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PREDICTION PAGE: Haye and Khan To Win

Don't be suprised if Haye stops Chisora early; his style is a perfect match for Chisora.
David Haye-Dereck Chisora:
From a strategical perspective, we already have an idea on how this fight will play out. Dereck Chisora, a swarmer, will be pressing the action,inside his ” Joe Frazier-esque” cross arm defense, looking to close the distance so he can smother and throw his short, wider punches in close.On the other hand, David Haye, unlike Chisora, operates best on the back foot, moving away from his opponent, keeping the distance to allow for straighter, more precise power shots from the outside. In this regard, Haye's style is somewhat reminiscent of current middleweight champion Sergio Martinez -looking to lure his opponent into traps.As a result,we have an almost perfect stylistic contrast -think of Ali-Frazier in terms of what both fighters are trying to accomplish against the other.
I believe this fight comes down to two things: Can Dereck Chisora handle David Haye's power? And if he can, Can David Haye prevent a fight at close quarters?
There should be little to no doubt that Haye will be able to land his overhand right hand from the outside. Chisora may resemble Joe Frazier in terms of his characteristics, but he falls way short in matching Frazier's unbelievable head movement and underrated defense. Frazier was very tough to hit with clean blows as he bobbed and weaved his way inside. Chisora however,is pretty much a straight line attacker, whose main form of defense is his durable chin.If you take a look at his losing effort against Vitali Klitschko, you won't see much variation from Chisora in terms of head movement as Vitali was able to land with his right hand almost at will. Chisora though,was able to absorb Vitali's best shots and just kept coming.
So then, if Vitali Klitschko could not take Chisora out within the distance, then surely David Haye won't be able to neither? Not necessarily.
I believe Vitali's at his best when he's pressing the attack, walking his man down behind his jab and straight right hand. David Haye on the other hand is able to generate tremendous power as he's moving away from his opponent. Haye's best work comes when he's backing up.
As a general rule, I'd usually pick a swarmer over a boxer -thinking of how Ali was given hell by Frazier across three fights, how Alexis Arguello could not handle the relentless pressure of Aaron Pryor and more recently, how Ivan Calderon's high level boxing ability was not enough to out manoeuvre Giovani Segura.This is where David Haye is different from most boxers who fight off the back foot -he's a mover of a different sort. Like he'll probably admit himself,he's from the Roy Jones school of boxing. Haye won't be throwing the jab much.Instead, as Chisora's coming inside, Haye will be feinting and falling in with power shots. I believe Haye's ambush style is the perfect foil for ultra aggressive opponents, who have a tendency to leave themselves open as they are advancing.
Prediction:
The fact that this is a ten round fight does not bode well for Chisora, who will most likely be chasing the fight right from the off. Chisora must set a frenetic pace and not give an inch -Haye mustn't be given the space he requires to let his straighter, faster shots go. If Chisora can cut the ring off and keep Haye in front of him, then Haye's lack of in-fighting skills could be exposed for all to see.
Highly unlikely in my eyes.
I have a feeling that this fight could be over very early. Don't be fooled by Chisora's strong showing against Vitali. David Haye is actually more dangerous than Vitali at fighting off of the back foot. Haye's power,contrary to Vitali's,is not jeopardized when he's moving away from his opponent. Haye moves quicker on the back foot, than Chisora can on the front foot.I will concede that the edge in stamina goes to Chisora {Haye has had problems in the past, remember the Thompson fight?} but I don't think this will be an issue here. I fully expect Haye to have connected with something worthy of ending the fight by around the sixth round. Haye's right hand will be unavoidable for Chisora. Look out for the Haye uppercut, which could also be a huge factor especially as Chisora will likely be crouching low as he's trying to weave his way inside -remember how Frazier was decimated twice by Foreman's uppercut as he closed the distance? Ali's jab by contrast, was nowhere near as effective against Frazier -something to look out for.
Don't be too surprised if we see a blowout from Haye before the mid-way point.
Amir Khan-Danny Garcia:
It's just been announced that this bout will be for the lineal title at 140 pounds. Regardless, I don't view this as a fight between the two best fighters in the division. I think there's quite the gulf in talent between Amir Khan and Danny Garcia, and I think we will see it on Saturday night. Technically speaking, there's not much between them, you could even argue that Garcia is the more proficient fighter from a technical standpoint. Khan however, is the type of fighter who can trump good technical skills with superior athleticism and physical gifts. There aren't many better pure boxers than Paulie Malignaggi, yet he looked like a fish out of water trying to cope with Khan's unpredictable “in and out” style, length and angles.
I'm fully aware that there's a lot of Amir Khan skeptics out there, with most pointing the finger at Khan's lack of an inside game -and rightly so- as a gaping hole in his set up. While this may be true, I think it only becomes relevant against a particular type of opponent. Both Marcos Maidana and Lamont Peterson have a certain toughness and grit to them that most fighters can only dream of. You have to remember, in order for those fighters to get inside on Khan, they both had to take enormous risks as they walked through Khan's offense -both fighters were hurt and dropped early by Khan.
I find it fascinating how far the Garcia camp have gone in trying to antagonize Amir Khan. To me, this is a clear indication that they want Khan to stand and trade with Garcia, which is never going to happen. The deficit in footspeed is gargantuan, and in this, lies Garcia's biggest problem. During the early stages of his last outing, Garcia struggled with Morales' movement as Garcia is at his best when his opponents are stationary, where he can then fire off quick combinations. His left to the body and left to the head is a favourite of his in particular. Khan won't be anywhere near him for this to land I'm afraid. Khan's superior movement, along with his advantages in height and reach will keep the fight where HE wants it. It's not that I consider Garcia a bad fighter, nor Khan a great fighter. I just don't think that Garcia has the mental toughness or footspeed to be able to keep up with, and, exploit Khan's biggest weakness. There's a conflict in styles from where I'm looking in.
Prediction:
Amir Khan's superior hand speed and movement should be far too much for Garcia to contend with, whose own hand speed and footwork by contrast,is pedestrian.Khan will be circling to his left, away from Garcia's best weapon, his left hook, while darting in with rapid fire combinations. By turning his opponent, Khan will reduce Garcia into following him around the ring, trying to land something that could possibly turn the fight around. Garcia's best chance is clearly to get inside on Khan, where Amir's length would count for nothing.I don't think Garcia has the quickness nor grit to get there.I think this fight will be one-sided in Khan's favour. Khan will be controlling the action throughout, using his length, faster hands and quicker reflexes to get in and back out before Garcia has a chance to react. Garcia will be looking to entice Khan to stay within firing range but to no avail. I think it's clear what Khan needs to do to get the win here -keep Garcia on the end of the jab, don't allow Garcia to set himself, which means keep turning him, so that he's moving to his right and against the natural directional flow of his lead left hand.
Khan's superior mobility will be enough to secure a wide decision.
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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More
It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.
In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.
Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.
CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.
****
Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.
Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”
And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.
Joey Archer
Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer
Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.
Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)
Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.
Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.
In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.
When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.
Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.
May he rest in peace.
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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