Weekend of Boxing From Around the Globe

By Crafty Stan

PAUL MCCLOSKEY v GIUSEPPE LAURI



European Light Welterweight Title Fight - Belfast, UK

22:30 BST Friday 11th June 2010

On a very quiet weekend there is just one major fight for me to bring to your attention and it is the Friday Fight Night feature bout between Northern Ireland's champ Paul McCloskey and Giuseppe Lauri who is a wily old fox who isn't in town just for the weather.

Paul McCloskey's career has taken a while to get to this stage where is now looking to push past the European stage onto higher honours but it could all be worth the wait for the Dun given man. Unfortunately for him tonight will not really tell him a lot about where he is at with his career as Lauri is surely in his twilight years after a fifty six fight career in which he has been beaten every time he has genuinely stepped up in class.

McCloskey fights with a high intensity and this will not sit easy with Lauri and for me I ask myself the question as to whether Lauri can last twelve rounds of it. The answer for me is an emphatic no. Ricky Hatton was a fighter with high intensity and admittedly he went onto great things but he knocked Lauri out as did two other top class performers Junior Witter and Leva Kirakoysan. So it is fair to say Lauri has well and truly found his level as a decent Italian domestic fighter.

I expect McCloskey to grind Lauri down in the mid to late rounds and force a stoppage. The home crowd would leave home happy with that I'm sure and so would I. I make McCloskey around a 1.62 shot to get a stoppage here so the 2.1 at Stan James is unreal value for mine.

RECOMMENDATIONS: 4 Points McCloskey KO/TKO/DQ @ 2.1 Stan James

Crafty Stan