I know I know it’s been a fair while since my last post, I’ve been busy doing other uni stuff (100% a lie) but tonight there is some interesting British Boxing fight’s on Sky so I thought today would be a good day to return to the blog. First up I preview Josh Warrington v Hisashi Amagasa then after that, Stephen Smith’s world title shot against IBF Super-Featherweight champion Jose Pedraza will be previewed.
JOSH WARRINGTON V HISASHI AMAGASA
In what is the first fight of the night, Yorkshireman Josh Warrington will get into the ring against the dangerous Hisashi Amagasa. The man from Japan will be fighting outside of his native country for the first time in his professional career, coming over with a bit of a reputation. This has come from his fight against super-bantamweight king Rigondeaux who he managed, to everyone’s surprise, knock down twice before losing the fight in the 11th round.
In the other corner of the ring is the 25-year-old Brit who hopes to put on a show tonight to try to make a fight with Lee Selby happen. Warrington is unbeaten in 22 professional fight’s winning just the 4 by KO but don’t underestimate his power at this weight, he’s won 2 out of his last 4 by TKO and the other 2 by a comfortable points decision. This shows that he has the potential to mix it up and adapt to his opponent – something which rival Lee Selby was recently praised for.
Warrington is yet to fight anyone of Lee Selby’s ability, needing that final push to make it onto world level where he can mix it with world champions, which he definitely has the quality to do. Will tonight’s fight prove just how good he is? He could do with putting on a show and winning this fight comfortably, giving Lee Selby something to think about but im sure he would take victory in any form to push him one step closer to getting a big fight. I think Warrington will win by UD.
STEPHEN SMITH V JOSE PEDRAZA
Stephen Smith hopes to be the second of the 4 Smith brother’s to win a world title as he faces Puerto Rican Jose Pedraza for the IBF Super-featherweight title in the USA. Pedraza goes into the fight boasting an unbeaten record winning 21 of his fights, 14 by KO and has held the IBF title since mid 2015. Pedraza is a very tough champion in the division having beaten top quality boxers such as Edner Cherry, who lost by UD to Timothy Bradley and Andrey Kilmov who was beaten by Terence Crawford also by UD.
The Brit fighting in America, Smith, has been beaten once in his professional career to Lee Selby back in 2011. Since the defeat Smith has risen quietly up the rankings, picking up the British super-featherweight title and the WBC silver title along the way to his world title eliminator which was against Devis Boschiero – who had only lost 3 of his 43 bouts at the time. There have always been question marks over Stephen Smith’s power but he showed the power he does have in the fight, being the first person to KO the Italian Boschiero.
Smith is fighting out of his comfort zone in the USA having fought all of his previous bouts in the UK other than his KO of Arpad Vass in Munich. However, despite the lack of support out in the States for Smith he should take some much-needed confidence from recent examples of Brits winning titles out in America such as Kell Brook. This may be a step too far for Stephen, he desperately want’s to prove he’s a world level boxer but Pedraza might just be a little too tricky for him. I’m hoping Smith can add to the growing list of British world title holders, it would be excellent to see it happen but I just don’t know. I think Pedraza wins by a close points decision.
12 Rounds UK 
One thought on “SATURDAY FIGHT NIGHT PREVIEW & PREDICTIONS”