Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita Predictions: ‘ShuShu’ starts his title tilt in earnest

‘ShuShu’ steps up as Bruce Carrington faces Mateus Heita for the vacant WBC interim featherweight championship this Saturday, July 26. The bout serves as the co-main event for Xander Zayas’ world title tilt against Jorge Garcia Perez. The bout will be screened on ESPN+ in the USA while the UK is without a broadcaster at press time. Top Rank did have a deal with Sky Sports, but it expired earlier this year.

Here are my Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita predictions ahead of this featherweight affair.

Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita Odds

Carrington is a whopping 1/50 favourite, which makes this match-up a curious choice to fill an interim title vacancy. Heita is 16/1 to win that WBC belt while the draw is 20/1.

Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita Fight Preview

Carrington is one of the lost Olympic fighters, having turned pro due to the COVID-19 delay of Tokyo 2020. ‘ShuShu’ is 15-0 as a professional and has been turning heads for a while. Like headliner Xander Zayas, another Tokyo 2020 hopeful that ultimately went professional, it has been a fairly straightforward existence.

Heita is 14-0, matching Carrington on nine knockouts. But numbers can be deceiving. While Carrington has been a fixture of US undercards and experience tests against experienced gatekeepers on the circuit, Heita has only ever fought in his native Namibia, which is not exactly a boxing hotbed. ‘The Beast’ arguably had his best win last time out, with a decision over 12-4-1 South African Abdulaziz Kunert. 

The matching of Carrington, the WBC number one, with their number 11 in Heita is curious matchmaking considering the interim world title on the line. Obviously such belts already carry an element of farce. What was initially conceived as a way for things to keep moving if a champion was injured is now used by organisations to create an extra sanctioning fee. But even then, you wonder why a name as obscure as Heita was sought over higher-ranked talent.

Perhaps Top Rank saw an opportunity to belt up their man. A win for Carrington puts him in the frame for a full WBC title bout with champion Rey Vargas or Carlos Castro, who is rumoured to be challenging for the title next. 

Carrington drew criticism for his narrow majority decision win over Sulaiman Segawa, a seasoned campaigner who many thought warranted a win on points. It was a close fight and Segawa did out-land Carrington. But winners never regret getting their hand raised and ‘ShuShu’ has continued winning.

Carrington boxed for the world as Jake Paul’s mess with Mike Tyson did astronomical numbers on Netflix. Curious casuals and rubber-neckers will have seen the New Yorker win every round against Dana Coolwell. A third-round TKO of Enrique Vivas in his most recent outing was even better.

Vivas was a better opponent than Heita is, in the view of your obedient servant. Segawa definitely was. Both of those men had tangled with top opponents. Real, world class men. Heita has not had that opportunity yet and, in fairness, we do not know how he will do. After all, Carrington represents his first genuinely world-class foe. 

But I sense that the unbeaten Namibian is being brought in as a patsy. He will not go down willingly, of course. But I believe this is nothing more than an attempt to get a belt, any belt, around the waist of Carrington. ‘ShuShu’ is 28 now and big fights will not wait forever. Heita and the WBC interim title is a shortcut to that promised land.

Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita Full Card

Xander Zayas vs Jorge Garcia Perez 

Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita

Yan Carlos Santana-Guerrero vs Aaron Alameda

Rohan Polanco vs Quinton Randall

Bakhodir Jalolov vs Gianmarco Cardillo 

Steven Navarro vs Cristopher Rios

Emiliano Vargas vs Alexander Espinoza

Juanma Lopez De Jesus vs Jorge L. Gonzalez-Sanchez

Julius Ballo vs Brandan Ayala

Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita Prediction

Ostensibly, both men pack a reasonable wallop. Each has nine knockouts, with Carrington scoring his across 15 fights to Heita’s 14. But the American has lowered the boom on a better class of foe.

Carrington is slick, hard to hit and can frustrate Heita before dropping and stopping his co-challenger. I’m picking Carrington to win in rounds 4-6 at 6/4.

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