The Bridge Lad
Striker
While it's certainly not as good as it should have been, there's loads of boxing throughout the day and into the early hours.
At 11am, Sky Sports bring us an IBF heavyweight title eliminator from New Zealand where highly fancied Joseph Parker takes on Carlos Takam over 12 rounds. Parker has been strongly touted for a while, but this is his first significant test to date. African Takam may be a little one paced, but he is strong and durable and has been in with some very good names and has some decent wins on his record - Tony Thompson stands out as well as a draw with the Mike Perez where many thought he did enough to win. He was stopped late by Povetkin 2 years ago but he is a good body puncher and has a decent uppercut so could cause Parker problems here.
Sky are obviously trying to hype up the potential Joshua-Parker fight and it is a very good fight for them to pick up.
http://www.oddschecker.com/boxing/joseph-parker-v-carlos-takam/winner
Parker is the favourite as you would expect, but i've said it a few times, it is always refreshing to see an 'opponent' as short a 5/2 with some bookies, so it wouldn;t be a huge shock if he was to prevail here.
Obviously the fight of the weekend, and one of the best fights scheduled this year in Wilder vs Povetkin fell through last week with the latter testing positive for meldonium. I was really looking forward to this one and despite the fact the undercard is still very solid, BoxNation have decided to no longer show this bill. The WBA-IBF cruiserweight unification between Denis Lebedev and Victor Ramirez stands out, and Yorkshire light heavyweight Bob Ajisafe looks to be in deep as well. Hopefully there will be some streams kicking about for this card.
I want to talk as little as possible about #HayeDay2 - I really can't stand David Haye and the sooner he leaves the sport the better IMO. He is generally 1/100 to beat the 'undefeated Cobra' in Arnold Gjergjaj and when he comes through this we'll have a 'huge showdown' with Shannon Briggs to look forward to . Briggs was meant to be facing Dimitrenko as chief support which would have been a very tough test, but surprise, surprise Dimitrenko quashed these rumours earlier in the week and Briggs is now facing Boxrec's 290th ranked heavyweight in Emilio Zarate - again if you fancy a flutter, Briggs is as short as 1/200 to win, absolutely pointless. To put into perspective, if you popped into a rare Stan James shop and placed a £10 double on Haye and Briggs, you would be walking away with £10.15 - i kid you not . Dave's coverage is apparently starting at 8pm, so hopefully they show the English middleweight title bout between Lee Markham and Joe Mullender which has the potential to be an absolute war and FOTY candidate, but i won't hold my breath on them showing it.
Finally, BoxNation have replaced the aforementioned Russia card with the triple light middleweight title show in Vegas where the WBA, IBF and WBC belts are all on the line. Jermall Charlo takes on Austin Trout for the IBF, Lara rematches Martirosyan for the WBA and the other Charlo twin, Jermell (FFS ) takes on former Andy Lee victim John Jackson for the vacant WBC strap.
So plenty of action and a welcome addition to have a rare day time show.
At 11am, Sky Sports bring us an IBF heavyweight title eliminator from New Zealand where highly fancied Joseph Parker takes on Carlos Takam over 12 rounds. Parker has been strongly touted for a while, but this is his first significant test to date. African Takam may be a little one paced, but he is strong and durable and has been in with some very good names and has some decent wins on his record - Tony Thompson stands out as well as a draw with the Mike Perez where many thought he did enough to win. He was stopped late by Povetkin 2 years ago but he is a good body puncher and has a decent uppercut so could cause Parker problems here.
Sky are obviously trying to hype up the potential Joshua-Parker fight and it is a very good fight for them to pick up.
http://www.oddschecker.com/boxing/joseph-parker-v-carlos-takam/winner
Parker is the favourite as you would expect, but i've said it a few times, it is always refreshing to see an 'opponent' as short a 5/2 with some bookies, so it wouldn;t be a huge shock if he was to prevail here.
Obviously the fight of the weekend, and one of the best fights scheduled this year in Wilder vs Povetkin fell through last week with the latter testing positive for meldonium. I was really looking forward to this one and despite the fact the undercard is still very solid, BoxNation have decided to no longer show this bill. The WBA-IBF cruiserweight unification between Denis Lebedev and Victor Ramirez stands out, and Yorkshire light heavyweight Bob Ajisafe looks to be in deep as well. Hopefully there will be some streams kicking about for this card.
I want to talk as little as possible about #HayeDay2 - I really can't stand David Haye and the sooner he leaves the sport the better IMO. He is generally 1/100 to beat the 'undefeated Cobra' in Arnold Gjergjaj and when he comes through this we'll have a 'huge showdown' with Shannon Briggs to look forward to . Briggs was meant to be facing Dimitrenko as chief support which would have been a very tough test, but surprise, surprise Dimitrenko quashed these rumours earlier in the week and Briggs is now facing Boxrec's 290th ranked heavyweight in Emilio Zarate - again if you fancy a flutter, Briggs is as short as 1/200 to win, absolutely pointless. To put into perspective, if you popped into a rare Stan James shop and placed a £10 double on Haye and Briggs, you would be walking away with £10.15 - i kid you not . Dave's coverage is apparently starting at 8pm, so hopefully they show the English middleweight title bout between Lee Markham and Joe Mullender which has the potential to be an absolute war and FOTY candidate, but i won't hold my breath on them showing it.
Finally, BoxNation have replaced the aforementioned Russia card with the triple light middleweight title show in Vegas where the WBA, IBF and WBC belts are all on the line. Jermall Charlo takes on Austin Trout for the IBF, Lara rematches Martirosyan for the WBA and the other Charlo twin, Jermell (FFS ) takes on former Andy Lee victim John Jackson for the vacant WBC strap.
So plenty of action and a welcome addition to have a rare day time show.
Last edited: