Weekend Fight Preview – WBSS comes to Scotland

This weekend the World Boxing Super Series comes to my hometown of Glasgow, Scotland and I can’t wait! Not only that, we have two cracking quarter-final match ups that will hopefully bring lots of excitement come fight night at The SSE Hydro. First up we have Ryan Burnett defending his WBA (Unified) bantamweight title against former P4P star Nonitio Donaire in what should be good clash of styles. We then have two highly rated fighters, with Scotsman Josh Taylor coming up against American Ryan Martin for the WBC Silver Title in what should also be close match up. I’m really hoping to be attending the event on Saturday which I feel won’t disappoint. (I’ll let you all know on my Twitter page on Friday)

Burnett Vs Donaire – Bantamweight Quarter Final

To start off I feel Ryan Burnett will very much be going into this fight as a favorite to win, but he will be up against a very different challenge in Nonitio Donaire. Ever since Burnett’s first world title win over Lee Haskins last year, he has definitely looked like he belonged at this level with two convincing wins agasint Zhakiyanov and Parejo. I imagine most fighters that come up against him must struggle with his unusual confident style, with Burnett relying on technique and reflexes to make his opponent miss. Not only that he is very aggressive and I find him to be a very effective fighter on the inside.

Nonitio Donaire, who is coming off a defeat to Burnett’s fellow countryman Frampton at Featherweight in the spring, will be looking to bounce back with a win this weekend. However, many questions will be asked as to how he will cope with dropping down to Bantamweight, where he hasn’t fought since 2011! It’s going to be a tough ask for him, but he has potential to cause a few problems for Burnett as we know he has that knockout power – watch here. Burnett will need to respect Donaire in there despite the drop in weight, even Frampton was wary of him in his fight. “As you saw in the last round Nonito Donaire is a dangerous motherfucker.” – Carl Frampton after his fight with Donaire in the spring.

It will be an interesting fight for sure for both fighters, I just feel Burnett has the speed and youth that will overcome and aging Donaire dropping in weight – that’s not to say he can’t do it. Burnett UD

Taylor Vs Martin – Super lightweight Quarter Final

Taylor will be fighting in his home country again this weekend and will very much be the favourite for most fight fans heading into this. The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Taylor has definitely improved very quickly since his 2015 debut. Since last year he’s had three very convincing wins against Ohara Davis and two former world title holders in Miguel Vázquez and Viktor Postol. His Southpaw stance along with his action packed style makes him a very dangerous opponent for anyone I feel and Taylor continues to raise the bar with each of his performances. Taylor seems to be more than ready again. He said:

“I’m good. I’m nice and relaxed…Every performance I’m having there (The SSE Hydro), I’m getting stronger and the fans are getting bigger and bigger, and noisier. They believe in me, and there is absolutely no way there is anybody who’s going to beat me in there anytime, and especially on Saturday. I’m feeling confident…I love the big nights. I love the big occasions. When the big occasions arrive, I turn up. I love it. I thrive under the big lights.“

Taylor sounds like a very confident man in my opinion and I think Ryan Martin will need to be at his very best to come through the 12 rounds with him. Focusing on Martin, I’ve watched a couple of fights of him now and he definitely likes to put on the pressure against his opponent. He is also a seasoned pro training with the likes of Golovkin and his coach Abel Sanchez up in Big Bear California, renkowned for its hard training lifestyle and the altitude level. Despite all his hard training this is going to be the biggest challenge Martin has ever had. Not only will he be up against a world-class fighter, but the atmosphere of the crowd and the build-up will be something Martin has never experienced before. He has the potential to cause upset, it’s just going to be extremely hard on the night. Taylor KO

Thanks for reading this week’s fight preview, as I said in at the top of the article I’m hoping to be attending on Saturday, but if not I will be providing updates regardless on my Twitter page. I’ll leave you with the WBSS pre-fight documentary below.

Enjoy!

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