John O'Donnell hoping to gatecrash World class

John O’Donnell 23-1 (11) will be hoping to impress the American tv boxing audience on Friday when he takes on veteran Terrance “The Heat” Cauthen 35-6 (9) in front of the showtime tv cameras on Friday night at the York Hall.

It is the biggest name test of O’Donnell’s career so far. O’Donnell has been heavily hyped from the offset of his professional career by his promotional team but has not quite lived up to the billing. After a fifteen fight unbeaten start to his career, he was shockingly blown away in two rounds by Christian Solano at the MGM Grand back in 2007 which caused him to re evaluate.

O’Donnell rebounded with five straight wins over average opposition before winning a disputed split decision win over Craig Watson to win the Commonwealth welterweight crown. Since then he has won two more bouts and is looking to reach the next level.

Cauthen was an Olympic bronze medallist but this was way back in 1996. Since then he has had a stop start career but has failed to reach the highest level. After a good start to his career he was halted by the big punching Teddy Reid in his first step up in class.

This is the pattern of Cauthen’s career. He has won USBA and NABF titles but the World belt has eluded him. In fact since 2007 he has lost to top contenders Sechew Powell (ko by 4), Shamone Alvarez (MD 10) and recently he was stopped in the tenth round by the light punching Antonin Decarie.

So who takes it?  Well O’Donnell needs to show a little bit more than he sometimes has in the past. Cauthen is still a decent fighter but just cannot keep it up for the duration of a long fight. I feel O’Donnell will get to him and stop him late or win a wide decision.

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