March 24th at Bilbao Arena in Lejarraga's hometown in País Vasco (technically Spain), for the newly vacant EBU welterweight title. Apparently somebody told Mohamed "Le Problème" Mimoune that an IBO world title belt is a real prize, and worth more than his European title, because he vacated the former and has been proudly showing off the latter on a publicity tour at various galas across France and posing with it for pictures on social media. Quelle bêtise! So, before he dropped the belt, Mimoune was in talks for a defense versus Lejarraga. Then when he vacated it was supposed to be Lejarraga vs. David Avanesyan. Then when that fell through, Lejarraga vs. Quadratillo Abduqaxorov. For whatever reason that didn't work out, so we had Lejarraga vs. Ahmed El Mousaoui signed & sealed, ready to go...until a couple of weeks ago. Now, finally, somebody has stepped up that wants it (and has a wrathful promoter holding their leash; when Frank signs the dotted line he probably won't brook any nonsense about Skeete getting cold feet, not that I expect him to) Skeete and Mimoune are stylistically pretty similar - which is to say that he and Lejarraga could not be more diametrically opposed. Skeete is a negative spoiler, who excels at what he does but is never exactly keen for a rumble; Lejarraga is as pure a puncher as you'll find...tense, mono-directional, one-geared, looking to dole out some hurtful stuff whenever possible. This should be pretty interesting.
Hopefully Lejarraga knocks Bradley "The Arab Looking Pete Townshend" Skeete's head into orbit, and wins by KO1. But it'll probably end up looking like the Skeete-Gavin match with Kerman winning by controversial MD.
Typical mover&slugger fight. I know Bradley has never been stopped but he has not fought big punchers... I put my money on Kerman stopping him on round 8.
Watch Skeete-Eggington round 7. Woooooooow. Skeete looks like a 5 times world champion in that round. Just that round :-D
Lol why don't you like Skeete? I think Frank has done Bradley dirty here by sending him to Spain, Danny Williams was shafted badly out there years back.
So, this got postponed from its original date (which was supposed to be a month ago) and is in fact happening on Saturday.
I'm not sure how anyone could describe what Bradley did to Eggington (his sternest foe to date) as negative spoiling. That was some of the tidiest pure boxing I've seen in the last couple years or so. Recommended viewing, for any who missed it; This content is protected Lejarraga isn't much of a Gavin analogue. Were you thinking of Eggington (more of a stylistic ringer for Lejarraga than Frankie)?
Skeete's a swell guy. He lumbered himself with the 'boring' rep, and his relative toothlessness (attributable, in significant part, to rather modest punching power) is fair game up to a point, but the Eggington fight showed that he can put on pleasing performances with his skills given the right matchups. And, on the matter of Bradley's seeming lack of killer instinct, I find his reticence more forgivable than in the case of someone like Lara, who has notable power but still refuses to go in when opponents are there for the taking.
Nah, I meant Gavin, he was forced to fight far more aggressively than he usually does against Skeete, more of a pressure fighter, that he didn't look all that comfortable attempting.
Gavin was still typically elusive and cagey, though, even while in front of Skeete, not exactly straight-ahead. I'd expect Lejarraga to be less complicated and more open from the film I've seen. It should bring out the best in Skeete's boxing, instead of the stultifying fare that the Gavin bout provided. And I'd hope that the officials won't all be Spanish...
Skeete will come into the ring with a shotgun as he is a skeete shooter! That's what skeete shooters do!
Lejarraga as somewhere inbetween, he doesn't just eat clean shots like dunderheaded Sam, but he's not nearly as elusive as Frankie. Kerman has a little head movement, and bounces in and out of range a little more than Sam, and IIRC Gavin won around rounds off of Bradley and Sam about 4, so Kerman will probably nick 4 or 5 himself, which is all he'll need in Spain, that is if he doesn't win by KO, which is a possibility.
