OUR boxing boff Iwan Evans (@IwanEvans19) shares his favourite Saturday selection.
Gary Corcoran v Danny Butler | Saturday 22.00 | Box Nation
A quiet weekend of boxing but Frank Warren and MGM Marbella team-up for a card at the atmospheric National Stadium in Dublin.
The show is headlined by a clash between Wembley's Gary Corcoran (14-0, 6 KO's) and Bristol's Danny Butler (25-5, 9 KO's) for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Super Welterweight title.
I have backed against Corcoran in his last couple of outings and the aggressive Londoner has on both occasions come through on a hard fought 10 round decision. I'm confident of getting him beat however, and see big value in backing Butler.
Corcoran has faced a couple of talented stylists in the two Rick's – Godding and Skelton – in his last two fights, and although both guys have looked bad style matches for him, his work-rate has seen him do enough to pick up the majority of rounds on the judges scorecards.
However, the last contest with Skelton in September of last year was a very messy bout and there was little clean action to go on. Gary’s a good boxer for casual fans to watch though; as I've mentioned he's very aggressive and throws plenty of punches, although he's not the most accurate.
That's why I think someone is going to take his unbeaten record soon and Butler could be that man. Once someone starts pushing Corcoran back, I'm really unsure how the 25-yea-old ‘Hellraiser’ is going to react.
Butler (28) has been on the scene for a long time and has fought a far higher calibre of name than Corcoran.
His first loss came in November 2008 as he lost a split decision in the Prizefighter competition to Martin Murray, who went on to win that tournament, and as we know, has gone close on several times to winning a world title.
Four wins followed that defeat but only a year later a bad spell in Butler's career began as he lost four of his subsequent five fights, including a late notice 7th round stoppage defeat to former IBF world champion Darren Barker in a British title fight – the only time Danny has been stopped in his career.
Fluctuations in weight saw him fight between 154 lbs and 170lbs and clearly things weren't right with his lifestyle.
Since the last of those defeats to Bradley Pryce in October 2011, Butler has won six fights on the bounce and has stopped all but one of those opponents.
He came in at the lightest weight of his career for nearly eight years last time out, as he boxed well to beat tough Georgian Giorgi Ungiadze at the Whitchurch Sports Centre in Bristol.
But what's been very apparent is his growing power. He's been stopping some tough domestic fighters like Cello Renda, Martin Concepcion and Jason Ball, and they are all aggressive, come-forward fighters like Corcoran.
The slight worry I have here is that Butler has taken this on short notice, as Corcoran was set to fight Joe Selkirk on this bill. But he was in training for a fight in April, and as I've mentioned already, taking fights on short notice is something Danny has dealt with before.
This is going to be a decent little scrap for Box Nation viewers on Saturday night, and I see it as a real 50-50 fight. Corcoran's tough, but having started his career at Welterweight, and facing a man who has campaigned for several years as a Middleweight, I see great value in backing Butler to win at 5/2 with Bet365.
Best Bets
Gary Corcoran v Danny Butler – Danny Butler to win (5/2 Bet365)
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