ANTONIO DeMARCO vs JOSE ALFARO

The lightweight title supporting bout between Antonio DeMarco and Jose Alfaro should set the stage nicely for Saturday’s Showtime main event between Joseph Agbeko and Yonnhy Perez.

DeMarco, the tall Mexican southpaw, is known for putting on crowd-pleasing fights — and so is Nicaraguan Alfaro, a former WBA champion seeking to reclaim a championship. (The two meet for the WBC’s vacant interim title.)

Alfaro is the underdog, but he says he has been “training like a madman” for this fight, sparring four-minute rounds with a 30-second rest period between rounds and a fresh sparring partner brought in every two rounds. “I can’t afford to have a bad round,” he said in quotes that appeared on the 15rounds.com website. “I guarantee that this fight will be a war.”

Now, no fighter is going to go into a bout saying that he doesn’t expect to do well, but Alfaro does have the look of a boxer who is going to be throwing all he has at his opponent.

DeMarco has the height and reach advantages and the awkward southpaw style, and he is unbeaten in almost four years. In two of his last three fights, however, he has been disappointing. DeMarco barely eked out a win over Jose Reyes, who had him under heavy pressure in the later rounds, and he was behind on points in his last fight when his African opponent, Anges Adjaho, mysteriously collapsed in the ninth round.

In between these two fights, though, DeMarco gave perhaps his sharpest showing when beating up the dangerous Almazbek Raiymkulov, who surrendered after nine rounds.

Alfaro captured the WBA title when he narrowly beat the Thai southpaw, Prawet, on neutral ground in Germany, but in his first defence the Nicaraguan got caught and stopped in a wild three-round war with Yusuke Kobori in Japan.

The problem with Alfaro is that he can he can be reckless when he goes in trying to land big punches, and his chin isn’t exactly reliable. Alfaro hurt Kobori, who was given an eight count when the ropes held him up in the second round, and the Japanese fighter suffered a swollen eye. Alfaro neglected his defence, however, and Kobori rallied to land some big left hooks. Alfaro was rocked in the second round and floored in the third.

Alfaro has won three bouts in Nicaragua since then, defeating southpaw fellow-Nicaraguan Moises Castro on a unanimous decision in his last fight — only the second time in the last five years that Alfaro has won a fight on points.

DeMarco has the better technical boxing skills and probably the better chin, but Alfaro can certainly bang (20 KOs in his 23 wins) and he’s been a champion and wants to be one again.

Alfaro reminds me of the Colombian Ricardo Torres with his hit-or-be-hit style of fighting. He goes straight at his opponent, gloves up, but once he starts to let the punches flow his attack becomes his only defence.

DeMarco seems the steadier, more disciplined boxer, and I think he can do well with his straighter punches and perhaps catch Alfaro coming in.

If Alfaro fights the way he did in the loss to Kobori, this will indeed be a war. Anges Adjaho seemed to hurt DeMarco with a right hand in the eighth round, but the Mexican fighter came back to land a heavy left. I had the feeling that Adjaho gave up in what was looking like a highly winnable fight, whereas Alfaro will never stop trying to deliver a fight-ending blow.

I think that DeMarco faces some stormy passages and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him staggered and rocked, but I think he will generally be able to keep his technique in good order and time Alfaro for the left hand.

Someone is surely going to get stopped in this fight, and I think it will be the too-easy-to-hit Alfaro, maybe somewhere around the eighth round.