MARCO ANTONIO RUBIO vs JOSE LUIS ZERTUCHE

On a weekend where the boxing action is thin on the ground, fights such as the all-Mexican rematch between Marco Antonio Rubio and Jose Luis Zertuche merit a look.
 
Rubio has come back with four wins in a row after the battering he suffered against Kelly Pavlik in a middleweight title challenge. He has scored a couple of good wins, stopping fellow-Mexican Rigoberto Alvarez in nine rounds and outpointing the Colombian, Samuel Miller.
 
A fighter such as Rubio can come back and be involved in a big fight again because he has a crowd-pleasing style and seems such an affable individual that fans warm to him. (The editor of Boxing Monthly, Glyn Leach, told me he felt sorry to see Rubio get blown out rapidly by Kofi Jantuah because the Mexican boxer “seemed like such a nice bloke”.)
 
I can’t see Rubio having too much trouble with Zertuche, a boxer he stopped in seven rounds more than two years ago. Zertuche is 37 and I don’t think he has been truly serious about his career for a long time. Zertuche is heavy handed and switches from the orthodox to southpaw posture during a bout, and he is seen as quite a colourful character by Mexico’s boxing fraternity. In his last fight, Zertuche lost in 11 rounds to a boxer named Marcos Reyes and I am not sure how much desire and dedication remains. I’m expecting a stoppage win for Rubio by the eighth round.
 
This week is an especially slow one for wagering opportunities on boxing matches. I have looked at three fights for subscribers: Adamek-Grant, Helenius-Tony and Huck-Godfrey, but it is slim pickings. This isn’t such a bad thing. We all need a breather sometimes, even the gentlemen who set the odds.