First undercard bout named for Hopkins-Jones II card

With less than a month to go before Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. have their arthritic second battle in Las Vegas on pay-per-view, the first undercard bout has finally been named, though it's unclear as to whether it will be on TV. Given the timeframe, I'm guessing it will, but you never know.

The fight? Freddie Roach's unbeaten Scot, Craig McEwan, takes on Kris Andrews in a middleweight bout. You probably know who McEwan is, but probably don't know Andrews.

Andrews (15-8-2, 4 KO) is a Canadian southpaw who has never fought outside of Canada. In short, and without being mean, he's a club fighter. McEwan (17-0, 9 KO) has already beaten plenty of guys better than this, and I'm not giving McEwan's resume a compliment when I say that.

None of this should be unexpected, of course. HBO is not producing this PPV, it's a Golden Boy and Square Ring event, meaning that for all intents and purposes, the show's promoters are also its main event fighters. There is really not much interest in this fight, almost no buzz about it, and the little coverage the fight has had has really not been flattering to the whole ordeal.

So considering they're probably not going to bring in a truck load of money for staging this fight -- which most feel is a farce, particularly with the PPV pricetag -- they're going to scrimp on the undercard. Jones and Joe Calzaghe co-promoted their fight and did the same thing in 2008 with that pathetic undercard they put on, and HBO backed that fight. McEwan-Andrews would have fit in great alongside Dmitriy Salita-Derrick Campos and Zab Judah on cruise control against a guy who had zero chance.