Tale of the Tape: Fury vs Schwarz, Warrington vs Galahad, Briedis vs Glowacki, Dorticos vs Tabiti

We’re just hours away from getting all of today’s big action kickstarted, so let’s look at the tale of the tape for the five big matchups across various cards airing today.

We’ll start in Riga, Latvia, for the World Boxing Super Series, with two cruiserweight semifinal bouts:

Cuba’s Dorticos has advantages in height and reach, and is seen as the bigger puncher. He also has a bit higher-level experience than Tabiti, the unbeaten American. Our staff was fully split on this one, two of us taking Dorticos via stoppage, two taking Tabiti by decision. It’s on paper a really interesting matchup.

The main event from Riga pits hometown favorite Briedis against Glowacki, the Polish southpaw, fighting for the WBC and WBO titles in addition to a tournament final spot. Physically, they’re about exactly the same, and each man’s only loss came to Oleksandr Usyk, though Briedis gave Usyk the clearly tougher test. Staff is 3-1 in favor of Briedis.

Switching gears now to the featherweight title bout from Leeds, England:

Warrington has fought his way to the near top of this division in his last two outings, while Galahad is taking a significant step up. A year ago, Galahad really might have been the favorite. Now it’s Warrington. Stylistically there’s more between the gritty Warrington and the flashy Galahad than there is physically. This is Warrington’s chance to further cement his status at 126, and Galahad’s chance to live up to the hype of half a decade ago. One of our staffers is picking the Galahad upset.

In Las Vegas, there are two big fights at 175 and heavyweight:

Hart is coming to 175 from 168, but as you can see he more than has the frame for it — taller and significantly longer than Barrera, not to mention eight years younger. They’ve both fallen short in world title bids, and this win will be the biggest of either man’s career, and put them right in the mix for another title crack in a division where Top Rank all but controls the top fighters and world titles. Our staff has this a clean sweep for Hart, but nobody seems completely sure of it.

Schwarz is a big, sturdily-built guy. He is not as tall, long, or heavy as Fury, though, and video evidence suggest he’s not nearly as talented, which is the real problem he figures to have once the bell rings. But yes, Tom Schwarz is a Large Man, which has been a good portion of the attempt to sell this fight, an on-paper mismatch between a man regarded as the top heavyweight in the world by some — including himself — and someone whose résumé doesn’t have him cracking the BoxRec top 50. Our staff has this a clean sweep for Fury, and we’re all quite sure about it.