Boxing is a wonderful sport and I will say I have missed a couple of upsets too, although I would back David Haye to beat Tony Bellew in any rematch those two would have, albeit perhaps not looking for the Haye blow out I thought it potentially would be.
There are a couple of big weekends to come in April before the month is rounded off with arguably one of the biggest Heavyweight Title fights in recent memory when Anthony Joshua takes on Wladimir Klitschko.
May and June are no less exciting as the likes of Joseph Parker, Canelo Alvarez and Gervonta Davis are in action with the stand out offerings being provided by Kell Brook vs Errol Spence Jr and Andre Ward vs Sergey Kovalev II.
Every week there seems to be something to enjoy and I am looking forward to catching as much of the action live.
Last weekend was one of the better days for the Boxing Picks with three of the four Picks coming in as winners at a decent price. April has showed a promising return so far and I am hoping to add a couple more winners to the pile on Saturday before moving onto the next weekend fights headline by Martin Murray vs Gabriel Rosado and Shawn Porter vs Andre Berto.
Scott Cardle vs Robbie Barrett
The unbeaten Scott Cardle is hoping to start putting some momentum into his career in the Lightweight Division that has seen some big fights in the United Kingdom over the last three weeks. Anthony Crolla may have lost his World title, but Terry Flanagan is a World Champion who is looking at the big unification fights that might be available.
Once upon a time Cardle even suggest Luke Campbell may be a potential opponent, but Campbell is facing an eliminator later this month and it has left Cardle someway behind those three names mentioned.
Glasgow has become a home for Cardle and there has been talk about moving onto European level if he can beat Robbie Barrett who is unbeaten in 10 fights and could be a potentially awkward customer from the southpaw stance. Barrett has never been the full 12 Rounds before though which is going to raise question marks and Scott Cardle would love to put on a display and earn the stoppage, but I am not sure he is going to be the first to stop Barrett having only earned 7 stoppages in his 21 previous wins.
Winning the Lonsdale Belt outright is the desire of Cardle before moving onto bigger and better things and I do think he will be fairly comfortable winner on the cards in this one.
They have both fought Kevin Hooper recently and Barrett was an easy winner on the cards and Cardle earned the TKO in the Sixth Round. That doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I am looking for Cardle to perhaps take some time to work out the southpaw in front of him before dominating much of the second half of the fight.
There is a chance that Cardle proves too tough in the second half of the fight as Barrett competes at a distance he has not done before and that could see the referee or the corner pull their fighter out. However I think Barrett might do enough early in the fight to give him a chance down the stretch and get to the points, although I will be backing Scott Cardle to win either a Decision or Technical Decision.
Ricky Burns vs Julius Indongo
There have been a number of big fights that Ricky Burns has been involved in during his career, but he has claimed this may be the biggest as the three-weight World Champion tries to unify two portions of the Super-Lightweight Title. He has a bit of an unknown quantity in front of him when facing the unbeaten Julius Indongo who won his portion of the World Title with a One Round stoppage of the previous unbeaten Eduard Troyanovsky in his native Russia.
Now Indongo will be looking to win another Title at the home of his opponent and he comes in with plenty of confidence thanks to the wins he has earned in his career. Indongo does belief he is catching Ricky Burns at the right time, but the Scot insists he still has plenty left in the tank after winning 4 matches in a row.
It is difficult to see what the future would hold for Burns as I am assuming he won't want to have a rematch against Terence Crawford who won a Unanimous Decision over Burns in 2014. The big fight might be a defence of his World Title against Anthony Crolla if the Manchester fighter decides to move up in weight after back to back losses to Jorge Linares.
I do think Indongo will cause problems being slightly taller, having the longer reach and also fighting from the southpaw stance. That will take some working out while he is also coming in thinking he has the punching power to give Burns fits, but only 11 of his previous 21 wins have come by a stoppage.
There is still the element of unknown about how good Indongo is considering how quickly he dismissed the challenge of Troyanovsky and I think that is what makes this fight so fascinating.
I still think Burns has some big ambitions in his career and I do think he might have a little too much experience and know how for Indongo despite being the same age. He has had a lot more Rounds in the bank and Burns will know his career has almost nowhere to go if he loses and I expect the best Ricky Burns we can see.
He will begin cautiously and try to fight on the backfoot and force Indongo into the second half of the fight when he will try push on the gas and see how much his opponent wants it. Burns also will want to avoid some of the early power and sap some energy from Indongo and I think he can start moving away in the second half of the fight.
I don't think Burns is the kind of fighter who will have enough to finish this one inside the distance, but I will back the home favourite to win this one on a Decision or Technical Decision.
MY PICKS: Scott Cardle by Decision or Technical Decision @ 2.00 Ladbrokes (2 Units)
Ricky Burns by Decision or Technical Decision @ 1.91 Coral (2 Units)
Boxing Picks 2017: - 6.24 Units (32 Units Staked, - 19.5% Yield)
Boxing Picks 2017: - 6.24 Units (32 Units Staked, - 19.5% Yield)
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