At the O2 Arena, London, two world title fights will be capping off a busy boxing card: Flanagan-Magdaleno and Smith-Thompson. Terry Flanagan, who captured the WBO Lightweight title recently against Jose Zepeda, will be making his first defense against Diego Magdaleno. And in the chief support, Liam Smith will be trading blows with John Thompson for the vacant WBO Junior Middleweight variety.
There’s almost a US vs UK feel about this double-feature, given Flanagan hails from Manchester, Smith Liverpool, Magdaleno Los Angeles, and Thompson New Jersey. At first glance, this event seemed like one only Brits would tune into, but given the aforementioned ‘battle of nations’ vibe, it could well generate an audience in the US. I hear beIN Sports has now picked up the event stateside, so that in itself points to significant interest across the pond.
Neither fight is making serious noise like, say, next weekend’s Golovkin-Lemieux (of course), but they could well contain the ingredients to produce a mini-classic night of boxing. While researching the achievements of all four fighters, it was surprising to see just how close they appear on paper. Which is surprising given Flanagan and Smith, both undefeated fighters, are two of Frank Warren’s hottest properties – if not, hottest.
So, you know, these fights are relatively high risk for both the fighters and for British promoter Frank Warren himself. For a very detailed insight, be sure to catch my recent write up, Flanagan-Magdaleno Tale of the Tape, Facts & Stats. (Smith-Thompson is currently in the works…)
Flanagan-Magdaleno Preview
Terry Flanagan (28-0, 11 KO) is an undefeated Mancunian boxer-puncher (don’t be fooled by his KO ratio), who will be looking to set the record straight about his ‘world class’ worthiness. This is due to the fact he captured the WBO title in peculiar fashion last July after reigning champ Jose Zepeda dislocated his shoulder in the 2nd round. Following Zepeda’s subsequent retirement, Flanagan faced a backlash from the boxing fandom – for what it’s worth, it was unwarranted.
During his career, Flanagan made a name for himself on UK shores by beating domestic talent such as Stephen Ormond, and also Gary Sykes and Derry Matthews to win the Prize Fighter Lightweight Tournament. Impressive. But it’s true there are still question marks circling Flanagan’s head right now. The Zepeda fight was viewed as a pick’ em match-up, and six minutes just wasn’t long enough to answer the question of whether Flanagan is world class.
Some say he is. Some say he isn’t. And against a tough customer like Magdaleno, we’ll surely find out.
Despite having suffered one defeat, Magdaleno (28-1, 12 KO) has more world title experience than his scheduled foe. Magdaleno may have come up short against WBO champ Roman Martinez back in 2013, but he did more than hold his own in the 12-rounder. In fact, there was some controversy over the Split Decision verdict, with a fair few boxing fans believing Magdaleno did enough to get the nod.
It is Magdaleno’s bold performance against Martinez that is the most eye-catching spark on his record, but wins over fighters like Jose A Gonzalez and Carlos Oliveira are also worth a mention. Now, though this pairing looks fairly even, there is a glaring fact that could trouble it’s competitiveness. Magdaleno does give away 3.5 inches in height against the 5′ 9.5″ Flanagan. But you never know, this could add some extra spice to the match-up since Magdaleno will be forced to mull his way inside.
Smith-Thompson Preview
Like Flanagan, Liam Smith is an undefeated fighter on the rise, hoping his appeal will soon reach beyond UK shores. Brother of Stephen, Paul and Callum, his boxing kin, he will hope to become the first to capture a world title tomorrow night. Smith (20-0-1, 10 KO) picks his punches well, digs his power shots into ribcages nicely, but will be up against it when he steps into the ring with John Thompson. How much so we’ll soon find out, as again, like Flanagan, there are a few question marks hanging over his head.
Thompson has faced the slightly better opposition, but Smith has claimed a few notable scalps of his own belonging to the likes of Zoltan Sera, plus domestic foes Jason Welborn and Mark Thompson. I haven’t yet looked at the official odds for Smith-Thompson, but my gut feeling says Thompson (17-1, 6 KO) might actually be a slight betting favorite here. Not only has he fought marginally better fighters, he demonstrated class and steely determination by bouncing back from defeat earlier this year.
Following that only career setback, a 2nd round knockout at the hands of Frank Galarza, Thompson managed to win ESPN’s Boxinco Tournament, outpointing Ricardo Pinell, Stanyaslav Skorokhod, and putting in the exclamation mark victory by stopping Brandon Adams in the Final. It may have not made headlines on an international scale, but it proves just what Thompson is made of.
Personally, I really can’t pick a winner. Gun against my head, I’d pick Smith, just because he carries that extra pop in his punch. Like Flanagan-Magdaleno, we won’t know quite what to expect until we see them together in the ring. How are you calling Flanagan-Magdaleno and Smith-Thompson? I’d be more than interested to see how readers see these showdowns playing out.
