Our pick last week was the matchup between Fernando Guerrero (28-3, 20KOs) of Salisbury, Maryland by way of the Dominican Republic and Tony Harrison (22-1, 19 KOs) of Detroit, Michigan. The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds and took place at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Showtime aired the bout which aired live on Showtime. Guerreo was down in round 2 but bravely beat the count and survived the round. Guerrero actually came back and stunned Harrison but that would be the extent of his success. Harrison would put Guerrero down twice in round 6 to end matters. This ended matters for us as well as we picked Guerrero to upset Harrison.
This week we have decided to go with the world title fight between WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanigan and countryman Derry Mathews. The main event will take place at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The bout is scheduled for 12 rounds and will be promoted by Frank Warren (Queensberry Promotions). This will be the second world title defense for Flanagan.
Flanagan is coming off of his impressive successful mandatory defense against Diego Magdaleno this past October. Entering the matchup it was thought by many to be a pickem fight. Flanagan showed immediately that he was the much stronger and better of the two as he had Magdaleno hurt early in the fight. Flanagan never let up and was able to stop Magdaleno in round 2. It was an impressive win and one that made a statement that Flanagan is arguably the top guy at 135.
Matthews enters the fight in the fictional Rocky character movie type role. He has fought some of the best guys in the United Kingdom near or in his weight class. This has resulted in a number of his losses. Multiple past opponents of his have gone on to win world titles. Mathews won an interim world title in his last fight against Tony Luis. This was a major accomplishment for him. Now he finally gets his chance at a full world title. He will once again will enter as the underdog but it seems only fitting considering all he has had to endure in the ring to finally get this opportunity.
This is a major showdown in the UK. Both fighters are quite popular there locally. The buzz for the fight has been quite active on the social media networks as well. Mathews is expected to come out strong as emotions will be running high for sure. Its once things settle in is when the better fighter we believe will show. We feel this is Flanagan who is our pick of the week.
