Boxing In Canada: Saturday Night Preview

The Great White North sees a good evening of boxing with two shows tonight in Montreal, with the primary focus on the light welterweight unification clash between WBC Champion Timothy Bradley and WBO Champion Kendall Holt at the Bell Centre.

Bradley, 23-0 (11), is the favorite in this one but given the mercurial nature of Holt, 25-2 (13), it could go either way before the dust finally settles.

Of the two combatants, Holt has faced the better competition in the form of Ricardo Torres, David Diaz, Isaac Hlatswayo, Mike Arnaoutis, Demetrious Hopkins and Ben Tackie.

But Holt struggled against a well past his prime Tackie and looked to be on the verge of getting KO’d in the first round by Torres in their rematch before an accidental clash of heads knocked Torres senseless, enabling Holt to finish the job moments later.

As an undefeated fighter, Bradley has been the more successful but the Californian also hasn’t faced top level opponents aside from his WBC title winning effort against Junior Witter.

The win against Witter did show however that Bradley was a patient and mature fighter in the face of a more experienced champion and he proved able to take the big punching Witter’s firepower.

Last time out Holt showed good qualities against determined challenger Hopkins, grinding out a split decision victory but the result could have gone the other way had Hopkins been busier.

If Bradley pressures Holt and can maintain a high work rate, things should go his way on this one but if he hangs back and tries to outbox the taller Holt from range or make it a slow paced bout, Holt will likely walk away with two belts.

The undercard sees an IBF Super Middleweight title eliminator between Librado Andrade, 27-2 (21), and Vitali Tsypko, 22-2 (12). It’s unlikley Tsypko can hurt the granite-jawed Andrade and unless Tsypko can stick and move while avoiding Andrade’s bombs for 12 full rounds, the Eastern European will likely lose this one.

Interim WBC Light Heay Champ Adrian Diaconu, 25-0 (15), returns to the ring after a year out to meet David Whittom, 10-7-1 (6), in an eight round non-title tune up bout.

Across town at the Montreal Casino, super middleweight Jean Pascal, 21-1 (14), returns to action for the first time following his loss to Carl Froch for the WBC title with a scheduled 12 rounder against Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas, 22-5-1 (15), for the vacant WBO Intercontinetal belt.

On the undercard, super bantam hotshot Olivier Lontchi, 17-0-2 (7), defends his NABA title against Cecilio Santos, 23-9-3 (13).