Pickering: how much left?

If Pickering boxes to 80 per cent of the ability we know he has, I would have to side with him, but I am not sure how many more times he can keep doing it the hard way. The wheels looked as if they had come off against Hughes, but he put them back on - what if that happens halfway through this and he can't?

Jim Watt
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ESHAM PICKERING
v MATTHEW MARSH
Live on Friday Fight Night
9.30pm, Friday, Sky Sports 1

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This is another one of those clashes between two fighters at the opposite ends of their careers that we have seen a few times recently.

Matthew Marsh was a vaunted amateur with a decent record, but he's only had 10 professional fights at the age of 25 and comes to the York Hall as a bit of an unknown quantity.

Esham Pickering on the other hand has done it all and we have been following for a long time on Sky Sports. The one thing about him is the speed and reflexes that made him such a smooth operator early on, are no longer there.

The young Pickering was flash and quick and you just couldn't catch him. Nowadays he is much easier to hit and because of it, he is taking the full effect of those punches.

Last time out he had to grind out a win over little Sean Hughes when I honestly thought his time had come to an end. He had a rough time in the first fight and for the first two or three rounds of the second, he was in trouble.

Credit to him though, he stayed in there, showed some bottle and turned it round. I don't think I have ever seen such a transformation in a fighter during a bout, but I wonder: how many more times can he do it?

He's had some tough fights down the years against Michael Hunter, Bernard Dunne and Hughes, and sooner or later that will catch up with him.

And because he no longer has that speed, I get the feeling he will be fighting Marsh's kind of fight.

Creditable

I have only seen the lad box once in the flesh and he does set a good pace. His workrate will be what wins him this fight and I am sure his team see that as the way past Pickering.

They have obviously taken this because they feel he will be OK at this level. It's hard to judge a guy on just 10 fights but maybe the way he performed in his biggest fight before this, even though he lost to Derry Matthews, showed he had enough for a British title.

It was a creditable performance too and he definitely put up a good show. There's no reason to suggest he cannot do the same here.

But you cannot discount the fact that Pickering is fighting for a Londsdale belt. We've seen what an inspiration that it is to fighters and when you think that there have been world champions who don't have one, you can understand why.

If he boxes to 80 per cent of the ability we know he has, I would have to side with him, but I am not sure how many more times he can keep doing it the hard way.

The wheels looked as if they had come off against Hughes, but he put them back on - what if that happens halfway through this and he can't?

That will be what Matthews is hoping for and I am expecting a fast start from him. That could be enough to upset Pickering but there's just no telling. This one's 50-0 for me.