We are being treated to a stacked card at the 02 on Saturday Night thanks to Frank Warren and BT Sport. We have everything to be excited about from the one punch power of the likes of Dubois and Florian Marku, with the beautiful technicality of Nathan Gorman and Sunny Edwards.
Hutchinson v Perkovic
The stacked card is scheduled to begin with 20-year-old light heavyweight prospect Willy Hutchinson, in a minor step up fight against Josip Perkovic.
Hutchinson exploded onto the scene with a round one TKO of Tibor Nagy on the undercard of Joe Joyce’s debut win over Ian Lewison and has since looked better and better every time he has stepped in the ring and has a brilliant 8-0-0 record with 6 of his wins coming by way of knockout.
Josip Perkovic on the other hand is a decent journeyman who we’ve seen in with the likes of Hosea Burton, Steven Ward and most recently in his TKO loss to prospect Dan Azeez.
Prediction: Stoppage win in rounds 1-3 for Huchinson.
Sharp v McCrorry
Next up is very the very likeable Archie Sharp defending his WBO European Super Featherweight Title against a decent opponent in Jordan McCrory.
Sharp was a unanimous decision victory in ‘fight of the year contender’ in his last meaningful fight against fellow unbeaten prospect Leon Woodstock Jr, who has since lost to ZelfaBarrett, who is most likely going to be Archie Sharps next opponent.
McCrory won via points last time out against 0-43-3 Alec Bazza, while getting stopped in his fight prior by heavy hitting British Title holder Sam Bowen.
Prediction: McCrory isn’t going to be the walkover the bookies are predicting but I feel Archie Sharp will get through relatively unscathed in a wide point win.
Edwards v Gallardo
This next bout could be very entertaining with Sunny Edwards going up against an unknown Mexican in Hiram Gallardo.
Sunny Edwards, younger brother of the WBC world Flyweight title holder Charlie is in my opinion the most technically gifted fighter on the card, and potentially as good as his brother. Sunny hasn’t really been tested in any of his fights to date, winning the majority comfortably on points, although he did stop Portuguese Pedro Matos last time out.
Hiram Gallardo (12-2-2) comes into the fight unknown, due to the fact he has never fought outside of Mexico but is coming off the back off 4 straight wins in the last 12 months and one thing we do know about Mexicans, he’ll come to fight.
Prediction: Sunny Edwards to win every round, with the potential of the referee seeing enough and stepping in towards the later rounds.
Williams v Achour
The Welsh middleweight is going in against Frenchman Karim Achour for a chance to win the vacant WBC Silver Middleweight Title with the winner possibly looking at a future shot at the WBC world title holder Jermall Charlo.
After Williams’ controversial loss against Liam Smith, and then another loss via majority decision in the rematch, he has been on the comeback trail, with 4 wins back to back. The most impressive of these wins was a TKO victory over the very highly rated 21-0-0 fighter Mark Heffron on the undercard of Josh Warrington’s first defence of his IBF world title against Carl Frampton.
Karis Achour (27-5-3) is known for his slick style and hard to hit approach, with 23 of his 27 wins coming via point, all of which have been in his home country of France. The first time I seen Achour was in a points loss against the likeable Martin Murray, just before he lost to Sergio Martinez. Most recently Achour took big punching David Lemieux to points, although losing by a landslide.
Prediction: With Achour being in with the operators he has and never being stopped, I can only see this fight going one way. Williams points win.
Joyce v Jennings
The Juggernaut welcomes his toughest opponent to date in the Unified World Title challenger Bryant Jennings. This could be explosive and the contrast in styles will be a joy to watch, with Joe Joyces’ relentless pressure style of ‘get hit to hit’ while just breaking down an opponent against the counter punching of Jennings.
Although Joe Joyce has failed to build a fan base, mainly due to his mundane fighting style, he exploded onto the professional scene after a stellar amateur career with a TKO win over Ian Lewison in his debut and has since beaten some credible opponents in his 9 KO wins. Including the likes of Jamaican Lenroy Thomas, the man who beat Dave Allen in Sheffield. Bermane Stiverne, who was the first man to take Deontay Wilder the distance and 6’ 7’’ Russian Alexander Ustinov.
Philly born Vegan Bryant Jennings was always tipped to be the next American heavyweight star before he fought and lost a unification bout with Wladimir Klitschko, which was followed up by a 7th round TKO by Luis Ortiz, the back to back losses coupled with the emergence of Deontay Wilder meant it was safe to say he wasn’t going to be America’s next heavyweight superstar. Jennings has most recently lost to Dillian Whyte’s next opponent Oscar Rivas, although Jennings looked to have the fight won on points, Rivas stopped the American in the 12th round to clinch the victory.
Prediction: Joyce is going to be too big, too strong and too relentless for the 34-year-old American and I believe he will stop him in the middle rounds.
Dubois v Gorman
The main event on the night for the Vacant British Heavyweight Title has the potential to be a mini Fury v Wilder, with the slick hard-to-hit style of Nathan Gorman against the big bombs of Daniel Dubois. This is going to be absolutely fascinating and I must say, massive kudos to both men for taking this fight so early on in their careers.
Dubois is just as his alias says ‘dynamite’, with 10 of his 11 professional wins coming by KO and the only boxer he failed to stop was American survivor Kevin Johnson. Dubois’ latest fight was an absolute shootout against Ghanaian Richard Lartley, a fight in which we saw Dubois rocked for the first time, but also got to see the heart, durability and determination of the young fighter coming through the fight by stopping Lartley in round 4.
Gorman is the polar opposite to Dubois, with a fighting style much like the best heavyweight on the planet ‘Tyson Fury’. Gorman is a slick back foot fighter, but also very good on the inside for a big man and most recently eased to a points victory against Kevin Johnson. Nathan Gorman has 11 KOs from his 16 wins but isn’t renowned for his big punching but when he’s in the mood he can does stop fighter early.
Prediction: I believe Gorman is going to just be too smart and too slick for Dubois, winning via a late stoppage or points. Although it is difficult to call this one because very much like Fury and Wilder, you see what happens when the big puncher lands, but I believe that Gorman will frustrate Dubois and box his was to victory.
Written by Bobby Gunn (SimBoxx).
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