HBO and Showtime both offer cards this weekend, featuring a Heavyweight title fight on HBO and two title fights on Showtime. In the afternoon, HBO will be airing the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Lamon Brewster rematch live from Germany at 5PM ET/2PM PT and replayed at 10:30 PM ET/PT, and at night, Showtime will have the super-middleweight title fight between two undefeated fighters, Travis Simms and Joachim Alcine. Also on the Showtime card is the always exciting Vic Darchinyan. Darchinyan will be fighting Nonito Donaire, brother of Glenn Donaire, who Vic stopped in October.
The rematch between Klitschko (48-3, 43 KOs) and Brewster (33-3, 29) is an interesting one. Both fighters are in similar situations to the first fight. In the first fight, Klitschko was dominating through four rounds and had Brewster ready to be knocked out, when Brewster landed a few lefts in the fifth, and Klitschko just couldn’t recover. At the end of the fifth round, Klitschko basically collapsed in the ring and the referee had to stop the fight. Again, Klitschko is a solid favorite coming in at about -650 in the Las Vegas sportbooks.
After the fight, you may remember, Klitschko’s camp made several unfounded accusations about why he collapsed, ranging from tainted water at the hands of Brewster’s camp, to too much vaseline that caused him to over heat. He’s since backed off those claims and has given Brewster a shot at the title to avenge his most recent loss.
I don’t see this fight going much differently than the first four rounds of the first fight, only with a much different fifth round and beyond. I expect Wladimir to domintate this fight much like his last six fights since Brewster stopped him. He has looked so much better in his last three fights than at any other point in his career. He absolutely destroyed Chris Byrd, dominated then undefeated Calvin Brock, and took out Ray Austin without throwing a right hand. Klitschko is so dialed in right now, I have a hard time seeing anyone in the world competing with him anytime soon. I expect this fight to be very similar to the Brock fight, with Wlad popping his jab for a few rounds, without even offering the right hand. Then when the opening is there, he’ll unload the 1-2 and it will be over not long after that. Official prediction: Klitschko KO 5.
The Showtime card has an intriguing main event with Travis Simms and Joachime Alcine. I’ll be honest, I haven’s seen Alcine (28-0, 18) fight much, since he hasn’t fought in the U.S. in over four years. But at 28-0, you have to respect his ability.
Simms (25-0, 19), meanwhile has fought only once in the last 32 months due to legal tie-ups revolving around his WBA title. But in that fight against Jose Antonio Rivera, he looked great. Simms dominated the entire fight against Rivera, stopping him in the ninth. I expect a good technical boxing match, but I believe that Simms has been in the ring with better opposition. My prediction: Simms UD.
On the undercard of that fight are flyweights Vic Darchinyan (28-0, 22) and Nonito Donaire (17-1, 10). Vic beat Donaire’s brother Glenn in October and now must face his little brother Nonito. Against Glenn, Vic dominated and had a knockout in the sixth round, but Donaire claimed he was headbutted or elbowed and it went to the cards. Darchinyan’s record may show a win by technical decision, but that was a knockout. Nonito Donaire is coming down in weight for this fight, so it will be his first fight at 112 in his career. Of course Donaire is promising a win, but this fight should not end much differently for the younger Donaire than it did for his big brother. Prediction: Darchinyan TKO 7.
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