Friday, August 6
ESPN2, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, James de la Rosa vs. Michael Rosales, Patrick Lopez vs. Prentice Brewer. De la Rosa is an undefeated Mexican welterweight who has mostly been untested, although he did defeat Tim Coleman a couple years ago. Brewer is an undefeated fighter who is stepping up to take on former prospect Lopez.
Cadena Tres (Mexico), 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Wilbert Uicab vs. Johnny Garcia. Uicab's career got off to a slow start, but he's rattled off a series of decent victories at flyweight and is now in line to fight for one of those silly silver titles. Garcia is a no-hoper who's in there to make sure Uicab doesn't get injured before his "title" bout.
Showtime, 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Chris Avalos vs. Christopher Martin, Lateef Kayode vs. Antonio Escalera Jr. Avalos vs. Martin has the potential to be a solid bout. Avalos is an exciting bantamweight prospect, although he's moving up to 122 for this fight. Martin is also an undefeated prospect who hasn't fought complete pushovers. Kayode is a big punching cruiserweight who will take on former Contender contestant Escalera in a step up in class.
Telefutura, 11:30 p.m. Eastern, Antonio Escalante Jr. vs. Edel Ruiz. Escalante Jr. is back in action for the first time since his fight of the year candidate with Mickey Roman. Ruiz is basically a career opponent these days, although he's been thrust back into the spotlight after upsetting a comebacking 40-year old Bones Adams. Nearly every time he's stepped up in class, he's been knocked out early, so don't expect this one to be too different.
Saturday, August 7
TyC Sports (Argentina), 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Diego Gabriel Chaves vs. Jeferson Luis Goncalo.
HBO, 9:45 p.m. Eastern, Devon Alexander vs. Andriy Kotelnik, Tavoris Cloud vs. Glen Johnson. Well, here's our semiannual Don King supercard. Alexander is one of the true rising stars in the sport and is a heavy favorite to defeat Kotelnik; still, Kotelnik is a legitimate top 10 junior welterweight who owns a legitimate enough win over Marcos Maidana, so credit should still be given for taking this fight. More intriguing is Johnson-Cloud. After being relegated to tough journeyman status, Johnson worked his way back to the top, becoming a light heavyweight titlist late in his career, and he's the only man to come close to beating Chad Dawson. He's slowed down a bit since then, but it seems like father time hasn't caught up to the 41-year old quite yet. Cloud is a hard-hitting, solid boxing light heavyweight who should be a rising star, but has no name whatsoever because of his own inactivity. If he can become the first man to knock down Glen Johnson, that might help him start making a name for himself. Bad Left Hook will have live round by round coverage of this card.
Fox Sports Net, Fox Sports Espanol, TV Azteca (Mexico), 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Manuel Vargas vs. Michael Arango. Originally, this card was supposed to be headlined by the US television debut of Gennady Golovkin, but for no explained reason, it's been moved a week forward and will take place in Panama on a card that isn't televised in the US (albeit one we can watch for free over the internet). Seems like a big waste of money on the part of Top Rank, who probably overpaid for that mismatch to begin with. Instead, we get a card headlined by a couple of light flyweight fringe contenders. Vargas was last seen getting destroyed by Nonito Donaire in a complete mismatch, while Arango recently lost to new titlist Ramon Garcia Hirales. No undercard has been named for the fight yet, although one would hope it's something decent.
Televisa (Mexico), 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Cristian Esquivel vs. Tshifhiwa Munyai. This one's for a bantamweight silver title, further devaluing any value that belt might have possibly had.
Elsewhere in the world of boxing...
- On the Alexander-Kotelnik undercard, there will be an untelevised title bout between Cory Spinks and Cornelius "K-9" Bundrage. It's probably not a great fight on paper, but Don King really has no excuse for not finding a TV date for the fight SOMEWHERE. While Spinks really stunk things up against Jermain Taylor a few years back, his fights since then have actually been relatively exciting. K-9's fights are never particularly great, and while he's earned the title shot by becoming a mandatory, he's always found a way to lose whenever he steps up in class.
- Not exactly a part of the schedule, but worth reporting, is that the title bout between Mzonke Fana and Cassius Baloyi has been pushed back to August 27. South Africa's main network that broadcasts boxing, the SABC, ran out of money because it overspent to air the World Cup. In the meantime, the network has a full blackout on boxing as a cost-cutting measure, but the fight has been pushed back a few weeks in hopes that the network will be able to find the funds for the fight. Let's hope that they can get funds together for at least the major fights, because if nobody is airing boxing on TV in South Africa, that would be a major blow to the sport there. This is one of two major title fights Branco Milenkovic has already paid for that need to take place by the end of the month (the other being Moruti Mthlane vs. Zolani Tete in another title bout between two legitimate top 10 contenders), and he stands to lose a bundle if he can't get them aired on TV somewhere.
- Also in action this weekend: Mike Mollo, Nagy Aguilera, Andy Kolle, Jose Luis Herrera, Jermell Charlo, Omar Figueroa, Matt Vanda, DaVarryl Williamson, Sadam Ali, Gary Stark Jr. and Masaaki Serie.