TONY OAKEY vs DANNY MacINTOSH

Tony Oakey, chugging along nicely again after consecutive losses against Dean Francis and Nathan Cleverly, appears on Friday’s Sky Sports show in an interesting 10-rounder against Danny MacIntosh with the English light-heavyweight title at stake.

Oakey, 34, was very competitive against Francis but got caught by some big shots and couldn’t recover — but the muscular and talented (if underachieving) Francis had to dig deep and hasn’t looked the same fighter after pulling off his biggest victory.

In the fight with Cleverly, it did seem that Oakey’s career was running out of steam, and he was well-beaten by the younger, unbeaten boxer. We now know, however, that Cleverly possesses world-class potential.

Since losing to Cleverly, Oakey has won the Prizefighter light-heavy tournament, and he looks a bit revitalised.

MacIntosh, an athletic boxer who hits harder than his record suggests, will be boxing for the first time since a game loss in seven rounds against Cleverly last July. MacIntosh told the local media in his hometown of Norwich in eastern England that he was bothered by an ankle injury in preparing for the Cleverly fight and wasn’t at his best. Oakey, though, is believed to have had only a three-week training stint for his own bout with Cleverly.

As ever, Oakey will be giving away height and reach in Friday’s contest, but the stumpy veteran sets a busy pace when he is in top form and he has often demonstrated in his fights that a shorter man can outjab a taller one as long as he gets into position to employ the left hand. I think that Oakey’s jab, his pressure and his hard-working style can trouble MacIntosh, who is flashier but doesn’t look as sturdy as the older man.

Oakey seems to have rededicated himself to his boxing, travelling up from his home in Portsmouth on England’s south coast to stay in east London, where he is trained by the respected Johnny Eames. When a fighter makes this sort of effort to enhance his chances of success I always take note.

I think that MacIntosh will most likely get off to an early lead on the scorecards but I am expecting Oakey to start wearing him down by the middle rounds. Oakey looks just too seasoned, too tough and too industrious — and I don’t think MacIntosh will be able to keep up with Oakey’s punch output. It concerned me a bit, too, that MacIntosh needed two attempts to make the 175-pound limit on Thursday. Maybe it means nothing, as this was a day-before weigh-in. MacIntosh has plenty of time to rehydrate. Still, I much prefer a fighter to be on weight at the first attempt.

This should be a highly entertaining fight, with Oakey coming on in the later rounds to snatch a points win, and I think there is an outside chance that he might be able to overwhelm MacIntosh late in the bout.