OnThEGRiND BoXiNG

Friday, April 17th 2009
by Jesse Rican

Peter Manfredo Jr. is not only going to lose on Saturday night but he is going to get knocked out, from my mouth to gods’ ears…you heard it here first, from OnThEGRiND BoXiNG’s own Jesse Rican.

Why?

Choose to listen to me…or don’t (considering so far my predictions are 1-2 maybe you shouldn’t. If you want to bet against me be my guest, but I did have Arreola). However as a fan of The Contender series, I saw Alfonzo Gomez beat the almighty Manfredo and continued on to the finals. As a result of another contender dropping out, Peter was brought back in and lost to Sergio Mora (I’m actually considering picking Mora over Pavlik, but allow me make my decision before sending the hate mail). Twice. How are we expected to continue thinking that this man is the “Pride of Providence?” Seriously, who has been impressed by this man?

He gets knocked out by Joe Calzaghe, loses to Jeff Lacy, and is knocked out again by Sakio Bika… and Manfredos wins have not won me over by any means.

On the other hand we have the Canadian Walid Smichet, who has five losses himself and one with one coming by way of TKO in the 1st round. Without having viewed the fight, I’m comfortable entertaining the possibility that it may have been a lucky punch, because in none of Walid hasn’t been knocked out in any of his other fights. Also, this man has impressed me more in a single loss than Manfredo has managed in all of his victories. Of course I’m referencing his near victory over Ireland’s John Duddy, and WOW what a war that was. Anyone who did not see the fight and happened to see Duddys face post bout, would have surely assumed Duddy lost (one judge did score it a draw).

As if Peter Manfredo Jr. doesn’t have his hands full already, he has the nerve to call out Duddy (Peter is not even going to defeat Walid)! A little premature don’t you think?

My play by play of the fight goes as follows… Manfredo Jr. will pick up a few rounds in the beginning and then get lured into a slug match with Smichet, where he will start looking bad, and finally we will see Smichet shine as the true contender, and knock out Manfredo in the 9th round.

What will be next for Smichet? Ideally a rematch with John (but Duddy’s too smart for that), but my guess is his win falls under the radar and he goes to war with another unheard of boxer in his next appearance.

As for Manfredo, maybe after his seventh loss Duddy will pick him up as an easy victory.

(BTW, as I was writing this article I made my decision, and I do have Sergio over Pavlik. So let’s start the hate mail!)