By Eóin Kennedy
Boxing has a big weekend approaching with Mike Tyson and Jake Paul headlining proceedings from Arlington, Texas on Friday night and the action moves to the middles East on Saturday with Chris Billam-Smith and Gilberto Ramirez topping the bill in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I look ahead to some of the big fights on this weekend’s cards and make my predictions and although I did refer to Tyson vs Paul above, I will not be previewing that fight. Not because I feel above it or due to moral reasons but rather that despite being an official boxing match it still is essentially the circus coming to town and essentially impossible to predict anyway so I’ll just leave that one be. Let’s hope no one gets hurt. I’ll start my predictions with the main fight on the undercard in Arlington.
Katie Taylor(C) vs Amanda Serrano – Undisputed Light Welterweight World Championship Fight
November 15 – Arlington, Texas
Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano gave the boxing world not just a fight, but an event that was unforgettable in Madison Square Garden in April of last year and it’s surprising that it’s taken this long to get the two pioneers of female boxing in the ring again. Since their epic clash, both have continued to fight on different paths with Serrano going back to featherweight to successfully defend her worlds there while Taylor lost her world titles and subsequently won them back against Chantal Cameron. Serrano has fought six times since that showdown in New York and has won them all. For Taylor it’s half that amount of fights and she has lost once but the defeat was avenged and Cameron is a better boxer than any of the opponents Serrano fought in the intervening period.
The past won’t matter on Friday night in any case, not even last years fight that Taylor won as it was so razor close that neither fighter will feel they have the other completely figured out. Taylor is the better boxer of the two but her career has been plagued by the fact that she has never adjusted her gameplan to let her outbox her opponents rather than always choosing to engage in a fight at close range. She probably won’t learn her lesson at this stage so we can expect a shootout with Serrano on Friday, exactly what she wants. Serrano will be hoping Taylor stand right in front of her at close and allows it to become a brawl and bank on having more output against a Katie Taylor that has slowed down just a fraction in recent years. The thing about Taylor is that she was blessed with lightning quick hands to begin with so despite losing that modicum of hand speed she still has the brilliance to beat most boxers. I expect it to be close, very close yet again and I do see a similar outcome to the first, Katie Taylor edging it on points.
Verdict: Katie Taylor via PTS
Mario Barrios(C) vs Abel Ramos – WBC Welterweight World Championship Fight
November 15 – Arlington, Texas
At thirty-three years of age Abel Ramos is by no means an old fighter but he’s also no spring chicken and with six losses and two draws already chalked up in a thirty six fight career, he’s probably thinking that his world title tilt against Mario Barrios may be his last chance at winning boxing’s ultimate prize, a world title. In Barrios, Ramos will meet a man that seems like he is just getting comfortable with being a world champion and growing into the status so he won’t want to relinquish that honor so soon. Welterweight is a division in flux since Terence Crawford and Errol Spence left town and with Jaron Ennis likely to do so soon also, Barrios may be looking at his surroundings and fancying his chances at being a long reigning, dominant champion. If he is to achieve dominance he’ll have to beat a lot of good fighters and Abel Ramos is just that and has been in with plenty of elite operators already in his career. Ramos has twenty-two knockouts on his record so there is power in the fists but whether it translates to the highest level of the sport is the question. No, has been the answer so far. Don’t expect that to change on Friday. Ramos is a game fighter and may cause Barrios some problems, but it just feels like the WBC world champion is at the beginning of a rich patch in his career that started since his return from the loss to Gervonta Davis, and will continue his good form on Friday, in my belief, with a victory over Abel Ramos on the judge’s scorecards.
Verdict: Mario Barrios via PTS
Chris Billam-Smith(C) vs Gilberto Ramirez(c) – WBO and WBA World Championship Fight
November 16 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Rob Tebbutt remarked on a recent episode of the excellent The Boxing Show, that a few years ago you probably wouldn’t have been predicting that Chris Billam-Smith would be headlining a major world title unification fight in Saudi Arabia and I agree, on Latino Night of all nights what with him being from Bournemouth and all that, but that’s where Billam-Smith finds himself and that’s where he’s fought incredibly hard to get too. No disrespect is meant towards the Englishman when it’s suggested that his current standing in cruiserweight boxing is surprising, it’s merely stated because he came to the sport late and those who do rarely progress to such heights.
Saturday’s opponent, Gilberto Ramirez, is a fellow world champion, and the Mexican adds the Latin touch to the main event in Riyadh. Ramirez has only tasted defeat once, to top class operator Dmitry Bivol, and has been consistent since the defeat. He’s strong and a fundamentally good boxer to boot. Billam-Smith is renowned for his toughness as much as any other attribute and having shipped some big punches in recent fights, he has proven impossible to topple, but every fighter can be knocked out and I fear that he may just ship too much punishment from Ramirez and finally hear the ten count or see a towel come in or ref stoppage. There’s no doubt about Chris Billam-Smith’s heart and toughness but I see Gilberto Ramirez taking both world titles inside the distance.
Verdict: Gilberto Ramirez via KO/TKO
William Zepeda vs Tevin Farmer – Lightweight Fight
November 16 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
William Zepeda is fighting like a man that can’t be stopped right now while Tevin Farmer may be fighting for his career. Zepeda has been in ferocious form and none of his last four fights have gone past the halfway point. Farmer on the other hand is coming off a July loss to Raymond Muratalla and while he is a former world champion and still a top-notch operator on his night, at thirty-four the window of opportunity to win another title is gradually closing. If Farmer wants to get another crack a world championship he’ll have to fight his way through the division’s young contenders first and it doesn’t get much more difficult than Zepeda. The Mexican fighter is undefeated and has only been forced to go the distance four times in his thirty-one fight career and I feel Farmer may just be meeting a fighter that’s about to enter his prime and ready to join the like of Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis in pay-per-view fights. I think former champion Farmer will be wily and shrewd enough to make Zepeda hear the final bell for the fifth time in his career but I don’t think the American will have enough in him to get the win.
Verdict: William Zepeda via PTS