Showtime Quick Picks

Hugo Centeno Jr. vs. Gerardo Ibarra: Showtime, along with many of the other boxing friendly networks will be airing fight cards this week.  Showtime will be airing a Friday edition of ShoBox: The New Generation and the main even of that card will feature two fighters who both hold perfect professional records.  Those fighters are Hugo Centeno Jr. (20-0, 11 KO) and Gerardo Ibarra (14-0, 8 KO) who are both 23 years old and are scheduled to go 10 rounds in the middleweight division.  Most fight fans know that records can be deceiving especially when they are attached to undefeated prospects and that could be the case with these two fighters.  Centeno Jr. has been brought along nicely and his past five fights have all come against fighters with winning records one of whom is a solid prospect himself, Julian Williams.  Things have been much different for Ibarra who has only fought three winning fighters in his past ten bouts and those three have records of 7-2, 2-1, and 2-0.  Another difference in the career arch of these fighters is how often they step into the ring.  Centeno Jr. has been fighting at a steady pace and typically fights about four or five times a year while Ibarra didn't fight at all in 2012 and has only fought twice in 2013 & 2014 combined.  Centeno Jr. is a fighter who is light on his feet and scores points with a quick jab.  He moves around the ring well, moves his head a lot, and also feints often.  Besides his nice jab Centeno Jr. also has a good straight right hand and a strong left hook that he likes to sit down on which is also the punch he usually scores his knockouts with.  Centeno Jr. definitely likes to fight from the outside and when he is forced to fight from the pocket his punches tend to get smothered.  In this fight look for Ibarra to be the aggressor and try to make Centeno Jr. fight at close range.  Ibarra doesn't use his feet as well as Centeno Jr. does and he also swings and misses a lot which really hurts his stamina later in fights.  Ibarra likes to come straight ahead and his best punch is probably his left hook.  While Ibarra has the higher career knockout percentage he hasn't stopped an opponent since 2010 so if there is a knockout it will probably come from Centeno Jr. has has two knockouts in his past three fights and one of those fights against Williams was ruled a no contest.  I expect Centeno Jr. to look very good in this fight against the slower Ibarra.  Ibarra's record is mostly smoke and mirrors and Centeno Jr. will outbox him on his way to a unanimous decision victory.   

Eddie Gomez vs. Francisco Santana: The other fight on Friday night will also be featuring an undefeated prospect by the name of Eddie Gomez (16-0, 10 KO).  Gomez will be in the ring with Francisco Santana (19-3-1, 9 KO) in a 10 round junior middleweight fight.  The biggest name Gomez has on his resume is Daquan Arnett, a fighter he beat in his last bout.  While Arnett isn't exactly a big name he is a solid fighter and Gomez won that fight by a wide margin.  During his career Santana has faced the much better opposition.  He fought Karim Mayfield twice and lost, also lost to Jermell Charlo, and has a draw against Julian Williams.  His best win came against Joachim Alcine but Alcine is well past his prime.  This fight should answer some question that fans have, questions like "is Gomez as good as advertised?"  And also "is Santana more than just a tough stepping stone?"  One problem Gomez has is that he doesn't fight very well on the outside and tends to take most of his punishment from that distance.  That is why Gomez typically likes to fight at close range where he can work the body with a great left hook and powerful right hand.  One punch Gomez doesn't throw much of is a jab which makes sense since he doesn't like to fight from the outside and doesn't mind taking a punch or two on his way inside to land some punches of his own.  Gomez has fast hands and throws heavy combinations and one of his favorites is a right hand upstairs followed by a left hook to the body, a combination that can end a fight.  The fast hands of Gomez could be the difference in this fight because Santana lacks hand speed.  A lot of times Santana will just put the earmuffs on and wait for his turn to punch and when he does throw punches they tend to come in widely.  His best punch is probably his straight right hand which he likes to throw after a good long jab.  The problem with Santana is that if he fights inside with Gomez and just waits for his turn to punch he may never get the chance because of the superior speed of Gomez.  Santana is a tough fighter but probably isn't going to much more than a tough stepping stone for prospects.  That is why I think Gomez should have a fairly easy time on Friday night and win this fight by the way of 10th round stoppage.