I've covered this in another post but it deserves mention on its own. Respect needs to be given to the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" for their continued and increased coverage of boxing. Even some of the second tier fights have recieved coverage, apparent when ESPN ran Taylor over Lacy in its ticker and some other fights it showed attention to. Even with the cancelation of Wednesday Night Fights they are showing serious intrest in making Friday Night Fighs more watchable and focused on drawing bigger names with their season opening show headlined by Yuriorkis Gamboa. The coverage has obviously been increased with the "Dream Match" this week with Teddy Atlas on "First Take," Manny doing interviews on ESPN News, Oscar on "Jim Rome is Burning" and of course the "Sunday Conversation" with Oscar. Also there have been numerous analysis spots on ESPN News where Dan Rafel has been given air time, even if it was via phone. For boxing to return to mainstream, which is far fetched but bear with me, ESPN must play a huge part in that. As of right now they are doing their part.

(note - after typing this up it came to my attention that the weigh in for oscar-manny will be shown live on the network.)