Smigga worth a shot in Germany

Paul Smith has been written off vs Zeuge

English super middleweight Paul Smith travels to Germany for Saturday’s WBA world title shot. The 34-year-old faces Tyron Zeuge in Hessen, but has been written off by our odds compilers, who view it as a wasted trip.

A fantastic support for Ward – Kovalev II, which takes place later that evening, there’s plenty for Coral punters to get involved with. Click here to have your say on Smith’s chances, or build boxing accumulators.

Smith arrives on three-fight winning run

One part of the famous fighting Smith family out of Liverpool, Paul jets in on the back of three wins in-a-row, beating Bronislav Kubin, Bartlomeij Grafka and Daniel Regi. Two of those came by KO/TKO, including a fifth-round stoppage over Hungarian Regi last time out at the 02 Arena on the undercard of Golovkin – Brook.

An impressive run, and sure to catch the attention of casual punters, but a closer look through Smigga’s CV shows why Coral traders are dead against his chances. Smith has lost half of his last six bouts, going down to Arthur Abraham x2 and Andre Ward. If you’re going to lose, those two are the men you’d want to do it against. So, perhaps we should cut him a bit of slack.

Victory for the Englishman has been knocked up as a 4/1 shot, while a third KO in four rates as one for lovers of a price, with 7/1 doing the rounds. A safer option may be for this one not to go the distance at 8/11, but there’s little chance of the underdog winning over the judges on foreign soil, 10/1 priced about a points cheer.

Home hero evens to win by KO

Opponent Tony Zeuge may not be a household name amongst British boxing fans, but the 25-year-old is hoping to change all that with a convincing win over Smith. The undefeated German goes in with a run showing 20 wins against one draw, 11 KOs.

The Berlin native suffered that spare draw against Giovanni De Carolis last summer, for the WBA and GBU titles, but sorted that with a quick-fire return to winning ways, halting the same opponent in the last round of a November rematch.

Opponent Isaac Ekpo didn’t fare much better last time, failing to go beyond five rounds in March. Experts can’t see past another win for Zeuge, and our traders in Stratford are keen to keep the home hero close, offering 1/6 on win number 21. KO/TKO success is the shortest price when playing the method of victory market, even money your prize.

Follow our expert preview of Ward vs Kovalev II