SOULEYMANE M'BAYE vs ANTONIN DECARIE

Souleymane M’baye has the hometown advantage when he meets Antonin Decarie for the vacant WBA interim welter title in France on Friday, but I am wondering if his career has peaked.

M’baye, 35, seems to have settled into a pattern in which he coasts through fights. He is talented and he hits sharply, but he is far too languid in his approach to the task at hand. Old-time boxing guys would have labelled him a “lazy” fighter.

In his last fight, M’baye barely scraped home against Britain’s Colin Lynes. In his last fight before this, M’baye was an extremely narrow (some would say fortunate) winner over the Welsh southpaw Barrie Jones.

M’baye looked good blowing out Ameth Diaz in four rounds, but the Panamanian boxer, as we all know, does not take a punch at all well. M'baye was outworked and outhustled by Herman Ngoudjo and Gavin Rees. He had a golden opportunity to take command against Ngoudjo when his opponent’s left eye began to swell and close from the fourth round, but M’baye just wouldn’t commit himself to an earnest attack and he allowed himself to be outpointed.

In three of his last four fights, then, M’baye has been disappointing. He is moving up from junior welter for Friday’s bout and apparently feels stronger. M’baye has been training in Florida, so it would appear that he is serious. Will he, though, let his hands go once the fight starts on Friday?

Decarie is unbeaten and he was a four-time Canadian amateur champion who boxed in international tournaments such as the Commonwealth Games and Pan-American Games. He is a competent boxer who throws his punches with good form although not much power. He is a busy fighter, though, and that could be the key on Friday. If Decarie can keep the pressure on M’baye, and keep the punches flowing, he can win.

M’baye is the puncher in the fight, and I understand that Decarie was legitimately dropped by the distinctly average Brian Camechis, although the referee ruled a slip. M’baye is unlikely to get Decarie out of the fight with one punch, though. Perhaps M’baye will fight hard and open up with combinations the way he did in his impressive wins over Ameth Diaz and Raul Balbi, but there is perhaps a greater likelihood of the 27-year-old Decarie stealing a decision on willingness and workrate.

The site makes M’baye the logical favourite, but I see Decarie coming out on top with a close, perhaps split, decision victory. M’baye will be landing the harder punches but my suspicion is that he will not throw enough of them to sway the verdict his way.