Showtime Quick Picks

Andrzej Fonfara vs. Doudou Ngumbu: This weekend isn't just about Halloween.  It is also about the fight card on Saturday night on Showtime.  The card is headlined by Polish pugilist Andrzej Fonfara (25-3, 15 KO) who is coming off of a tough loss to Adonis Stevenson.  Fonfara will be challenged by Doudou Ngumbu (33-5, 12 KO) in a 10 round light heavyweight bout.  This will be an important fight for Fonfara as he looks to get a rematch with lineal light heavyweight champion Stevenson.  Fonfara is the type of fighter who seems to do everything well but nothing great.  He is an orthodox boxer with a solid jab and he also has a wild right hand that lands with good power.  Also in his toolbox is a good short left hook and the Polish fighter usually does a nice job of attacking the body.  Fonfara has been dropped before in his career but his chin may be better than advertised.  As for experience against top competition Fonfara will have a huge advantage over Ngumbu.  Fonfara has been in the right with Glen Johnson, Gabriel Campillo, and Stevenson while the bets fighter Ngumbu has ever been in with is Isaac Chilemba.  Ngumbu is also an orthodox boxer and he tends to keep his hands low defensively.  Ngumbu may have the fast hands in this fight but that's the only advantage he will have.  Ngumbu throws a lot of combinations but he throws them all very wildly and his technique is seriously flawed.  If this fight was made in order to make Fonfara look good it should work.  Ngumbu's technique is too flawed to stand up to Fonfara over all 10 rounds of this fight and Fonfara will win it by the way of knockout in the 7th round.


Tomoki Kameda vs. Alejandro Hernandez: The co-feature of Saturday's tripleheader on Showtime will be the only title fight of the night.  That fight will be between Tomoki Kameda (30-0, 19 KO) and Alejandro Hernandez (28-10-2, 15 KO) and is scheduled to go 12 rounds for Kameda's WBO bantamweight title.  Kameda already has an impressive resume at only 23 years old and part of that is his footwork around the ring.  Kameda has quick hands and likes to stick and move.  He fights out of an orthodox stance and has a nice jab along with a very short left hook that usually finds its home.  Kameda is good defensively because of his movement but he doesn't like getting hit to the body and doesn't fight well against the ropes.  Still even if his footwork is rendered ineffective he still has power and he goes to the body very well.  Kameda's opponent Hernandez is only 28 years old but already seems like nothing more than a tough opponent for young fighters.  He already has 10 losses but he has only been knocked out once so he typically gives opponents good work.  Hernandez tends to keep his hands fairly low and he isn't a very sharp puncher.  His jab is actually pretty decent and he goes to the body well but his other punches aren't very impressive.  Hernandez has won three fights in a row but that streak will end Saturday when Kameda wins this fight via unanimous decision.


Javier Fortuna vs. Abner Cotto: The opening bout of Showtime's tripleheader might be the most exciting one.  That is because Dominican southpaw Javier Fortuna (25-0-1, 18 KO) will be in the ring.  Fortuna won Big Time Boxing's 2013 Knockout of the Year after his 1st round destruction of Miguel Zamudio.  Now Fortuna will be challenged by Abner Cotto (18-2, 8 KO) in a 10 round bout in the junior lightweight division.  There are a lot of good fights in the junior lightweight and lightweight divisions and Fortuna is looking to really make a name for himself.  Fortuna is a very aggressive fighter with a decent jab.  However he doesn't need his jab much because he has excellent power in both hands.  What makes Fortuna dangerous is that he is also a very good counter puncher.  His right hook comes in nicely but his money punch is his left hand which he throws wild at times but when it lands it's lights out for his opponent.  His opponent Saturday night will be Cotto who is an orthodox boxer.  He has quick hands with a nice jab and a sharp left hook however he doesn't have much of a right hand.  Another problem for Cotto is that he tends to take a lot of clean punches upstairs which will be dangerous against a power puncher like Fortuna.  The one advantage Cotto will have is his experience against a better level of opposition having fought fighters like Omar Figueroa, Francisco Vargas, and Jerry Belmontes.  Still Cotto lost all of those fight except for his most recent bout which was against Belmontes and Figueroa was able to knock him out in the 1st round.  Fortuna should find similar success against the not so hard to hit Cotto on his way to a 6th round knockout.