One of Sam Noakes’ former opponents believes his fight on Saturday with Abdullah Mason will show the true extent of the American’s potential.
The 28-year-old Noakes and Mason are to contest the vacant WBO lightweight title most recently held by Keyshawn Davis when at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia they fight on the undercard of David Benavidez-Anthony Yarde.
Ryan Walsh fought Noakes, his fellow Englishman, as recently as December, and despite his experience and ambition was convincingly outboxed on the night of Noakes’ most mature performance over 12 rounds.
That the undefeated Noakes has won 15 of his 17 fights inside the distance and is one of the biggest fighters in their competitive division means that Saturday’s contest has widely come to be viewed as one that will be won by either the 21-year-old Mason’s natural abilities or Noakes’ considerable physical strength.
Walsh, however, considers Noakes to be a vastly superior boxer than he is given credit for, and to the extent that he considers Noakes to be a narrow favourite on account of his under-appreciated speed and timing – and therefore believes that if Mason defeats him it will show that Mason is as good as his many admirers insist.
“Very good,” he told BoxingScene when asked how good Noakes is. “World class, I’d say, and he’s going to get a chance to prove it, ‘cause you don’t get given world titles; you don’t get given world-title shots.
“He has deceptive speed and timing. Everything he looks like he’s going to be good at, he obviously is – which is his [physical] strength – but I found his speed and timing were very deceptive.
“Through no fault of his own, his experience, I suppose, is a weakness you’d give him, but it’s not really a physical one. His physical weakness has not been shown, but a weakness you’d give him is his experience – in the ring, I wouldn’t even say his IQ ain’t high, he’s got a good IQ.
“Mason is an unknown quantity. Great record; very good stock. A southpaw; undefeated American with massive knockout rate; 17 knockouts in 19 fights is no joke. But he’s a bit of an unknown quantity. I’ve heard people I really respect in boxing say really good things about him.
“This fight will decide how good Mason is, I think, and how his future’s going to go, because this is a really great crossroads fight for two young, undefeated fighters. This is the big question-mark fight for them both – how good he is, and we’re going to find out a lot more about Mason in this fight than any fight he’s had. He’s fighting a young, hungry, undefeated, big-punching English lad who’s a British, Commonwealth and European champion. He’s fighting one of the best over this side of the water, so how good he is is going to be defined in this fight.
“Strengths, clearly, to look at him is his size and the length of the lad, for a lightweight, and being a southpaw – that’s a help, especially when you’re a fighter like myself who never really got on with southpaws. That’s a definite strength for me. His size; his length; we don’t really know about his [physical] strength, though he’s got 17 knockouts.
“For both of the lads, at this level, experience [is a potential weakness]. ‘Cause they’ve had such good careers, and so many knockouts, they haven’t had a lot of ring time, have they? So it’s going to come down to that stuff that we don’t see – the gym spars and the gym workouts – that fill those gaps in.”
Walsh, who regardless considers Wales’ retired Lee Selby to be the finest opponent of his career, was then asked if that meant that he agreed with the observers who believe that Saturday’s fight could be coming too soon for the growing Mason, and he responded: “No, this fight is a rare fight where you’ve got two fighters – it’s a great world-title fight – [at their physical peak and] if they weren’t as good as they are they’d have had those big tests, but they’ve both not put a foot wrong.
“You’ve got a highly touted American and a highly touted English lad; it’s a really interesting, intriguing fight, and I don’t think Noakes holds any extra experience over Mason. For both of them, it’s what they’re doing in the gym that we don’t see that’ll probably be the big tell. Noakes probably has an advantage there with a gym mate [Henry Turner] who’s a full-blown southpaw a weight above.
“If Noakes wins he’ll do what he’s predicting he’ll do which is knock him out. Mason has been decked before. Though – and I’m sure Mason’s well aware – Noakes carries power. The Noakes win by knockout is the most likely path for him to win.
“Mason’s best way to win is to try and outbox and out-fiddle – not take anything big off Noakes, who looks like he does have the game-changer, and having fought him, he’s definitely got good power. But the biggest surprise with Noakes was his speed.
“My head says Mason points; my heart says Noakes knockout. I’ve seen Noakes end people and just bludgeon them to the point that they just jack – I don’t think Mason will jack. I think he’s at a point where Noakes could clean him and hurt him and just be too much, or Mason is this good and he can stay away from Noakes and fiddle him about and be in the southpaw stance and not let him use his jab, ‘cause I was really impressed with his jab and how he dictated the fight with me with his left hand.
“[Noakes has] got very good timing; he’s very good with his uppercuts; he has to try and manhandle him every opportunity as well. Noakes could steamroll him. I’m going Noakes knockout with a bullish, manhandling performance, and hoping that my head’s wrong with how good and slick Mason could be.
“This is Noakes’ chance to knock the doors off and announce himself on the lightweight scene. He’s a future light welterweight and there’s some massive fights for him there.
“[My prediction is] Noakes, KO – I was on the fence until I started talking – in a career-best performance and then there’s some huge fights for him after that. Once you’re a world champion, all the money’s at junior welterweight for him.”
