Here we go with another group of Fantasy Boxing games at ThrowdownFantasy.com. This game includes such stars as Golovkin, Thurman, Broner and Kolalev. Good luck!
February 21
Gennady Golovkin ($6,000) vs. Martin Murray ($4,200) –For Golovkin to win he must continue to be GGG — be aggressive, cut off the ring, bang Murray’s body to slow his legs and overwhelm his radar with tons of punches while remaining defensively responsible. For Murray to win he must keep the fight at long range by firing jabs and staying on the move while looking for chances to land eye-catching counters. If he lands three or four such blows per round he can negate Golovkin’s tactics. Don’t look for it, however, because he doesn’t carry a big enough punch to earn GGG’s respect.
Hekkie Budler ($4,700) vs. Jesus Silvestre ($4,800) –To win, Budler must use his busy jab, combinations and angles to keep the fight at long range and prevent Silvestre from planting his feet. If the KO comes, it comes but it must come naturally because Silvestre is the much bigger puncher. For Silvestre to win he must cut off the ring, unleash his vaunted body attack with both hands and force Hudler into exchanges. He must turn a thinking man’s match into a street fight.
February 21
Arthur Abraham ($4,800) vs. Paul Smith ($4,300) – For “King Arthur” to prevail he must apply similar tactics to the first fight: Stay on the front foot, be more proactive (he averaged 44.5 punches per round to Smith’s 49.9 in fight one, a higher-than-usual work rate for Abraham), work the jab well (he landed 6.8 jabs per round in the first bout) and smother Smith’s blows with his high guard. For Smith to win he must give the judges reasons to score rounds for him because the home-ring advantage in Germany is powerful. He must be aggressive and not let Abraham’s tight guard frustrate him. He must work hard, work consistently and project the image of someone who wants to take the title.
February 28
Tyson Fury ($6,000) vs. Christian Hammer ($3,900) – Fury should maximize his size, reach and power against the 6-foot-2 Hammer, whose punch doesn’t match his surname. Hammer should jab to the body (he landed 20 body jabs in his most recent fight against Irineu Costa) to work his way inside, then “hammer” the body with both hands as many times as possible before Fury grabs. Hammer should also try to beat Fury in the work rate battle (he averaged 62.2 against Costa, above the 45.5 heavyweight norm while Fury averaged 70 in the Dereck Chisora rematch).
February 28
Carl Frampton ($5,200) vs. Chris Avalos ($4,600) – For Frampton to win, he must control distance with his jab, combinations and mobility while also setting up his fierce hook to the body, which mirrors that of his promoter Barry McGuigan. For Avalos to win he must swarm Frampton, force an inside war and make him fight at an uncomfortably high rate.
March 7
Keith Thurman ($5,500) vs. Robert Guerrero ($4,500) – For Thurman to win he must impose his superior strength, punching power and all-around game to counter-act Guerrero’s high-volume southpaw attack. Guerrero must shake off the nine months of ring rust in the dressing room before the fight because Thurman is a quick starter. He also needs to rev up his punch rate and hope that attrition and frustration set in for “One Time,” who would like to score an eye-catching KO.
Adrien Broner ($5,900) vs. John Molina ($4,200) – For Broner to win, he must be in shape and not let overconfidence lead to careless mistakes. He’s faster, fresher and far more talented and Molina gives him the perfect canvas in which to showcase his craft. Maturity is the key, and, to be kind, he hasn’t shown it yet but he still could. Broner also must take advantage of Molina’s extremely slow starts, but that flaw also has been a problem for “The Problem.” For Molina to win he must overcome his own slow-starting tendencies and jump on fellow slow-starter Broner, who likes to survey before striking and he must hope that Broner loses enough focus along the way to slip in one of his fight-changing bombs. More than any other active fighter, Molina defies CompuBox conventional wisdom as he wins fights he is losing statistically and has lost fights in which he’s led the stats.
March 7
Glen Tapia ($6,100) vs. Daniel Dawson ($3,800) – Tapia must find a happy medium between the mad bomber and the boxer because of the two he has the better skills. He also must work his jab (which, in four previous CompuBox-tracked fights, has landed 10.3 times per round, nearly double the junior middleweight average) and use the room that jab gives him to drop in his artillery. For Dawson, he must force a firefight to negate Tapia’s skills and to feed his aggressor’s mentality. Then he must hope that one of his bombs detonates before Tapia’s because Dawson’s defense is woeful (Sergiy Dzinziruk and Austin Trout landed a combined 54.1% of their power shots).
Amnat Ruenroeng ($4,700) vs. Zou Shiming ($5,000) – For Ruenroeng to prevail he must work his jab furiously to the head and body to keep Zou at arm’s length as well as apply his superior hand speed to unleash point-scoring combinations. He is also adept at timely clinching, which will help curb Zou’s volume-punching attack. To lift the title, Zou needs to throw a ton of punches to tire out the 35-year-old, who faded down the stretch last time out against McWilliams Arroyo, initiate and end most of the skirmishes and hope the fight is close enough so that his home ring advantage will kick in.
March 14
Sergey Kovalev $5,300) vs. Jean Pascal ($4,400) –For Kovalev to win he must return to being the “Krusher” that overwhelms his foes with power and volume. Pascal is known for extremely low output and thus can be easily out-worked. For Pascal to prevail he must weather the opening storm, hope that Kovalev has fallen in love with the more cerebral approach that worked so well against Hopkins, use his wiles to slow the pace and pelt Kovalev with flashy blows that will get a rise from the Bell Centre crowd.
Vyacheslav Glazkov ($4,800) vs. Steve Cunningham ($4,700) – For Glazkov to win he must regain the form he showed against Tomasz Adamek — a sharp jab, precise counterpunching and using enough of his size and power to make an imprint on the veteran, who has gone down fairly often throughout his career. For Cunningham he must box, box and box some more. He should use his jab to cut up Glazkov’s eyes and enough power spurts to make a positive impression without putting his vulnerable chin at undue risk.
Isaac Chilemba ($4,500) vs. Artur Beterviev ($5,600) — For Beterviev to win he must cut off Chilemba’s escape routes, neutralize his jab by jabbing his way inside, set up his bombs and slow Chilemba’s movement by working the body and insisting that Chilemba engage in a punch-out, a battle that the light-hitting African surely will lose. He also must not be too anxious to score the eye-catching knockout, for that’s what caused him to be floored in his last fight against Jeff Page Jr. For Chilemba to prevail he must circle constantly behind his excellent and accurate left jab (33.4 attempts and 7.4 connects per round in six CompuBox-tracked fights), maintain a high work rate to compensate for his lack of power, land well-timed counters and apply in-and-out tactics to land point-scoring flurries before Beterbiev can retaliate.
