TRAVIS KAUFFMAN vs MALACHY FARRELL

Undefeated heavyweight prospect Travis Kauffman gets his biggest exposure when he meets once-beaten Malachy Farrell in the opening eight-rounder on Friday’s ShoBox card.

Kauffman has been boxing since he was nine and was a U.S. championships runner up in the super heavyweight class. Trained by his father, Marshall Kauffman, he has been brought along slowly but gained valuable experience sparring with former champ Hasim Rahman, who is also trained by father.

It is difficult to get an idea of Kauffman’s potential because he has been matched carefully. It concerns me a bit that had to go the full eight rounds against the ordinary Dan Whetzel, a 35-year-old who had been stopped in three of his last five fights (including two one-round KO losses). A genuine, blue-chip prospect should surely have been able to get Whetzel out of the fight well inside the distance. Kauffman has won his last three bouts by KO, but this was only to be expected as the opponents had been stopped 28 times between them.

On Friday we will see what Kauffman has to offer in by far his sternest test. Farrell, 28, is a big man at 6ft 4ins and around 250 pounds. His only loss was on ShoBox, a majority decision defeat against the then-unbeaten Mike Marrone, whom he seemed to hurt a couple of times. He was a regional Golden Gloves champion but interestingly he lost to Kauffman in the eastern U.S. Olympic trials.

Although Farrell is hefty and heavy handed, he hasn’t boxed in 14 months and I thought that he looked awfully slow in the loss to Marrone although he was clearly the puncher in the fight.

I haven’t seen much of Kauffman but he seems to be the faster, more talented man, he holds the win over Farrell in the amateurs and he has been much more active boxer.

When a fighter has a protected background it is always interesting to see what will happen in a fight that actually has some risk attached, but I see Kauffman as a well-schooled type of boxer and I am expecting him to use mobility and quick punches to score a fairly clear points win on Friday.