February 4th-Yoan Pablo Hernandez v Steve Cunningham

Rematches are a funny thing in boxing and when Yoan Pablo Hernandez defends his IBF Cruiserweight title for the first time against the man he controversially beat for the title last October I can't help but feel we will see Cunningham come back from the bout as the new champion. Just a few short months ago the 2 men fought to a very controversial 6th round technical decision (won by Hernandez), though the fight was filled with sub stories. Firstly we saw Cunningham dropped hard by a powerful counter left hand for a 9 count that seemed to leave Cunningham with out his legs for the rest of the round. Hernandez seemed set to take advantage of a still shaken Cunningham though he couldn't do it and instead Cunningham recovered his marbles and arguably won every one of the subsequent rounds. The fight however ended after cuts (caused by accidental head clashes) caused Mickey Vann to stop the contest, much to the chagrin of Cunningham who was starting to mentally break Hernandez (who's own work rate had dropped through the basement).

Going into the first fight I had money on Hernandez, he had been priced as a really large under-dog in what looked like a relatively even match up between the aging American and the youthful and powerful Cuban. What we saw after the opening round of their first bout however was that the American was the more skilled and more intelligent fighter than his opponent, he worked harder, he threw more and he was incredibly unlucky to have lost the decision. This time however the odds reflect how I first saw the fight, though my view has changed significantly to strongly favouring Cunningham in this rematch.

What we saw in the first fight was that Hernandez didn't have the skills to match Cunningham and aside from the knockdown punch didn't appear to have anything to match Cunningham. In fact by the time of the stoppage Hernandez seemed to have wilted to the point where the "stoppage" appeared as if Hernandez wanted to quit the fight. If we add in the fact that this fight is in Germany and Cunningham will not be wanting the judges to decide the outcome of the bout, I think we'll see Cunningham start fast and time I think Hernandez WILL wilt and be forced to give up late on in the fight, so the first bet I'll be looking at is Cunningham by TKO/KO/DQ which is 7/2 (Betfred and Stan James).

Bets:
Outright-Cunningham Evens (most places)
Others-Cunningham by TKO/KO/DQ (7/2 Betfred and Stan James)