Jack Rafferty and Mark Chamberlain battle it out for the British and Commonwealth super lightweight titles on Saturday night so Chris Oliver previews the action.
Boxing betting tips: Saturday August 23
1pt Jack Rafferty to win by stoppage 11/4 (general)
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It may be a far cry from Riyadh last weekend, but it seems certain that we’ll get much more action in this Saturday’s main event in Altrincham.
While Moses Itauma needed just 119 seconds to get rid of Dillian Whyte in Saudi Arabia last Saturday, Jack Rafferty versus Mark Chamberlain promises to deliver a much more interesting contest with the former’s British and Commonwealth super lightweight titles on the line.
With Rafferty, a big puncher who puts pressure on from the first bell to the last, and Chamberlain, a tidy boxer who carries power and likes to counter punch from his southpaw stance, their styles should gel very well and provide an entertaining bout.
Chamberlain finds himself as the underdog with the bookies for the first time in his career and can be backed at 9/4, while Rafferty is a best price of 4/9 in front of his home fans.
Local lad Rafferty (26-0) has the longest unbeaten record in British boxing right now and arrives in sparkling form, having stopped his last six opponents. Indeed, his last three foes had a combined record of 44-1 and all three were stopped in fine style by the heavy-handed Manchester resident.
Chamberlain (17-1), on the other hand, has seen his hype train derailed and this is the ideal opportunity for him to get back on track.
The man from Portsmouth would have been a much shorter price had this fight taken place a year ago, when he was flying high and on a run of five straight knockouts. Two of those came on big shows in Riyadh, including an impressive fourth-round stoppage of the tough Gavin Gwynne, but he then suffered a big upset at the hands of Josh Padley at Wembley in September last year.
Padley entered as a huge underdog, but Chamberlain couldn’t deal with his movement and was dropped in the eighth round en route to losing a unanimous decision. The 26-year-old has only boxed once since – a routine points success in an eight-rounder with Miguel Angel Scaringi, who was 8-4 at the time and wasn’t expected to go the distance with Chamberlain.
We saw Rafferty outboxed for long periods against Henry Turner 10 months ago and the latter was also a southpaw, so you can make a good case for Chamberlain winning rounds early doors and picking his man off on the way in. However, the relentless Rafferty made Turner work very hard and caught up with his tiring opponent eventually, stopping him in the ninth session.
With that in mind, you wonder if Chamberlain can keep him off all night, especially as he is the smaller man who is used to boxing at 135lb as a lightweight, while Raffety started his career boxing at around 150lb and is huge for this 140lb division.
Rafferty has also improved for that British title success against Turner, registering one-sided victories over Reece MacMillan and Cory O’Regan in seven and five rounds respectively since.
The 29-year-old constantly marches forward and cuts the ring off very well, applying physical and mental pressure that has always, so far, proved too much for his opponents. He works behind a very effective jab and hits pretty hard when he does catch up with you, so Chamberlain has his work cut out.
That’s not to say Chamberlain isn’t capable of boxing his way to success and a decision looks his most likely route to victory. That is priced at 5/1 but I’m not sure he has the power to keep Rafferty off now he has stepped up in weight.
Chamberlain never really did any damage to the overmatched Scaringi last time and that doesn’t bode well for his tussle with Rafferty, who will be ploughing forward all night long if he doesn’t fear what is coming back.
It’s 5/4 for Rafferty to win a decision and given that Chamberlain has never been stopped, a points win for the favourite is certainly a big possibility. However, 12 rounds is a long time when you’re looking to keep out of the way of an in-form pressure fighter with heavy hands and I think Rafferty can wear his man down to claim a stoppage at 11/4.
Rafferty is flying right now – he’s in excellent form, active and improving all the time. With home advantage and being the bigger man, I believe he can get to Chamberlain and keep his knockout streak going.
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Both of these like to go for the knockout and they carry power, but I expect Marshall to have too much on her return to boxing and the 4/1 about her getting a stoppage looks too big to me.
