NBC Quick Picks

Thabiso Mchunu vs. Garrett Wilson: Saturday afternoon will be a rare day for the sport of boxing.  While most notable fights in this era appear on subscription cable this week will be somewhat of a throwback.  That is because Saturday afternoon's fight will appear on regular NBC which will make it widely available to sports fans who may not regularly watch the sweet science.  The main event of that card will feature cruiserweights Thabiso Mchunu (16-1, 11 KO) and Garrett Wilson (13-7-1, 7 KO) and is scheduled to go 10 rounds.  Clearly the fighter to pay attention to in this bout is Mchunu who is a contender in the cruiserweight division at only 26 years old.  Mchunu is a southpaw and is built like an NFL running back.  Mchunu isn't the busiest puncher in the sport but he is a talented fighter with quick hands.  He has a nice jab and likes to follow that up with a strong straight left hand.  Mchunu also moves around the ring well and has a good idea of what he wants to do inside the squared circle.  Usually Mchunu likes to use a counter attack and will wait patiently for his opportunities which makes him a successful fighter but not always an exciting one.  Defensively Mchunu does a good job of moving out of danger or clinching on the inside and uses his shoulder quite well.  His opponent Wilson is a very different type of fighter.  He isn't as sharp or as patient as Mchunu and he will often come forward behind wild punches.  While Mchunu likes to stay on the outside to do his work Wilson likes to work from the pocket.  Wilson likes to throw a ton of punches and will even leap forward to land a power punch.  Wilson is an orthodox fighter who actually has a very good jab which is a punch he will counter with effectively.  However on defense Wilson tends to keep his hands very low and won't bring them back up after he throws a punch which leaves him exposed.  Also because of his wild punching he tends to get off balance quite frequently.  Any fight Wilson is involved in has a chance to be exciting because of his no fear offensive style but this fight should be fairly one sided as Mchunu uses his crisper punches and better footwork to outbox Wilson on his way to a unanimous decision victory.

Karl Dargan vs. Angino Perez: The co-feature on NBC's Saturday afternoon card shouldn't be anything more than a stay busy, showcase fight for Karl Dargan (16-0, 8 KO).  Dargan will be in the ring against Angino Perez (17-5, 15 KO) who will be moving down to lightweight for this fight.  Perez usually fights as a junior welterweight and not a very good one at that.  The two best fighters Perez has a fought at Carlos Molina and Ashley Theophane and he lost to both of them convincingly.  While the knockout percentage of Perez does look good is has come against fighters with records of 0-10, 4-49-3, 2-17-2, 1-9, and fighters making their professional debuts.  So needless to say that his knockout percentage is more smoke and mirrors than actual punching power.  As for Dargan he is 29 years old and himself has not fought very many quality opponents.  Dargan is an orthodox boxer who is good defensively.  He also has a polished offensive game and uses his jab very well.  Dargan also has a nice right hand when he shortens it up but he will sometimes throw it to wide.  One thing Dargan does very well is move his head but he can't rely on that forever and needs to get better at keeping his hands up.  Across the ring Perez is the top of fighter who has trouble getting away from opponents and most of the time he just looks to land one big punch to end the fight, since he isn't highly skilled.  This fight probably won't be a very close one.  Perez will be throwing wild punches and may catch Dargan with his hands down but that seems unlikely.  Dargan should have an easy time in this fight using his jab and defense to handle Perez by the way of unanimous decision.