Solid, under-the-radar Cruiser doubleheader on ShoBox...

Andrew Tabiti vs. Keith Tapia & Michael Hunter vs. Isiah Thomas are the co-main events, with the four young 200lber prospects, all US citizens and in the same age range of 25-27, boasting a collective 55-0 (36 KO) record.

Definition of parity right there, both match-ups. I don't see any Vegas lines published yet (and might not until the day of, with none of these being really huge "names" yet) but would imagine they'll be close to evens if and when they come out.

I lean the way of Tapia and Thomas, personally - the former because of his slight edge in opponent quality and 3½ reach advantage (plus, the Puerto Rican just passes the eye test and looks a lot more fluid and poised in the ring than does the very stiff Tabiti, who might not IMO be a top 5 p4p member of TMT) ...and the latter mainly because I've never been sold on Hunter as very special and have been suspicious of how slowly they're bringing him along compared with others in the USA Olympic Class of '12, and facing a pretty decent southpaw who stands at 6'4" and can score accurately from outside sounds like just the recipe for his exposure...and that's even with Thomas coming off that unseemly anticlimax with Murat Gassiev.

Cherry on top: Ronald Gavril (once believed/hyped to be the heir apparent to Lucian Bute as the next great boxer from Romania, but now relegated to just being a TV-friendly mid-card gladiator and diiiiiiiiiistant 2nd best Romanian SMW, after Bute ) will bang it out with Colombian glass cannon Juan Camilo Novoa.


Hunter vs. Thomas could be a slow-burner chess match potentially involving lots of mutual posing and/or jab-and-grab - but it will be sandwiched by two all-out slug-fests. I can't see either Tabiti vs. Tapia or Gavril vs. Novoa going the distance.

 

Caution, he is no Gassiev...

 

That's a good point, I don't have a lot of faith in Thomas being able to remove the judges from the equation given his low KO ratio and Hunter, for all his flaws and lazy attitude, not really having any red flags on his chin.. :think

...and I expect Tapia will get the KO, but you're right, it could go the other way. Even if so I won't be sold on Tabiti just yet. Too many "blah" performances for one good KO to rinse out the aftertaste.

 

The commentators on PBC are the ones that compared him to Mayweather and just about everybody on here groaned at it, because...no. Hell, even Broner is closer to Mayweather than him, by a lot.

 

..but he's taller and longer.

 

I just said Hunter's no Gassiev, now he's Sweet Pete?