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Floyd Mayweather vs Andre Berto; Anthony Joshua vs Gary Cornish; Badou Jack vs George Groves - boxing on TV this weekend

A busy weekend of boxing approaches

Martin Hines
Saturday 12 September 2015 21:02 BST
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Floyd Mayweather has explained why he snubbed Amir Khan and Kell Brook
Floyd Mayweather has explained why he snubbed Amir Khan and Kell Brook

Joshua vs Cornish, Saturday night 8.00pm, Sky Sports 1

The first event of the night is a perfect encapsulation of why this is the Alanis Morissette of weekends for boxing fans.

A huge crowd at the O2 Arena will experience a main event on Saturday which features a dominant, well backed fighter against an opponent who has no real business being in the ring with him.

It’s like ten thousands spoons when all you need is a knife.

Love him or hate him, Anthony Joshua has done everything right in the pro game since winning his gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The power-puncher has established a superb 13-0 record, with all of his victories coming by way of knockout.

Although there have been murmurings that the calibre of his opposition, his division lacks depth, and with the exception of the top 10 ranked heavyweights, there are not a lot of suitable rivals for him.

Despite that, Gary Cornish is not a man who should be facing Joshua at this stage of his life.

Anthony Joshua lands a blow on Kevin Johnson

A 21-0 record looks pretty, but all of those victories have come against terrible opposition, and Cornish was famously dropped two years ago against Humberto Evora.

This is a Deal or No Deal cash-out for Cornish, so expect a 14th knockout for Joshua, and don’t be surprised if it happens in the first round once more.

The London card is mainly being held to establish a huge December show, which is scheduled to be headlined by Joshua vs long-time rival Dillian Whyte, who also features on the undercard.

15-0 Whyte faces the experienced Brian Minto, who has only had just over a week to prepare for this.

Minto has the capability to be dangerous in the opening rounds, but Whyte has power, and should get to his American rival in rounds two or three.

Elsewhere on the show, Dave Ryan defends his commonwealth title against John Wayne Hibbert for the second time, and keep an eye out for a potentially explosive English flyweight clash between Louis Norman and Charlie Edwards.

Mayweather vs Berto, Groves vs Jack, Saturday night 1.00am, BoxNation

What should be the biggest main event of the weekend is arguably the weakest, where in one corner, you have a dominant, well backed champion against an opponent who has no real business being in the ring with him.

You know the drill.

Floyd Mayweather is having his final fight against… Andre Berto? Yeah right. Desperate writers may be keen to analyse a scrap which takes the piss out of every boxing fan, but this bout deserves no respect.

Instead we will focus on the chief support, which should be an excellent contest as Britain’s George Groves attempts to become world champion at the third time of asking, when he fights WBC super middleweight king Badou Jack.

Born in Sweden, but now based in Las Vegas, Jack’s career looked in collapse after he was knocked out in one round by Derek Edwards in February 2014, yet he soon recovered to win his world title last April against Anthony Dirrell.

Groves famously lost twice to Carl Froch, and has been quietly rebuilding his career too, which makes this a perfect crossroads fight for both men.

Since those Froch defeats, Groves has failed to impress in the ring despite two comeback victories, and may need to return to the tactical, defensive style which served him so well earlier in his career.

Jack is not a world class fighter, but is full of confidence after defeating Dirrell, and does carry power which could worry the Brit.

5/1 odds for him to stop Groves could tempt some fans, but Groves is the betting favourite at 8/13, and the 6/4 for him to win by KO or TKO is perhaps the most likely option.

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