Boxing News Boxing News
Matchroom Boxing are putting on a good show on Saturday night at London’s O2 Arena, in what is effectively a rescued card from the Haye vs.Fury debacle.
Which although I was gutted about not seeing, it is boxing, cuts in sparring happens, I think it adds a little bit of extra flavour for when Haye and Fury do eventually come together in February.
Some entertaining fights are on for Saturday with Lee Selby facing Ryan Walsh for the British and Commonwealth featherweight belts and Kevin Mitchell tangles Marco Lopez for the vacant IBF inter-continental lightweight belt.
Luke Campbell has his second fight as a professional and Olympic heavyweight star Anthony Joshua has his pro debut.
Scott Quigg headlines with his world title shot against Cuban Yoandris Salinas.
Quigg, 26-0-1 with 19 KO’s, was made interim super bantam weight champion by the WBA but has said he wants to earn the full title in the ring, which is always good to hear.
Quigg is a good honest, hardworking professional who has a great deal of talent. He will really have to earn that title though.
Salinas is 20-0-1 with 13 KO’s, so he’s undefeated, same as Quigg. He won a Bronze at the Pan American games and Silver at the Central America and Caribbean games, so like all Cuban boxers…he is incredibly well schooled.
But just as Salinas will be Quigg’s biggest test so far, Quigg will be Salinas’ biggest test so far.
I think Quigg is too good for him and stops him during the middle rounds. When Quigg is on form, he looks fantastic, besides, let’s be honest here…Salinas is not the Cuban sensation Scott Quigg needs to be worried about in this division.
Lee Selby against Ryan Walsh will be a good show, Walsh loves a tear up and Selby loves a fighter to come forward where he can pull off clever counters.
Walsh is by no means to be taken lightly as he can punch and has heart in abundance, but Selby is a very clever mover/puncher and I think he stops Walsh late in the fight.
If Selby wins, he captures the British belt outright and the natural progression afterward is that he goes for European and then world honours.
Kevin Mitchell takes another step on the road to redemption against Mexican Marco Lopez. Lopez is good; he’s not magnificent, but he’s good.
He has only had one fight at lightweight since being knocked out at super feather and before that he was a featherweight really, there are no names of significance on his record and if Mitchell is really back to his winning ways, then he shouldn’t find too much difficulty in defeating Lopez.
It will be interesting to see if Mitchell can really come back, as he was always an entertaining fighter.
Luke Campbell’s second pro fight will be a win…obviously, but then that is the art of bringing a fighter along in his career.
Match him too hard and he will lose confidence, match him too easy and he will gain false confidence and be shown up at a later date; it really is an art.
I, for one though, am skeptical about Anthony Joshua’s pro debut. He was late to the game and although he managed to come through the Olympics and got a Gold medal, which is amazing…
What am I trying to say here…did he have it too easy?
As I have previously mentioned though, one can judge very little about how a fighter’s career will play out just from watching their first or second fight.
