CHRIS AVALOS vs CHRISTOPHER MARTIN

Chris Avalos is the type of young fighter that fans like to see — bright, exciting, hard hitting and someone who gets right down to business. The undefeated 20-year-old bantamweight from Lancaster, CA has blown out his last three opponents, including an impressive fourth-round demolition of the seasoned southpaw Jose Nieves on ShoBox in January.
 
Avalos meets another unbeaten boxer in Friday’s ShoBox main event when he faces Christopher Martin, a 24-year-old from San Diego, in a scheduled 10-rounder.
 
Martin is a classy boxer but Avalos is the fighter with the star potential. My impression of Martin is that he is a smart boxer with clever moves but seems a bit lacking in physical strength and clearly is not a seriously hard hitter, with just five stoppage wins in 20 bouts. He comfortably outpointed trial horse Adolfo Landeros in his last bout but I think his best win was on Telefutura a couple of years ago when he defeated Gregorio Torres, a willing, pressure-fighter sort with whom he had previous boxed a draw. Although it was a split decision, Martin seemed to have clearly beaten Torres in the rematch and even dropped his opponent with a right-hand counter in the sixth round.
 
Yet while Martin is a competent boxer, Avalos is the one being groomed for big things. He is a boxer-fighter with authentic punching power, and he switches up effectively, going to the southpaw position smoothly during his contests: Avalos’s right uppercut from the southpaw style seemed to be the punch that got Nieves going. Avalos was losing to the tough Giovanni Caro after four rounds in a ShoBox fight last September but finally got his big punches home to win in the fourth. That’s the thing with Avalos — an opponent can be doing well only to have it all go wrong when Avalos hits him on the chin.
 
The oddsmakers have made Avalos a massive favourite, and he is clearly expected to win inside the distance. With Avalos in scorching-hot form at the moment and looking to make another striking impression on ShoBox, I can’t see Martin holding him off for the full 10 rounds. Avalos looks too fast, too gifted and too powerful for him. I’m expecting an Avalos win in about six rounds.

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