Zak Chelli v Lerrone Richards

[wrighty]

Who wins this, why and how?

Lerrone dropped a bollock leaving Matchroom. Dropped his IBO title to challenge for an English title. Odd choice

[THEBUTCH]

As long as Richards isn't demoralised with the sport and in a bad place mentally, he out boxes Chelli all day long. Different level.

Lerrone finds himself in an almost surreal situation back down at English level while being on an unblemished winning streak

Ditching the IBO title is one thing (unfortunately no one is going to pay to see Richards defend a fake world title), but vacating his European title was a bad move.

If he's struggling with his promotional team and finds himself in the wilderness, he could have taken on all-comers defending his EBU title and worked his way up the more recognised world championship bodies. The EBU fights still pay good money as I understand it.

[maverick23]

As long as Richards isn't demoralised with the sport and in a bad place mentally, he out boxes Chelli all day long. Different level.

Lerrone finds himself in an almost surreal situation back down at English level while being on an unblemished winning streak

Ditching the IBO title is one thing (unfortunately no one is going to pay to see Richards defend a fake world title), but vacating his European title was a bad move.

If he's struggling with his promotional team and finds himself in the wilderness, he could have taken on all-comers defending his EBU title and worked his way up the more recognised world championship bodies. The EBU fights still pay good money as I understand it.

It’s a strange one.

Richards signed a 3 fight deal with Matchroom. He was a keep busy, wins the European and then wins the IBO against a good fighter in Gongora. Nice boxing in all 3 but little excitement.

I think he was annoyed how long it took to get offered a fight after Gongora. He was offered co-main on Canelo/Golovkin against Ali Akhmedov who’s highly ranked by a couple of organisations and it would have been a good clash of styles.

He turned it down as he was pissed about having 9 months out and thought it was a step back.

Then has to wait another 2.5 months, is fighting for the English title on Adam Azim’s undercard. It’s like he’s cut his nose to spite his face.

Both Eddie and Adam Moralee (his management team) had said that he’s very unlikely to get a voluntary so would need to get a mandatory. Eddie’s got Ryder and whilst I think Parker beats him, there’s a chance Ryder ends up WBO interim next week and that could have been a fairly easy in-house fight to make.

[Dioufy]

Chelli has an unpredictable wild style so anything could happen. He’s also tremendously fit so if Chelli gets some early success it might end up closer than we think (English title so I assume 10 rounds). You’d definitely expect a Richards win but this seems like the risk is bigger than the reward.
Especially considering his last fight was a tremendous win vs Gongora.
Strange indeed.

[THEBUTCH]

That's why i think he should have plugged away with the EBU title which can lift you up the rankings and noticed. He's a highly competent boxer.

[wrighty]

As long as Richards isn't demoralised with the sport and in a bad place mentally, he out boxes Chelli all day long. Different level.

Lerrone finds himself in an almost surreal situation back down at English level while being on an unblemished winning streak

Ditching the IBO title is one thing (unfortunately no one is going to pay to see Richards defend a fake world title), but vacating his European title was a bad move.

If he's struggling with his promotional team and finds himself in the wilderness, he could have taken on all-comers defending his EBU title and worked his way up the more recognised world championship bodies. The EBU fights still pay good money as I understand it.

It’s a strange one.

Richards signed a 3 fight deal with Matchroom. He was a keep busy, wins the European and then wins the IBO against a good fighter in Gongora. Nice boxing in all 3 but little excitement.

I think he was annoyed how long it took to get offered a fight after Gongora. He was offered co-main on Canelo/Golovkin against Ali Akhmedov who’s highly ranked by a couple of organisations and it would have been a good clash of styles.

He turned it down as he was pissed about having 9 months out and thought it was a step back.

Then has to wait another 2.5 months, is fighting for the English title on Adam Azim’s undercard. It’s like he’s cut his nose to spite his face.

Both Eddie and Adam Moralee (his management team) had said that he’s very unlikely to get a voluntary so would need to get a mandatory. Eddie’s got Ryder and whilst I think Parker beats him, there’s a chance Ryder ends up WBO interim next week and that could have been a fairly easy in-house fight to make.

I think that the IBO title is similar to the WBU belt when Hatton had it. No mandatory defences ordered. The difference is Hatton was hugely marketable whilst Lerrone isn't. He's similar to Junior Witter in that at his best he will make anyone look bad and they could lose.

[maverick23]

As long as Richards isn't demoralised with the sport and in a bad place mentally, he out boxes Chelli all day long. Different level.

