By Josh Morgan
This weekend sees an action packed schedule of boxing. With two world title fights on the line and a title fight eliminator. Fans will be licking their lips at the prospect of an exciting night of boxing that hopefully does not disappoint. The most anticipated fight of the evening will certainly be Canelo Alvarez vs Austin Trout; this certainly has the opportunity to be one of the fights of 2013. Read more for the pick of the bunch.
Alvarez Vs Trout
There is no doubt about it; Canelo will be fighting his toughest opponent to date. The Mexican sensation is feeling as confident as ever, his preparation coming into the fight which has been shown on Showtime’s All Access, gives you the impression he believes he will be able to stop Trout. However, i’m a big believer in Austin Trout and in some respect believe he has been overlooked and underated, not only in this fight but throughout his career.
The Texas fighter Trout is a slick southpaw, who comes into the fight like Canelo undefeated. Austin Trout has the advantage of speed, not only his hand speed but most importantly his foot speed which will be highly important throughout the fight. Canelo’s aim will be to apply pressure early on and make Trout feel as uncomfortable as possible, but I can’t see this effecting Trout. Canelo in the past has shown the key to his success has been by working the body of his opponents. However, Trout is able to move around the ring very well and tends to bend quite frequently at the waist to ensure his opponents have problems landing the body shots.
When you look back at the Cotto fight against Trout, how often was Cotto able to land to the body? Not very! I’m confident Trout will outbox Canelo for a majority unanimous decision and if Trout fights very well there is every chance of making Canelo looking like a “B” level fighter.
Tyson Fury Vs Steve Cunningham
Tyson Fury will be making his boxing debut on American national television on Saturday night, with no doubt in his mind than to make a statement in the very limited heavyweight division. This fight has been slowly hyped up with loud and controversial press conferences between the two fighters. Cunningham will be stepping into the ring with a big height and weight disadvantage and is only really familiar with fighting at cruiserweight.
Unlike a David Haye who has made an excellent transition into the Heavyweight division, Cunningham does not carry the power that a David Haye possesses. For that reason I struggle to see how Cunningham will be able to cause Fury any problems. In terms of Tyson Fury, at this particular moment he hasn’t put a foot wrong (or should I say punch wrong). Every opponent that he has faced on the way to this fight he has come through with flying colours. Don’t get me wrong the opposition has been as good as it can get when it comes to a lacklustre division crying out for help. I’m predicting Fury to eventually stop Cunningham in the fight as his height, weight, power and skill level will be too much for the smaller Cunningham to handle.
Cleverly vs Krasniqi
The least appealing out of all the fights in my opinion. This fight is very important for Cleverly if he wants to secure a fight with a Bernard Hopkins or a Chad Dawson anytime soon. Come Saturday night the Welsh WBO world light heavyweight title holder will step in the ring with his toughest opponent to date. The German native Robin Krasniqi is unbeaten in his last 38 professional bouts, and comes into the fight with four stoppages from his last four opponents. Cleverly will be going into the unknown with Krasniqi and not knowing too much about this fighter and how good his record proves him to be.
Looking on Krasniqi’s record, there are certainly no noticeable names on the world stage of the light heavyweight division. But how the fight looks on paper and how the fight goes are two different things. Cleverly is a good prospect at the moment and one of his closest fights has been with Liverpool’s Tony Bellew. However, Tony Bellew was out boxed recently against Isaac Chilemba and out of all these fighters would any of these give a Chad Dawson at his correct weight a problem? Cleverly should win this fight, but to be taken seriously in this division and on the world scene he needs to make a statement not only in this fight but his fights coming up.
