Lightweights

Speaking of altered faces (last post), I expect to see some this Saturday on Golden Boy's Lightweight Lightning card. Having eight lightweight contenders on one card is a cool concept, and aside from that, there are lots of good matchups with exciting, offensive fighters. The best matchup is Antonio Pitalua and Edwin Valero, two huge punchers. Valero has knocked out every fighter he's ever faced, the vast majority in the first round. That's quite a testament to his pop, but it's a double-edged sword: he's only got about fifty rounds under his belt, many of them incomplete and most of them against weak opposition. For all his power, he also has a porous defense and rather one-dimensional, Daniel Ponce de León-esque offense. Pitalua, on the other hand, can also crack (40 KOs in 46 wins), but has four times as many rounds on his resumé, and more experience having his bell rung by world-class pros (Artur Grigorian and José Armando Santa Cruz) than Valero. There aren't too many endings that would surprise me in this one (except for a boring distance fight), but I'm going with a mid-round knockout by Pitalua.

To round out the card, I also like Escobedo over Hernéndez, Katsidis over Chavez, and Diaz over Reyes, all by decision. Elsewhere, I think Tim Bradley's aggression will get him the nod over Kendell Holt, who, for all his athleticism, doesn't bring the fight to his opponent enough. I also like Librado Andrade to take a decision from Vitali Tsypko, and Alexander Povetkin to knock Jason Estrada out in the second half of their ten-rounder.