Lerrone finds himself in an almost surreal situation back down at English level while being on an unblemished winning streak

Ditching the IBO title is one thing (unfortunately no one is going to pay to see Richards defend a fake world title), but vacating his European title was a bad move.

If he's struggling with his promotional team and finds himself in the wilderness, he could have taken on all-comers defending his EBU title and worked his way up the more recognised world championship bodies. The EBU fights still pay good money as I understand it.

It’s a strange one.

Richards signed a 3 fight deal with Matchroom. He was a keep busy, wins the European and then wins the IBO against a good fighter in Gongora. Nice boxing in all 3 but little excitement.

I think he was annoyed how long it took to get offered a fight after Gongora. He was offered co-main on Canelo/Golovkin against Ali Akhmedov who’s highly ranked by a couple of organisations and it would have been a good clash of styles.

He turned it down as he was pissed about having 9 months out and thought it was a step back.

Then has to wait another 2.5 months, is fighting for the English title on Adam Azim’s undercard. It’s like he’s cut his nose to spite his face.

Both Eddie and Adam Moralee (his management team) had said that he’s very unlikely to get a voluntary so would need to get a mandatory. Eddie’s got Ryder and whilst I think Parker beats him, there’s a chance Ryder ends up WBO interim next week and that could have been a fairly easy in-house fight to make.

I think that the IBO title is similar to the WBU belt when Hatton had it. No mandatory defences ordered. The difference is Hatton was hugely marketable whilst Lerrone isn't. He's similar to Junior Witter in that at his best he will make anyone look bad and they could lose.

Yeah. I’m not saying it’s anything special. Just a big drop in levels. Lerrone vacated the IBO as they asked him to fight Istvan Szili (who beat Sturm last time out) and it was in the period he didn’t have a promoter.

[wrighty]

He should have just got on the road and done him in. That's winnable

[wrighty]

Sturm v Richards would be interesting also

[TheLeprechaun]

Chelli is poor. Crude. No jab and just winging in shots. Very little accuracy. Shame since he has some talent there but just never developed. I don't give him much chance. Not sure what Richards is playing at in his career though so you never know but Chelli has been a massive disappointment.

[Switch hitter]

Chelli is poor. Crude. No jab and just winging in shots. Very little accuracy. Shame since he has some talent there but just never developed. I don't give him much chance. Not sure what Richards is playing at in his career though so you never know but Chelli has been a massive disappointment.

His dad has too much to do with his career

[TheLeprechaun]

Chelli is poor. Crude. No jab and just winging in shots. Very little accuracy. Shame since he has some talent there but just never developed. I don't give him much chance. Not sure what Richards is playing at in his career though so you never know but Chelli has been a massive disappointment.

His dad has too much to do with his career

I was quite high on Chelli when I first saw him about 5 years ago. Very good raw materials there I thought.

5 years later and absolutely no improvements have been made. He is still the exact same fighter.

Very very disappointing and he seems like a nice humble lad who would take on instruction and be a good learner. I'm not sure what his training situation is but this is the type of guy who will look back on his career and have a lot of regrets. The natural talent appears to be there but when you haven't made one improvement in 5 years then I don't really know what is going on.

[Dioufy]

I heard he recently left his teaching job to focus on boxing so maybe we will see a more controlled, thought out and better execution in his performance.

[margaret thatcher]

richards all wrong for chelli

[Dioufy]

richards all wrong for chelli

Of course. But I’m just making debate because the football is finished that perhaps… perhaps Chelli going full time we may see something a little different from his wild, lunging and erratic shots.

Probs won’t tho.

[wrighty]

Chelli is poor. Crude. No jab and just winging in shots. Very little accuracy. Shame since he has some talent there but just never developed. I don't give him much chance. Not sure what Richards is playing at in his career though so you never know but Chelli has been a massive disappointment.

His dad has too much to do with his career

I was quite high on Chelli when I first saw him about 5 years ago. Very good raw materials there I thought.

5 years later and absolutely no improvements have been made. He is still the exact same fighter.

Very very disappointing and he seems like a nice humble lad who would take on instruction and be a good learner. I'm not sure what his training situation is but this is the type of guy who will look back on his career and have a lot of regrets. The natural talent appears to be there but when you haven't made one improvement in 5 years then I don't really know what is going on.

He's heavy handed. Should go to the Ingles. They did a bit with Danny Mcintosh who reminds me of him for some reason.

[Manchester Hitman]

Chelli will struggle to land anything significant on Richards.

I see this as a complete shutout for Lerrone- it really just depends on whether he can make it TV friendly.

[TheLeprechaun]

Chelli is going to be swinging so you never know but there doesn't seem to be great power in his shots despite full power swinging.