Could be a war. Will be interesting to see if Ritson has developed anymore basic boxing skills or will he just try to blast Townend out?Townend can bang too so like I say it could be a cracker
Easy fight for Ritson this, mate. He’ll carry him for a few rounds, practice some of the improvements he’s made in the gym before blasting him out. 5 rounds I reckon.
I favour Ritson heavily but it could be interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly Ritson has lost and is coming straight off the back of that defeat, you never know how a fighter reacts to a defeat, sometimes the bubble bursts, Ritson had a lot of momentum and there was a real buzz around him and that's not there any longer, that air of invincibility has gone, he and everybody else knows he is beatable at that level, it wasn't as if he just got beat by some elite level fighter. Also Ritson was hurt in that fight, so he can be hit and he can be hurt, Townsend for all his faults and there are quite a few can dig a little bit. Body shots, Ritson openly admitted, maybe even stupidly that he never recovered from a body shot early in the fight against Patera, did he expose a genuine weakness? If Townend targets that body from the opening bell it could be very interesting. I'm surprised Ritson didn't come back against a lower level opponent, just a quick blast out type fight to blow those cobwebs off and shake that defeat off, anyway like I say I heavily favour Ritson but Townend could cause him some problems.
Townend isn't a particularly great boxer so Ritson should manage to get his power shots off easily enough to force a stoppage. However if he hasn't shaken the ghost of the defeat though he could come unstuck - it all depends how he bounces back. The hype around him disappeared very quickly once he had his head boxed off. I can see Hearn guiding him fairly safely for 5 fights or so and then feeding him to Campbell.
I would favour Ritson, he's shown that he can product results at this level. But Townend can bang so it could be interesting. Even if Ritson blows him away though, he needs to show something to suggest next time will be different at the higher level.
Townsend only has one stoppage at 135 against Peter cope. I'm not sure he's carrying his power up from 130, he was always known as a massive 130er. Townsend does go well to the body tho and seemingly that is a soft spot for ritson. I'm not sure Townends heart is in the game anymore, it was local common knowledge that he dropped off in the past couple of years. As long as the defeat hasn't taken too much out of ritson in I'm expecting him to win this, altho Townsend gas a decent punches chance
Remember Steven Superbad barnes he couldn't comeback after being handed his loss A loss can make or break a fighter
Ritson made short work of the last 3/4 British fighters he shared the ring with so you would figure he should have enough to win this one ? He did look a bit one diamensional he his loss for the Euro title where the general feeling was that winning was a given ! Bad night at the office for sure but only time will tell if Ritson can progress past British title level .
I think Ritson wins this one but I expect Townend to give him some rounds. Ritson did look one dimensional in his last fight but I think he took a step up too early. People complain about certain boxers having easy fights and want them to move up quickly however when a boxer does it too quickly and loses then everyone says they are no good (It's the same scenario with Cheeseman). I just hope the loss hasn't damaged him too much as I think Ritson has the ability to fight for a world title one day in the future and beating Townend will give him good confidence and get him back on that path to the next level.