March 9 on Showtime
Regis Prograis(20-0) vs. Julius Indongo(22-1)- Tough fight to pick here for me because Indongo is somewhat of a wild card and this is Prograis toughest foe to date.
I think Indongo’s length, awkwardness, and timing ability will be problematic for Prograis.
As for Prograis, I see his youth, power, and unpredictable striking approach as being huge factors for him in this clash.
Indongo will look to time Prograis’s jab with a hard straight right coming right down the middle.
I feel Prograis and his physicality will be a bit hard for Indongo to handle at this stage of his career.
But if Prograis views Indongo as a stepping stone, then Prograis could make this battle harder than it has to be for himself.
I’m taking Prograis to stop Indongo in the 9th round by blitzing Indongo with a heavy left cross that Indongo failed to see.
March 10 on HBO
Oscar Valdez(23-0) vs. Scott Quigg(34-1-2)- I believe that Quigg doesn’t quite have the type of style to beat Valdez, unless Quigg can turn in an A+ boxing clinic performance that is.
I love Valdez’s tenacity, speed, above average power, and ability to mix his combinations.
Quigg on the other hand also has above average power and has good movement in stepping in with shots to work the body.
The biggest knock on Valdez for me is that he can be a bit passive at times and he often abandons his jab and loads up way too much for my liking.
If Valdez fights the way he did in his last two outings, Valdez could see himself behind on the cards with Quigg out scoring Valdez with 1-2 shots.
For this fight however, I see Valdez employing his jab a bit more and will make better use of his footwork to dart in and out to outwork Quigg by close decision.
*Bonus Pick*
Andy Vences(20-0) vs. Erick De Leon(17-0)- Fight of the night right here folks! These two young guns are hungry and both are ready to step up to bigger names.
Both fighters know they must go through one another to make a real statement and take a big step towards top contender status.
Vences is a real dog and he does a great job at throwing away shots to get foes to over commit and then he turns his right hand over on you to punish you upstairs and downstairs.
De Leon on the other hand is a vicious puncher with a mean streak and he places his punches together well.
De Leon however does tend to throw wide on his shots but since working with Robert Garcia, Garcia is turning De Leon into a more dangerous puncher by getting De Leon to get a full turn on his right hook when I see them doing mitts on tape.
Vences must stay firing his jab and time De Leon coming in with an uppercut when De Leon shoots out his nasty straight left hand.
This is a 50/50 fight for me so it’s so hard to pick a winner here. I envision a rough and tough back and forth shootout battle of will and attrition. Give me Vences by late knockout, no wait, give me De Leon by split decision.
March 10 on Showtime
Mikey Garcia(37-0) vs. Sergey Lipinets(13-0)- Lipinets has good power and determined enough to give Garcia a scare.
Speaking of scare, Garcia has scary power in both hands and is an intelligent patient boxer.
Lipinets must blanket Garcia to take some steam out of Garcia’s thunderous bombs and must attack Garcia’s midsection ferociously.
Things that I enjoy seeing about Garcia most is his composed nature and his incredible use of motion. What I mean by that is that Garcia never seems to be unbalanced and he doesn’t waste any punches.
So here it is, at first mention of this fight I wasn’t turned on by it as most. Reason being is that Lipinets is tailor made for Garcia.
Look for Garcia to land his jab at will and will catch Lipinets with a crushing right uppercut followed by a fight finishing left hook to end things inside of 7 rounds.