Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe Predictions: ‘Big Steppa’ steps back into the lion’s den

Manuel Gallegos tries to take another piece of Khalil Coe’s soul this Friday, May 30. The light heavyweight rematch tops the bill at Domo Alcade in Guadalajara, Mexico. DAZN will screen the bout live, featuring former unified super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev on the undercard.

Here are my Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe predictions ahead of a scintillating scrap.

Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe Odds

Gallegos is the underdog again at 6/5, far shorter than the odds you could have got on him ahead of the first fight. Coe is the favourite at 8/11 despite the shellacking he took last time. A draw is available at 16/1.

Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe Fight Preview

Boxing fans love a comeback story. But the more cynical ones also love a heavily-hyped fighter exposed. For Coe, this fight will definitively assess which category he belongs in.

Stop me if you have heard this one before. A highly-regarded amateur makes his start in the pro ranks, with plenty of pyro and ballyhoo. He finds the harsh glare of the paid game tough at first, with many mocking his perceived failings. The ex-amateur star gains their footing, starts mixing in a higher class and then gets a crushing reality check from someone they were expected to defeat.

That is the story of Khalil Coe thus far. But British fans may just have easily recalled Audley Harrison or Amir Khan from that anecdote. It is applicable to names as diverse as Joe Joyce, Muhammad Abdullaev, Tony Yoka and Ricardo Williams Jr. The road from amateur stardom to professional agony is well-travelled.

There are two paths the beaten fighter usually goes down from here. Rebuild slowly, leaving your conqueror to profit from his victory against others. Khan got his eye in against the middling Oisin Fagan and a washed-up Marco Antonio Barrera while the man who stopped him in a single round, Briedis Prescott, hit the glass ceiling in losses to Miguel Vazquez and Kevin Mitchell.

The other course of action is to meet your enemy head on. Sometimes it works, like Dillian Whyte’s corrective KO of Alexander Povetkin in 2021, after the Russian shocked the world against him in 2020. Other times it doesn’t. See old stager Tony Thompson’s pair of knockout wins over Liverpool heavyweight hope David Price in 2013.

Coe will be hoping to be more Whyte than Price as he faces his fears against Manuel Gallegos. The Mexican mauled him in nine rounds back in November. It was a harsh wake-up call for Coe. But will he be left wishing he took the Khan route and gave Gallegos a wide berth?

Coe hit the pro ranks with a lot of hype surrounding him. The only man to stop legendary two-time Olympic gold medalist Julio Cesar La Cruz as an amateur, the stage was set for ‘Big Steppa’ to storm the paid code.

It did not quite pan out that way. Coe drew with 6-4-1 Aaron Casper in his second outing, a four-rounder on the Julio Cesar Martinez vs McWilliams Arroyo undercard. But slowly, Coe got his sea legs under him. By the time he stopped Mexican knockout artist Juan Gerardo Osuna and dangerous Maryland hitter Kwame Ritter, it looked like Coe could make waves.

‘Big Steppa’ did that alright, but the reverberations came from the four times he hit the deck against Gallegos last winter. Some upsets come as a result of a moment of one-off inspiration. Some are hard-fought battles where the underestimated party edges it on pure will. But Gallegos’ performance was that rarest of true upsets. An utter thrashing that made a mockery of the pre-fight predictions.

It is easy to look back now with hindsight, but Gallegos did carry the hallmarks of a well-selected opponent for Coe. He was without a win in two years and coming off a period of inactivity. Rising prospect Diego Pacheco had taken him apart in four rounds in his previous outing. The ordinary Oziel Santoyo had beaten him on points earlier in his career. Gallegos looked like a fighter who had found his level in the hinterland between gatekeeper and the top 15. 

The one clue as to what was coming was Gallegos’ 17 knockouts in 20 fights. The men he had stopped were not world-beaters, but you still have to hit hard to amass an 85% knockout percentage. Coe soon found that out. 

Gallegos set about his man and from the fifth round the pressure told. Coe hit the deck in that session followed by further canvas visits in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds. It felt like a classic example of a fighter who has never been tested in deep waters not knowing how to swim to shore. 

A boxer’s first in-ring crisis can often be instructive. It can also cast a shadow on the psyche that never fades. Coe is making all of the right noises, but then they all do. A beaten boxer will always assure you it won’t happen again. What they usually mean is that it can’t happen again. Because if it does, the effect on their career will be catastrophic.

The solace Coe can take is that the world saw the best of Gallegos in that scarring first encounter. Never before has the big-punching Mexican dismantled such a clear favourite with such precise malice. 

Conversely, Coe can soothe himself with the notion that his performance was far from his best. He lost control of the situation. The boxer who stormed the amateur scene, who had so much expected as a professional, was not in the ring that night.

Whether that promising hopeful still exists inside Coe is the question. Gallego will try and do the same thing again. It is how he fights. Coe knows that now. It is up to ‘Big Steppa’ to make that next big step and react.

Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe Fight Card

Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe

Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs Luis Castillo

Christian Medina vs Daniel Ramirez

Gabriel Valenzuela vs Manuel Medina

Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe Prediction

Coe received a blood-splattered blueprint of what Gallegos can do in their last fight. He will look to rip to the body then open up to the head once Coe’s arms tire. Coe looked to put on a show last time, teeing off on Gallegos with abandon and not paying enough attention to the counters.

At first, those counters came to the body. Gallego put money in the bank cracking his opponent to the body even when losing rounds. Coe would reel off a combination, Gallegos would drive one into his torso. Then it was two-punch salvoes. When Coe grew weary, the Mexican stunned him with the uppercut. From there Gallegos had his man.

Coe is a talent but I am not sure he has a great command of his abilities. He looked laboured in his first four fights. Exhilarating in his next five. Then the 10th devolved from showcase to war to disaster against Gallegos.

I think he will be more cautious this time. But Gallegos is a difficult man to keep off you for 10 rounds. I’m picking Gallegos to beat Coe for a second time at 6/5.

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