by Jeremy "Fasttalker" Bjornberg
The Eric Morales/Manny Pacquiao fight is only five days away. Manny will definitely be bringing the pressure and Morales will be looking to counter with his right hand.
This battle will boil down to Manny's lightning lead left and Eric Morales' textbook overhand rights. I fully expect this fight to be one of the best fights of the year, maybe one of the best in history. This fight contains many possible mismatch problems, so there is also a lot of value in the plays for this battle. Last time out I picked Jose Luis Castillo to win by 10th round KO over Julio Diaz, which was a perfect pick. Expect to find even more value in this week's undisputed play. Eric Morales vs. Manny Pacquiao is as good of a match-up available in boxing.
While this was a slow weekend for televised boxing, I went to a match in St. Paul, which pitted local rivals Matt Vanda and Troy Lowry in a local grudge match. It was a fairly equal match but the younger and quicker Vanda outworked Lowry to set up a possible WBO title shot at Daniel Santos.
Matt is ready for a bigger fight and needs to move his head a bit better but his work rate and combinations would make the Santos fight winnable which could lead to a huge payday in Vanda's future. The crowd was rough and tumble -- it actually made a Las Vegas crowd seem mellow. This was boxing at its truest roots. Matt brings out all of St. Paul and they love him as Minnesota's current top fighter.
On the undercard, huge up-and-coming prospect Allen Litzau dropped 2 devastating left hooks for a first round KO. Allen's last fight was broadcast on ESPN and he also had an impressive showing with a KO win. Keep an eye on Allen and his brother. Allen is 7-1; Jason Litzau is 13-0, with all wins coming by knockout. He will be fighting at Caesar's Palace on April 22. Both are Minnesota's finest young prospects along with contender Matt (Predator) Vanda. Expect to hear more about the Litzau brothers in an up and coming interview with the fighting tandem.
The Fernando Vargas comeback is next up on March 26. I fully expect Vargas to put himself back in the mix. Fernando has boxing's biggest heart and from the looks of his workouts his defense has vastly improved with his new training team. It is nice to have Fernando back as he has never been in a boring fight, and he ducks nobody. His opponent is Raymond Joval, the fight should be completive as are all of Fernando's matches.
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