Recipients of IBHOF Graham Houston Consider this weekend’s clash between famed Ryan Garcia and former world champion Javier Fortuna, and also consider Lennox Clarke vs Mark Heffron, Hamzah Sheeraz vs Francisco Torres and Ricardo Sandoval vs David Jimenez showdowns.
There’s a big battle action to look forward to in both the UK and US today, so get to it right away.
Exciting and powerful punch Ryan Garcia in a game worthy of victory over the veteran Javier Fortuna. It’s a 12-round schedule in Los Angeles and it’s not surprising Garcia is very popular (1/14 at Betfred).
Fortuna requested a 140 lbs weight limit for this fight. Does that mean he let himself be overweight after his one-round KO win in February? He looked a bit soft in body at 138.8lbs at the sixth weight, while Garcia looked ripped at 140. Indeed, Garcia later talked about staying at 140 instead of going down to light.
The talk from Golden Boy Promotion was that Garcia wanted to meet Tank Davis in the next battle after Fortuna. For this to happen, Garcia needs to look good tonight. An overtime win would be ideal and looks doable.
Garcia is 33 years younger, older and stronger than Fortuna. While Fortuna is a seasoned, crafty nampaw, he is not a runner. Garcia could get to him with a big left hook at some point in the scheduled 12 innings. Garcia never really wanted to stop Emmanuel Tagoe in his final match, although to be fair, Tagoe was extremely negative and it was difficult to stop an opponent whose sole intention was to avoid a loss. . Garcia had stopped 5 opponents in a row before meeting Tagoe so he was probably “due” for a full-range match.
Fortuna has only been stopped once, when the rugged Jason Sosa knocked him out in an 11-round TKO in 2016, in a 130lbs title fight. So it’s not easy to stop Fortuna. He hits hard enough to earn respect and he knows how to move, dodge, tie and survive. Still, the possibility is that Garcia finally caught up with him. I mean, has Fortuna ever met anyone as big as Garcia, with Garcia’s hand speed and firepower? I don’t think he has.
Betfred offers a Social boxing pushes Garcia to win rounds 1-6, 11/4 [+275]. This can be a good bet when you consider that 16 of Garcia’s 18 KO wins came in six extra time. But we don’t know how ambitious Fortuna will display, nor how he will hold up if Garcia starts to capture and hurt him. No Distance War seems to be the safer game, giving bettors 12 full innings to work with, but the price is admittedly a bit high at 4/11 [-275].
The most exciting fight of the weekend, for me, was the fight for the British and Commonwealth super-middle title between the champion Lennox Clarke and poor challenger Mark Heffron at the Bronze Box Arena in London.
Clarke deserves respect after his close fight with the slick nampaw Lerrone Richards and how he beat promising Willy Hutchinson in five innings. He’s the underdog compared to Hutchinson but he’s a pretty broad favorite compared to Heffron (3/10, or -340, at Betfred).
Heffron is 30 years old and he has never reached his full potential even though he held a draw against Denzel Bentley in the middleweight and unfortunately suffered a swollen eye in the second round of their rematch. Heffron says he’s drained his best at 160lbs but stopping two setups doesn’t really tell us what to expect from him in his first real fight at 168lbs.
However, Heffron says he fought “heavy heavyweights” at Joe Gallagher’s gym in Manchester so he felt he could match Clarke’s physique. Clarke, meanwhile, has had injury problems and he’s really only had one battle – victory over Hutchinson – since November 2019.
As a straight choice, I would go with Clarke, but the asking price is too high for my liking. Heffron is offered at 11/4 (+275) at Betfred. That is an attractive number. But there are doubts about Heffron. His best win was a sixth round TKO against Andrew Robinson (21-3-1 in the match), and that was four years ago.
However, I still made Heffron an underdog compared to Clarke. Both men look great when weighed. However, I can’t trust Heffron to get the job done. Clarke looked too rough, too insistent, and too strong. It was a fight, and by no means a certainty for Clarke. “distance – zero” clause at 5/4 (+125) may be worth considering, if only because this seems like a highly relevant undertaking.
Unbeatable potential customers Hamzah Sheeraz topped the bill at the Bronze Box in his second bout in the middleweight division, having gone well beyond 154lbs. Tall, talented and strong, Sheeraz looks too strong for Argentina Francisco Torres. While Torres can be a tough customer (he was unlucky to have to deal with a draw against home boxer Jose Benavidez in Phoenix) he doesn’t have much strength and I think he will have to. struggling to keep Sheeraz away from him. Sheeraz is not playable as a 1/14 payline bet. However, the KO, TKO, DQ clause at 8/15 (-188) is a good look.
One bet that I quite like that some books are offering is over 6.5 rounds inMiddle WBA flyweight title remover Ricardo Sandoval and David Jimeneztakes place in the Garcia vs Fortuna bill in Los Angeles.We know how good Sandoval is – he broke and stopped Jay Harris in the UK – butCosta Rican Jimenez looks like a tough customer. Jimenez has only had 9 professional matches (all wins) but he has enjoyed an extensive amateur career, including a bronze medal at the World Championships. Jimenez was actually looking for it on Friday. It seems the real confidence is there. At the time of writing, over 6.5 is available at around -130 (10/13).
Main image: The famous Garcia (left) will make a point in front of Fortuna (right) on Saturday night. Photo: Tom Hogan / Hogan Photos / Golden Boy Promotion.
