Saturday, April 15, 2017

Indongo incinerates Burns

In an lopsided bout in Glasgow,Scotland, Julius Indongo added the WBA junior welterweight title to his IBF title in the same division in a lopsided unanimous decision over Ricky Burns.
I scored Indongo a 119-109 winner (11-1 in rounds) and even the round that I gave Burns could have gone to Indongo..

Indongo backed Burns up by using his reach and kept Burns off his back foot,unable to do anything remotely threatening to the native of Namibia.
I (and Ramon Malpica) picked Burns,but this was one of those fights that a minute into the bout,you could see that if Indongo didn't make a tactical error and was able to continue to fight in the same manner that he started,that this fight was decided...
I picked Burns because I had seen less than a minute of Indongo in the ring against anything remotely resembling even top 50 competition,but it's clear that he'll be a handful for anyone in the 140 pound division and that includes Terence Crawford.

Indongo is very tall for a 140 pounder (nearly 5'11) and has an awkward style that is aggressive,yet with some skills to go with the size.
Of course,you would have to favor the more tested Crawford,but Indongo brings enough to make that fight an interesting one.
Crawford has beaten fighters with similar size before (Viktor Postol),so the taller fighter is not something Crawford hasn't seen,but Indongo moves forward unlike Postol,who was more of a boxer and he throws more punches.
I'd like to see that fight get made after Crawford's May fight against Felix Diaz,who is far from a light touch and I think that fight is makeable.
The IBF signed off on this fight since it was a unification fight and would do the same for a Crawford fight,but if that fight cannot be made next, Indongo's next foe will be the IBF mandatory Sergei Lipinets,who is 12-0 and a PBC fighter.

Big fight weekend next week in the challenge coming up.
I'll be back later tonight with a look at the Cavaliers nailbiter over Indiana..

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