Carlos Takam (38-5) is a very experienced heavyweight contender who has been matched tough and has faced several elite heavyweights including Anthony Joshua, Alexander Povetkin and Joseph Parker. He has been knocked out in the past but it is very rare and it is only heavyweights with real power that were able to do it so he has a good chin. He himself, has very good power in his right hand and has stopped 28 opponents. He has won 3 in a row since being very unlucky against Derek Chisora two years ago. He was up on the scorecards against Chisora and really at times, he looked like he was going to stop him but as you know Chisora is very difficult to stop and after 8 rounds Takam faded just enough to get hit with a big monster shot from Chisora and wound up getting stopped himself. The shot that Chisora hit him with would have knocked out most heavyweights. Against Anthony Joshua he gave a good account of himself also and the same thing in his fight with Joseph Parker where he lost a close decision. So we know how he fares against those type of opponents. Takam is coming in on rather short notice against Jerry Forrest who was supposed to meet Jarrell Miller but that fight was cancelled. Takam is based in Las Vegas and was already in camp for several months so when the opportunity came, he took it immediately. Top Rank signed Takam in the end of 2019. Jerry Forrest (26-3) like we mentioned was supposed to meet Jarrell Miller but he was coming in as the opponent and it would be fair to say that he was handpicked to make sure Miller is victorious, he wasn´t supposed to win that fight. He isn´t supposed to win this fight either in all honesty. This is Top Rank testing out how much Takam has left in the tank and assessing him so they know what to make of him after this. Takam is 39 years old and he has a lot of miles on him, that is a fact. Forrest is familiar with being the b-side in fights and despite this he has done well for himself. In his fight against Jermaine Franklin he lost a decision but the fight easily could have gone the other way. Jerry Forrest is a tough fighter and not surprisingly many people are picking him to win. The odds that started out as wide in favor of Takam has shortened significantly and the fight is a pick´em at this point. We expect the odds to narrow just a little bit more and settle for around -110 on both (1.90 decimal odds). (sign in to view our prediction & pick)
Takam is the better fighter of the two in almost every department here and he has the world class experience. Our indication is that he does have enough left in the tank to beat Jerry Forrest in their match-up. If the fight is evenly fought, we expect more of the close rounds to go his way. Forrest has shown a good chin and it is not easy to get him out of there so we won´t specify the method of win. The Pick is Carlos Takam to win the fight for a price of -140 (1.72 decimal odds) You can hedge it with a draw.