He went 16-0 in his first 16 contests and has beaten the likes of Sefo Falekaono, Andrew Robinson and Togasilimai Letoa. However, he’s struggled when stepping up in class as he’s been beaten by Thomas Oosthuizen, Vasily Lepikhin and Blake Caparello. Berridge is a southpaw who stands just 5-feet-8-inches tall with a reach of 70 inches. He has pretty good power as his current knockout ratio stands at 66 per cent.
Prediction……
Berridge gives up a lot in size to Alvarez as the Colombian is four inches taller and has a 5.5-inch reach edge. Berridge is quite small for a light heavyweight, but he’s got a lot of heart and has been stopped just once, which was to Vasily Lepikhin in the fifth round of their 2014 bout. Alvarez should be highly motivated though as he’s supposed the be the mandatory challenger for the WBC belt and has been promised a shot at the winner of the Stevenson vs Williams Jr. encounter. Berridge has a puncher’s chance here, but not much more. He’ll likely end up losing a 10-round decision with a late stoppage being a more unlikely, but possible scenario.
