YUSAF MACK vs CHRIS HENRY

SUNDAY UPDATE: World-class light-heavyweights meet in an excellent main event on Friday Night Fights when Philadelphia’s skilled and dangerous Yusaf Mack faces the steady and competent Chris Henry, of Houston, TX.

Two light-heavy belts are at stake, with Henry defending the NABF title while Mack risks the NABA championship. More importantly, though, this fight is a sort of unofficial world title eliminator. Whoever wins will move forward nicely in the 175-pound division.

Henry, 27, has already fought at top level at light-heavy. He lost a unanimous but hard-fought decision to local favourite Adrian Diaconu for the interim WBC title in Romania. This is his only loss in 24 fights, and he was very competitive, putting Diaconu under pressure in the later rounds. With the crowd’s support lifting him, Diaconu was able to dig down and rally just enough to get the unanimous but close victory. Henry came away from that bout with his reputation enhanced and I think he will have learned a lot from that fight.

Mack, 29, is the higher-profile fighter because he has had more TV appearances. Stopped twice as a 168-pounder, he is bigger and stronger as a light-heavy now that he doesn’t have to struggle to make weight. He has stopped two out of three opponents at light-heavy while winning a comfortable decision over Daniel Judah, who went into survival mode after being dropped early in the bout.

In his last fight, Mack was relaxed and powerful when he stopped the usually durable Omar Pittman in six rounds. Pittman, moving up from the super middle division, was worn down by left jabs that had one eye swollen, and in the sixth a right-hander actually spun him around before he dropped to the canvas.

Being weakened by making weight is thought to have contributed to Mack’s shocking defeat in six rounds against Alejandro Berrio, while he also ran out of steam when he was stopped by Librado Andrade in the seventh round of a war in Las Vegas.

Mack looked like a winner that night when he dropped the granite-chinned Andrade in the first round, but he pushed for the knockout and got caught up in a war of attrition in which he was eventually outlasted.

I interviewed Andrade for a story that appears in the current issue of Boxing Monthly, and he told me that when he went down he said to himself: “Holy shit! This is gonna be bad.” When Mack started standing right in front of him instead of boxing a smart, counter punching fight, Andrade could hardly believe his good fortune because his slicker opponent was giving him a chance to land hard punches. After the fight, Andrade, one of the most honest fighters in the business, said he went over to Mack, whom he seems to like a lot, and told him: “I thank God you dropped me in that first round, man, because [otherwise] you would have outboxed me.”

There were moments in the fight with Andrade when Mack looked superb, the way he rolled with punches and blasted back, and not many fighters would have got up from the huge left hook that floored the durable Mexican fighter in the opening round.

Mack, then, is a gifted boxer-puncher, and he is currently in top form.

Henry doesn’t have the smooth skills of Mack, but he is a boxer of sound technique, and he’s big and strong, having boxed as a cruiserweight — he even beat a 256-pound heavyweight in the crude but somewhat dangerous Rafael Pedro. He was seen on Wednesday Night Fights last year when stopping trial horse Rubin Williams in six rounds, with Williams cut over the eye and taking a belting.

In his last fight, Henry merely did what was expected of him by winning an easy decision over the ordinary Corey Cummings.

Henry was a good amateur, losing to Chazz Witherspoon in the national Golden Gloves semi-finals at 201 pounds.

I believe that Henry is the type of boxer who works hard at his craft, and he has obviously improved since he struggled against the journeyman Rayco Saunders in 2006. Henry knows how to fight, and he might be the sturdier of the two men, but Mack looks the more polished, fluid boxer of the two, a bit faster, and he also seems to be the bigger banger.

Mack has the talent to outbox and outscore Henry, and he could look quite brilliant at times. Henry will have to be prepared to withstand some blistering combinations. If Henry can do this, though, he might be able to force his way into the fight. He survived a very wobbly patch in the eighth round to come on strongly against Diaconu.

Henry's trainer, Bobby Benton, said from Houston that the fight is a 12-rounder although I have seen it listed as being for 10 rounds. Benton feels that a 12-rounder is more to Henry's advantage. "Mack is a real fighter but I don't think he handles pressure too well," Benton said. "Chris has had eight weeks to get ready for the fight and he's had a great camp. I think Chris is going to have a great night."

Mack, for me, is the betting favourite, but I can envision an upset. Henry is likely to be behind at the halfway mark but I think he has the heart and physical and mental strength to fight his way back and start to get through in the later rounds. I agree with trainer Benton that a 12-rounder seems to favour Henry. He seems a more robust type of fighter than Mack and I think he can bring the sort of pressure that can pay off down the stretch. It will be tough going, but I just have the suspicion that Henry can grit out a narrow win against a more gifted opponent.