Last week's Klitschko-Ibragimov stinker is already a thing of the past.

IBF featherweight champion Robert Guerrero dominated challenger Jason Litzau, and heavyweight Travis Walker got revenge on T.J. Wilson, both scoring convincing knockout victories on an action-packed edition of Shobox from Lemoore, California.

In the opener, Walker was able to easily avenge his ridiculous 15-second stoppage loss in October to Wilson, storming out of the gates and hammering Wilson until referee Dr. Lou Moret called a stop to the fight at 1:50 of the second round, as Wilson fell back against the ropes, his head and arms sagging and a vacant look on his face.

After the fight, Wilson could be seen on camera shouting, "I didn't go down!" It was only slightly preposterous. He looked every bit like a big, 33-year old fighter who came in with all of 13 professional fights to his credit. He couldn't keep pace with the determined, blitzing Walker, who improved to 27-1-1 with his 21st knockout. Walker is never going to be heavyweight champion, I don't expect, but he has all the tools to be a consistent TV feature.

In the main event, any hype about Jason Litzau was dispelled for good by Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero, who won every round on his way to an impressive eighth round knockout of the Minnesota challenger.

Guerrero, like Walker, was simply busier, smothered his opponent, and never let Litzau get into the fight. While Litzau attempted to box from a distance, it was playing entirely against his strengths, and Guerrero repeatedly made him pay, sticking the straight left in beautifully, bloodying Litzau's nose badly by the middle rounds.

Litzau showed real character and guts, though, and he deserves praise for that. With the fight out of hand, he fought back hard in the sixth and seventh rounds. I didn't think he won either, but he made an entertaining affair of it, fighting his heart out and leaving no energy in the reserve tanks. He fought hard until he could fight no more.

He went down on a left uppercut/straight left combination in the eighth, but recovered and fought on. A combination capped by a right hook from Guerrero ended it shortly after.

After the fight, Guerrero addressed his future, contemplating fighting the winner of Vazquez-Marquez III should that man want to move up to 126 pounds, or moving up to 130 if he could score a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez or Manny Pacquiao. I don't think either scenario is likely, and Guerrero should probably focus on fighting and beating the best featherweights, maybe Steven Luevano or Jorge Linares, both of which would be very tough matchups.

Shobox kicked the weekend off right for the sport. And now we turn the final page on the already legendary Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez rivalry. Be sure to join us tomorrow night at 9pm eastern for live coverage and round-by-round scoring of "The Tiebreaker."

Other Results from Friday night

IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute retained against William Joppy via TKO in the 10th round. It was Bute's first defense of the belt he won in October. Bute is now 22-0 (18), and the long-faded, 37-year old Joppy is 39-5-1 (30). It's somewhat worth noting that while the result was as expected, the only other guy to ever knock Joppy out is Tito Trinidad.

In Glasgow, Kevin McIntyre beat Kevin Anderson for the second straight time, winning a 12-round unanimous decision (115-114, 117-112, 117-112), retaining the British welterweight title.

On Friday Night Fights (which I missed because of Shobox), short notice replacement Michael Walker (substituting for Allan Green) went to a majority draw with hard-punching veteran Antwun Echols. Scores were 95-95, 95-95 and 98-92 for Echols. Walker is now 18-0-2 (12) and the 36-year old Echols is 31-7-4 (27). Echols has now drawn in three of his last four fights, the other one a lopsided loss to Fulgencio Zuniga. He hasn't won a fight since December 2, 2004, when he beat Jameel Wilson. In his follow-up to that fight, he lost to Kingsley Ikeke. It's been a while since Echols has had his hand raised.

Also on Friday Night Fights, Sechew Powell (23-1, 14 KO) knocked out previously unbeaten Kevin Finley at 2:23 of the first round. Powell's last two performances have been explosive after he struggled in a loss to Kassim Ouma and a boring decision win over Ishe Smith.

MAIN EVENT
For the IBF Featherweight Title
ROBERT GUERRERO
(21-1-1, 14 KO, Gilroy, CA)
versus
JASON LITZAU
(23-1, 19 KO, St. Paul, MN)

Tonight's special Shobox features, of course, the IBF featherweight title bout that I discussed a couple posts down earlier today, and I'm picking Guerrero. I think I'm going with a late TKO in a good fight. We'll see action on both sides.

The opener is a rematch between heavyweights T.J. Wilson and Travis Walker, which will hopefully make up for the highly questionable (some would call it "moronic") 15-second stoppage of their first bout in October, which went Wilson's way as he punched at Walker, who was backed into a corner, before referee Raul Caiz stopped the bout -- you know, in 15 seconds. It was a deliriously bad call by Caiz. Walker was in no danger of being seriously hurt, and he deserves this rematch. I look for him to pound the 6'7" southpaw this time around.

The show goes live on Showtime at 11pm eastern, so in about two and a half hours. We'll be here, as it's really a day early undercard for Vazquez-Marquez III, coming to us tomorrow night.

Photo © Showtime

All eyes in the boxing world are currently on one American TV network, and for the first time in a good while, it isn't HBO.

While HBO continues to bask in the glory of their momentous 2007, Showtime has quickly shaken off the stigma of being the vastly inferior company that came with their truly dreadful year. In January, they kicked off the year right with an entertaining 140-pound title fight between the charismatic Paulie Malignaggi and tough contender Herman Ngoudjo, and now, they really kick it into second gear.

