Kabayel-Sanchez and Opetaia-Briedis on Usyk-Fury undercard

Maybe he's a hype job, I guess the Kabayel fight will show us how good he really is. Kabayel is decent, at worst he's a gatekeeper/fringe contender so if Sanchez is a hype job, he will get exposed and lose.

I'm not sold on Sanchez yet, the Ajagba and Fa fights proved little and his resume devoid of any good wins, so this is definitely a significant step up in class for Sanchez. But I think he's better than guys like Anderson and Dubois and would not be shocked at all if he beats Kabayel even though I am favouring Kabayel.

 

I see little to no substance from Sanchez

its all very flashy but against a good boxer with better than average fundamentals he will come up short

That's imo where Kabayel comes in

 

Agreed, Sanchez's hand speed gives me pause in picking Kabayel over him. Should be a good close fight between contenders,,,
a rarity these days.

 

This must be the best card this millennia.

 

I don’t really get why people think Opetaia will stop Briedis. Opetaia was more hurt/troubled in their fight and personally I think Briedis won 8-4. Though I suppose age and especially inactivity could be a big factor

 

Spend a good portion of the fight with a broken jaw. Breidies is now 39 years old. 2 years might not seem like a lot but for pretty much anyone 37 onwards is the steep downhill especially with inactivity. Jai is now 28 which is pretty much hitting prime. If Briedies comes fit and game not just a payday then he'll make the distance if not then he could get stopped. Seems like neither were actually fully ready for the bout before Fury got cut, now hard to judge where both stand given they had the extra needed time to prepare. Could be a classic again.

 

In no universe did Breidis win that fight 8-4.

 

I'm with you there mate.

Cacace has some skills as does the Welsh fella.

Breidis is an absolute beast but at 39 and still inactive he could look a shadow of him self.

If he's not he's no joke.

Oh and come on kabayel.

 

Could see it anywhere from 8-4 Briedis to 7-5 Opetaia. Jai was getting credit from the commentary for a lot of missed and blocked shots and I think for the most part Briedis scored more effective and clean shots. I don’t remember the exact rounds I gave them but I think it was something like 2 in the first 6 and then a clean sweep in the last 6 for Briedis. A load of swing rounds in there though

 

I had breidis winning by one.

Fight was extremely close and the ref let opetai hold on for dear life those last few rounds when he was in big trouble.

Which could have been due to the broken jaw although breidis is not a light puncher.

 

See mark Chamberlain is also on this card now.

Great stuff.

 

I never would have predicted a Kabayel KO due to body shots.

 

Sounds like a fine undercard

 

Sounds like an excellent card.

Really loaded start of the year for heavyweights.

 

Briedis looked visibly rusty and fatigued in their first bout. He did seem to catch a second wind and consistently landed heavy in the second half though. Repeating that at his age with his inactivity is too big of an ask imo. I don’t think he makes it past 5 rounds this time.