By Eóin Kennedy
The summer season is drawing to a close and while that’s a sombre thought for most people, boxing fans can breathe a sigh of relief as it’s been kind of boring in the sport recently. It seems most fighters must have been enjoying a summer recess but fear not as some of boxing’s biggest stars are set to to see action in September. Messrs. Canelo Alvarez, Anthony Joshua, Naoya Inoue and other big names return to the ring soon, lets look ahead to their fights.
Naoya Inoue (c) Vs TJ Doheny – Undisputed Junior Featherweight World Championship
September 3rd – Koto-Ku, Japan
It’s a rare Tuesday show live from Japan brought to you by Top Rank Boxing up first. Naoya Inoue is the hometown hero and in front of him is Irish challenger TJ Doheny. Doheny himself has been a world champion in the past, previously holding the IBF Super-bantamweight title. On top of this accomplishment Doheny can boast that he has shared the ring with top operators and is an extremely adept technical boxer, but Inoue is a different beast and no matter who you ask, the lowest pound-for-pound ranking you’ll ever here the Japanese fighter get in anyone’s opinion is number three. Expect Doheny to be game but to suffer a similar fate to most of Inoue’s opponents.
Verdict: Inoue KO
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez(c) vs Edgar Berlanga – WBA, WBO, WBC Super-Middleweight World Championship
September 14th – Las Vegas, USA
Boxing’s golden goose returns to Las Vegas and though the opponent is different, the script always remains the same when it comes to Canelo’s foes. Brooklyn born, Puerto Rican Edgar Berlanga has never been shy of a few words of trash talk, even early on in his career, and perhaps that’s a liberty one’s earns after sixteen straight knockout victories, but the knockouts did dry up for five fights raising eyebrows about Berlanga’s ability to finish opposition of a higher caliber. Yes, Berlanga did stop Padraig McCrory in his last fight, but one-in-six isn’t exactly a terrifying statistic for future opponents to have to digest. Berlanga is certainly talking a big game but Canelo has seen it all before and the Mexican is shrugging it all off nonchalantly. Canelo’s skills vastly eclipse those of Berlanga’s, and his chin has stood up to stern tests before, making the challenger’s hopes of catching him cold with one big shot even greater. Berlanga’s tough so I expect him to see the final bell but he’s never been in the ring with someone like Canelo before, and I think it will tell.
Verdict: Canelo PTS
Erislandy Lara(C) vs Danny Garcia – WBA Middleweight World Championship
September 14th – Las Vegas, USA
On the undercard of the Canelo-Berlanga event, PBC promotions are treating us to another world title fight. This time it’s two veterans of the boxing game going head-to-head with Cuban Erislandy Lara putting his title on the line against former two-division world champion, Danny Garcia. Philadelphia native, Garcia, has had glorious nights in the sport and has never been afraid to mix it with the top names in his division but middleweight may be a bridge to far for him. Champion, Lara, isn’t a big middleweight by any means and has come up from lower divisions like Garcia, but he’s seasoned at the weight class by now and has already fought once this year which may prove to be pivotal. On the other hand Garica’s biggest fear may actually be ring rust due to inactivity. It will be interesting to see how he performs in an unfamiliar weight class on top of coming off a two year lay off, and I don’t expect to end in success.
Verdict: Lara PTS
Daniel Dubois(C) vs Anthony Joshua – IBF Heavyweight World Championship
September 21st – London, England
While no one can argue about how great it’s been to have the best fighting the best in boxing recently, a luxury that’s been deprived of fans for so long and something that would not have materialized without the giant wads of cash from Turki Al-Sheikh and his seemingly never-ending supply of Saudi money. But if the gain was better fights happening on a more consistent basis, then the trade off was, at least for fans in the UK, that fights would be lost to the Arab Kingdom. Even the most quintessential of British fighters, Anthony Joshua is no longer guaranteed to ply his trade on home soil. The Saudi money has seen a migration of fights away from the UK and Joshua’s been no exception but in fairness to him, he has attempted to retain a connection with his home fans by having at least some of his fights in England still. Of Joshua’s last six fights, three were in Saudi Arabia and three were in England, and the former world champion is returning to London in a few weeks to fight another local resident.
Daniel Dubois looked like his career may be facing terminal problems at an early stage when aspersions were cast over his fighting spirit in the wake of losses against Joe Joyce and Oleksandr Usyk, and the almost catastrophic defeat that was somehow avoided against gatekeeper, Kevin Lerena. But to Dubios’ credit he has continued to fight tough opposition and his knockout victory last time out against Filip Hrgovic was a career’s best and earned him the vacant IBF world title. Dubois is not a soft touch, at least not this new version, Dubois 2.0. Like Canelo though, Anthony Joshua has been around the block and faced so many different styles and regardless of the power that Dubois possesses, I just don’t see him having enough to prevail. Once again it will be the famed Wembley Stadium where Joshua will look to make history. In 2017 he knocked out Wladimir Klitschko there to win his first world title and expect him to dish out the same fate to Dubois to secure his third. Both men can punch but Joshua has the greater skillset of the two and won’t be fazed by the 90,000 fans in attendance, he’s seen it all before. I predict he’ll equal Muhammed Ali’s feat of being a three-time heavyweight world champion, which will surely guarantee a patented Joshua monologue after the fight.
Verdict: Joshua KO