This week is a partially slow week, which is something we may need after those 2 great fights on Showtime last week. This upcoming Saturday, the main fight to watch will be for the IBF Light Middleweight title as Cornelius “K9” Bundrage defends his belt against Corey Spinks in a rematch, from 2 years ago, that Bundrage won by TKO. This is a fight that K9 should win, but there may be more to this story than just a normal win for Bundrage due to the loss by Victor Ortiz last week.
Cornelius Bundrage (31-4 with 18 KOs) is a 39 year old fighter from Detroit, Michigan that has over 17 years of experience and now will try to use this fight to showcase himself as 1 of the many boxers that can be placed in the, once again, open spot to face Canelo Alvarez on September 15th. Some places on Twitter are currently calling Bundrage the favorite as long as he wins this fight, but as we’ve seen in recent week, being the favorite makes you far from a sure thing nowadays. Bundrage comes into this fight on a 3 fight win streak and it could easily be 6 if it wasn’t for a controversial split decision loss to Grady Brewer in 2008.
Cory Spinks (39-6 with 11 KOs) is a 34 year old, southpaw fighter, and is part of a family of boxers. His father was the former Heavyweight Champion, Leon Spinks, and his uncle was the former Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion, Michael Spinks. He also had 2 older brothers that used to also box. He was the guy that K9 won the Light Middleweight belt from. He’s a fighter that doesn’t have too much power, but he has good hand speed and he is has very good footwork. Spinks comes into this fight winning his last 2, including a title eliminator match against Sechew Powell, the same boxer that Bundrage defended his belt against 6 months earlier.
I expect this fight to be similar to the Austin Trout vs. Delvin Rodriguez fight, because K9 should win this fight. But K9‘s not a stone cold KO killer. Spinks is fast enough, and mobile enough to hit and run, but since he lacks power, it won’t hurt Bundrage. It may not be an exciting fight, but the question is will it be enough of a show by Bundrage to get the Canelo fight. I would like to see him knock Spinks out and that would show me that he really wants it. To do that he’s going to have to catch Spinks in a bad position because I don’t think K9 is fast enough. Spinks is going to make him chase him around the ring the whole night. With that being said, I’m going with K9 by unanimous decision, which would put the onus on Golden Boy to decide do that want: K9, Austin Trout, Carlos Quintana, or someone else that is getting a lot of hype on Twitter, Erislandy Lara.
Speaking of Erislandy Lara, he will be on the same Showtime Card on Saturday and you can bet your bottom dollar that he will be trying to put on a huge show to upstage K9 to get his way into that fight against Canelo. He is fighting an overmatched Freddy Hernandez. Yes, the same Freddy Hernandez Andre Berto knocked out in one round. Gary Russell Jr. will also be facing Christopher Perez on the card, which is purely a showcase fight for Russell.
So more than looking at how good the fights are, look at these fighters, especially the Bundrage and Lara fights, as showcases for future bouts because it’s a good chance that the most impressive one could win the “Canelo Sweepstakes” or as it’s also known over the last few weeks, the “Canelo Curse”. Enjoy the fights.