The next two weekends are Showtime going back to their boxing roots, the ideas that made them, for a while, HBO's unquestioned superior. While HBO farted around with contract fights that people couldn't get excited about, Showtime offered bang for your standard pay cable subscription buck. "Great fights, no rights" was the motto of Showtime Championship Boxing and Shobox -- while HBO offered the more familiar commentary team, the generally grander events, and the glitz and glam that comes with a major prize fight, Showtime was content to give us some of that, but also fights that promised action, to boot.

For the diehards, Showtime was the network. Last year, Showtime went a step too far in attempting to imitate HBO and hopelessly failing, while HBO answered criticism by delivering arguably their strongest year of boxing ever.

Now, Showtime is back to what works. Tonight's special edition of Shobox will lead in to tomorrow night's highly-anticipated rubber match between super bantamweights Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, and then next Saturday, the network will bring American fans rare live coverage of a major cruiserweight title fight, when David Haye takes on Enzo Maccarinelli in London, another fight that promises a knockout.

(In somewhat related news, a special edition Shobox will air on Saturday, March 29, headlined by the Carl Froch-Denis Inkin fight. Seriously, how great is Showtime looking right now?)

Up to the plate first: Robert Guerrero defending his IBF featherweight title against Jason Litzau -- yet another fight where fireworks and action are to be expected.

The 126-pound division is a good one again, littered with really solid fighters throughout the top of the division, a division unfortunately spearheaded by Indonesian Chris John, who appears to have no plans to leave the comfy confines of his homeland and venture into major fights, instead seemingly secure in making his mandatories and little else. The biggest win of John's career over Juan Manuel Marquez was a gift -- John is a really good fighter, but he's something of a chump champion.

Past John, though, it gets more interesting. Guerrero, WBO champion Steven Luevano, and dynamite WBC titleholder Jorge Linares are the other three major titleholders, and all of them could give John a run for his money. Linares is, in fact, one of the most exciting young boxers to come down the pipe in a long time. The newest "Golden Boy" pretty much has it all.

And then there's the cast of contenders waiting for title shots. Former bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez has made his way into the division, hoping to prolong a stagnating career. 24-year old Derry Matthews and Nicky Cook are England's top hopes. Tough veterans like Hector Velazquez and Orlando Salido. Puerto Rican southpaw Mario Santiago (lone loss was to Velazquez) is a personal favorite. Jorge Solis' only career loss came at 130 to Manny Pacquiao.

And then there's Jason Litzau, "The American Boy" himself. Born, raised and residing in the lesser-known of Minnesota's great twin cities, Litzau blitzed through his first 20 fights, scoring 18 knockouts. He was a fast-rising TV favorite. And then he met Jose Hernandez on December 16, 2006.

Hernandez knocked Litzau out in the eighth round. And it was on HBO's Boxing After Dark, too.

Maybe he was overconfident. Maybe he was overhyped. And maybe Hernandez was just the better man that night. Whatever it was, Hernandez weathered Litzau and wound up kicking his ass. Litzau was always a little cocky -- on that night, it bit him.

Since the loss, Litzau has gone 3-0, beating Aldo Valtierra, Emmanuel Lucero and Edel Ruiz, the Valtierra and Ruiz fights going the 10-round distance, with Litzau winning by wide margins in both cases. Lucero was knocked out in the second round.

I don't remember where I read it, but one internet comment summed up Litzau, at the time of his loss to Hernandez, rather squarely: "It's like he gets paid extra to keep his hands down."

Has he overcome that? Lapses in defense can be corrected if the fighter is one of substance. Just look at Kelly Pavlik, who used to get hit a lot more than he did against Jermain Taylor in their second fight. Pavlik will never be a great defensive fighter because he's too offense-first in nature, but he's become much less susceptible to someone who can punch, because he no longer looks to simply trade bombs and win the war.

Has Litzau done the same? Because if he stands and trades with Guerrero, "The Ghost" (Guerrero, not Pavlik) could knock him out the same as Hernandez did. At the same time, Litzau has shown he has the power to knock out anyone, too.

One other thing that bothers me about Litzau is weight. Only once in his career has he actually weighed in at 126 pounds, which was the Lucero fight. For much of his career, he's fought at 130, and in many fights, weighed 128. It may not seem like a major issue, but it might be.

As for Guerrero, he's one of boxing's truly good guys. He maintains his own blog, offering rare insight into a boxer's everyday life, often posting sparring videos and training with Shane Mosley and things of that nature. Guerrero is someone I root for every step of the way. And he's a good fighter in addition to being a class cat.

I have to favor Guerrero tonight, simply because I can't shake the image of Litzau being knocked out by Hernandez. For now, that's my real image of Litzau. I'm not saying he has no shot -- he has a very real chance of beating Guerrero, and I'm quite looking forward to the fight. We'll be here with scoring and round-by-round coverage of Guerrero-Litzau and a heavyweight rematch between T.J. Wilson and Travis Walker, and then back tomorrow night, of course, for Vazquez-Marquez III. We hope you'll join us. Actually, tomorrow night, I'm ordering anyone with even a passing interest in boxing to join us.