Today (Saturday, October 22, 2016) is a light day on the boxing calendar, but the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, England hosts Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom Boxing promotion for a big 12-fight card that sees several fights getting attention at the sports books. Some books have Sean Davis (10-0) coming in a big underdog against Gamal Yafai (10-0). Yafai will now be fighting in early December for a Commonwealth belt at super bantamweight, and Davis is now booked to fight 20-5 Paul Economides in a fight that should see Davis much closer to even money, if not favored. The main event of the evening sees Birmingham’s own Frankie Gavin (23-2) facing Sam Eggington (18-3) for the vacant WBC International title in the welterweight division. In May of 2015 Gavin faced off against fellow countryman Kell Brook for the IBF’s world title at welterweight, but the bid ended poorly for Gavin, who absorbed a 6th round TKO loss. He followed that with a 14 month layoff before coming back this past July, stopping journeyman Ivo Gogosevic (12-16-2) in the final round of a bout scheduled for six. Gavin, a southpaw, will be giving up eight years in youth to Eggington, who has been very active. Going back to May of last year, he is 5-1 with a run as British and Commonwealth welterweight champion, with his lone loss coming to Bradley Skeete. As of now, Gavin is a slim underdog, returning at +105 while Eggington is paying at -125. The over/under for this 12 round bout is at 10 1/2 with the over paying -335 and the under at +245. The Middleweight 10 rounder between Craig Cunningham (16-1) and Anthony Ogogo (11-0) for the vacant WBC International belt sees a much wider line, with Ogogo favored at -1300 and Cunningham returning at +700. Ogogo is the popular Olympian who won a bronze medal at the 2012 London games. Ogogo has been gaining experience and this fight for a title is the next step. He has logged international fights already, even appearing on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr’s first fight with Marcos Maidana. As for Cunningham, he has worked his way up through the ranks in typical British fashion, and his lone loss comes under the 3 round “Prizefighter” tournament format. The over/under has been set at 9 1/2 for this twelve round bout, with both the over and the under paying at -120. The Bell Center in Montreal, Canada host the return of popular David Lemieux. Lemieux is 35-3 overall, and we last saw him stopping Glen Tapia on the undercard of “Canelo” Alvarez vs Amir Khan. His fight prior to that came in October of 2015 when we saw him get pole-axed by Gennady Golovkin. This Saturday, he faces unheralded Cristian Fabian Rios (21-7-3) of Argentina in a ten round bout that can only be called a tune-up for Lemieux. Lemieux will enter the fight in his hometown building a big time -6500 favorite over Rios, who is returning at +2600. Lemieux is still considered to be a potential opponent for the likes of “Canelo” Alvarez, as the Mexican superstar and his Golden Boy handlers have mentioned Lemieux in the past. Lemieux cancelled a fight in Montreal earlier this year when he failed to make a catchweight, but this fight is at the “big” venue of the Bell Centre, where Lemieux has fought more than a dozen times ensuring a strong gate.
