Prediction: Drew Dober via TKO
My pick is Dober, but the line is way too wide to justify a bet. You can’t really trust a big favorite who’s shown zero defensive improvement and is actually leaning more into his recklessness every fight. He’s still fast, explosive, and built like a tank, but lately he’s been fighting like he’s trying to win a street fight instead of a professional one.
That said, the edge still goes to Dober for a couple key reasons. The biggest one is speed. Prepolec just doesn’t have the movement or reflexes to hang with someone who explodes forward the way Dober does. Dober can close distance fast, and when he lets his hands go, he’s throwing to end it right then and there. That type of pressure and athleticism will make a stationary target like Prepolec crumble if he can’t establish some kind of range early. Prepolec’s striking isn’t bad. He’s got pop, and his timing’s not terrible, but he’s flat footed and tends to stay right in front of his opponent. Against someone like Dober, that’s basically asking to get lit up.
But here’s the thing. This is low key a mirror match. Both of these guys throw heat with almost no defensive awareness. They want to knock each other out more than they want to win on points. Neither one of them is thinking about head movement or managing distance once the punches start flying. So even though Dober has the faster hands and heavier pressure, he’s still hittable, and that always keeps things interesting. One clean counter from Prepolec could flip the script if Dober gets too wild and forgets his fundamentals.