Cooper’s trainer: we will get the stoppage

Owen Cooper…faces Eithan James in a battle of the unbeatens

SOMETIMES a fighter’s take on a forthcoming contest comes from the blind-side. He outlines a fight you don’t see unfolding.

Eithan James’ prediction that he’ll register his first professional stoppage against Worcester’s Owen Cooper on tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) magnificent “Magnificent Seven” show at Resorts World certainly surprised me.

If Northampton’s WBO European champ was to win this tantalising battle, he’d do it long, he’d do it pick-pocketing points. He’d have to go the distance, I believed.

That was my script for the English welterweight title showdown, potentially the best 50-50 scrap on the bill. It is a glorious battle of unbeatens.

I didn’t envisage him throwing rocks.

But no doubt Cooper and trainer Malcolm Melvin will be mightily pleased by James’ statement. They will relish a battle. They will rub their hands over news James plans to be on the offensive, that they don’t have to pin him down.

As Adam Harper, former English champ and a walking encyclopaedia of the domestic game, said: “If he takes it to Cooper, he gets busted up, chewed up and stopped. I think Cooper stops him in the last three rounds.

“I think Eithan James’ camp have overlooked Cooper.”

At the fag end of a long training camp, former top light-welter and welter Malcolm Melvin shed the diplomacy used when the five star contest was announced.

“We will stop Eithan James,” he told me. “He has faced no one with Owen’s boxing IQ, power and ability.

“This has been Owen’s best camp and he will be the best you have ever seen him be.”

“One hundred per cent I expect James to spoil,” he added. “Listen, Owen’s bought a new kind of boot. That’s how much we expect him to run.

“He says his power is under-estimated, but statistics don’t lie. Owen will be the puncher in there.”

Oozing quiet confidence, James told me: “We know Owen Cooper is going to be on the front foot, we know he’ll be aggressive, but there’s nothing I can’t handle.

The 10 rounder really is a match-up of the highest quality, a “must watch” for fans and the winner is surely in line for a British title shot.

Cooper, aged 23, is 9-0, James, the same age, is 12-0. Someone is going to taste defeat for the first time.

James is coming off a career best performance: Last July, at Telford International Centre, he outpointed Jamie Moorcroft.

“I thought Moorcroft was poor that night,” said Melvin. “Even when it wasn’t working, he did the same thing. We know what Eithan James is going to bring and we’re prepared for it – we’ll have a lot more than a Plan B.”

Cooper dazzled in outpointing tough Jamie Stewart for the Midlands title, but his bright star dimmed a little after encountering difficult rounds against dangerous southpaw Robin Zamora.

Zamora went on to show his worth by outpointing Dylan Cheema. The Nicaraguan is no journeyman looking for a payday.

After the Zamora blip, Cooper will dazzle against James, Melvin believes. The man he calls “Classy Cooper” will show his class.

I agree. I’m picking Owen to win in nine.