There were some notable results on Friday night in the boxing world. Here's the round-up from across the globe.

Grapevine, Texas

Top Rank Live was pre-empted on basically every regular FSN channel, I'm guessing. This show was the company's appetizer card for tonight's Pacquiao-Clottey PPV in Arlington.

• Samuel Peter TKO-2 Nagy Aguilera. This result really shouldn't surprise anybody, so I hope it doesn't. Aguilera (15-3, 10 KO) got into this IBF eliminator solely on the "strength" of knocking out a cold, old Oleg Maskaev in the first round, which isn't really that amazing. Maskaev is in his 40s and never had a great chin. This win definitely does not mean for sure that Sam Peter (34-3, 27 KO) is "back," but he came in at 237 1/2 pounds, his lowest weigh-in since 2001, which was his debut year in professional boxing. Peter's weights have been very good since signing with Top Rank. I don't know that he's the fighter some people expect him to be, but it's pretty obvious he's legitimately re-focused on being the best he can be, and is deserving of being back in the discussion. Good for him, because at his best he could be a bulldozer in this division. The win does make Peter a mandatory challenger for ... wait for it ... Wladimir Klitschko, unless Klitschko loses to Eddie Chambers next week. Peter has losses to both on his record and I'm betting would love to avenge either.
• Richie Mepranum UD-10 Hernan Marquez. And there goes Marquez's "0." 22-year-old Filipino prospect Mepranum (17-2-1, 3 KO) can't punch a lick but is a solid young fighter anyway, and his two losses aren't anything to be upset about. He was 19 when he lost in Thailand to Panomroonglek Kratingdaenggym, and he was just 20 and hung in fairly well with Denkaosan Kaovichit in 2007. Kaoivchit would go on to win a world title at flyweight. Now at junior bantamweight, Mepranum won by wide scores last night (99-91, 98-92 and a closer 96-94). Marquez (27-1, 20 KO) had a pretty soft record coming in, and now with his first loss, we'll find out what he's really made of.
• Anthony Peterson KO-3 Juan Ramon Cruz. Total stay-busy fight for Peterson (30-0, 20 KO), who's looking on his way to his first major title shot. Cruz (16-8-1, 12 KO) has now lost seven of his last ten fights.
• Omar Henry TKO-1 Francisco Javier Reza. The very promising Henry (8-0, 7 KO) continues to roll early in his career. The Chicago-born Henry fights out of Houston and has been out of the first round just one time.
• Dennis Laurente UD-8 Ben Tackie. Not really an important fight at all, but a couple of veterans getting together for an eight-rounder that leads to better gatekeeping opportunities, hopefully. Also, Philippines versus Ghana. Laurente won on scores of 78-74, 77-75, 77-75, which is sort of exactly what you'd expect out of this fight. 32-year-old Laurente is now 34-3-5 (17 KO), while the 36-year-old Tackie looks close to winding down a damn solid career as he falls to 29-12-1 (17 KO) with his sixth straight loss (all decisions, all at least competitive).
• Jose Benavidez TKO-3 Bobby Hill. Freddie Roach calls the 17-year-old Benavidez his "future," and that's high praise. This kid is one hell of a prospect if everyone is to be believed, a Golden Gloves champion with a very bright future and loads of talent.

Liverpool, England

(Photo via BBC)

• Paul Smith UD-12 Tony Dodson. Smith retains the British super middleweight title on scores of 117-112, 116-111 and 115-112. Bad Left Hook had it 115-112 for Smith (29-1, 15 KO), who suffered pretty bad cuts in the first and second round on head clashes between the two reckless, messy fighters. Dodson (24-6-1, 12 KO) really gave away a golden opportunity. I had this fight even through eight before Smith took over, made worse by the fact that Dodson was docked a point (and rightly so) in the 10th round for excessive holding. If Dodson had targeted the cuts in the 3rd-5th rounds, he might have been able to get Smith out of there and take home the title in an upset. Instead, he fought like a guy simply waiting for the cut itself to get worse and hand over Smith's title. In the end, Smith out-gutted him and out-fought him, and it's as simple as that. Pretty decent fight with some fine drama and plenty of tension. The star of the fight was Smith's veteran cut man, Mick Williamson, who did a really phenomenal job keeping the blood flow minimized.
• Kell Brook TKO-6 Krzysztof Bienias. Brook (21-0, 14 KO) is ready for the world stage. I don't often suggest a guy skip a domestic level or two (or three) when he's in a system like the UK's, where the domestic levels actually can benefit a career, but Brook is ready to go. He's 23, he's a big, talented welterweight, and he's got the goods. Bienias is nothing more than a journeyman with a fluffed-up record (39-4, 16 KO), but Brook battered him pretty ruthlessly. I'm not suggesting Brook jump right into the fire on this level, but if he signed to fight Andre Berto tomorrow I'd consider it more or less a toss-up fight, and I think he'd dominate the guys the IBF has circling their title.
• Tony Bellew TKO-1 Atoli Moore. The Commonwealth light heavyweight belt goes to Bellew (13-0, 9 KO), who rather predictably crushed Moore (4-1, 2 KO) in a gross physical mismatch. Moore has been fighting around the 175-pound limit, so fair game and everything, but the Ghana-born fighter is 5'6". Bellew is about 6'3", a big light heavy.
• Enzo Maccarinelli TKO-1 Zoltan Czekus. Yep. Zoltan. Macca (31-4, 24 KO) wins his second straight over a scrub, trying to bounce back from the bad losses to David Haye, Ola Afolabi and Denis Lebedev.

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

• Giovanni Lorenzo KO-2 Wilmer Gonzalez. Former title challenger Lorenzo (28-2, 20 KO) gets back on track after losing in his crack at the IBF middleweight title last year to Sebastian Sylvester. Lorenzo still hasn't proven a whole lot, but the division is really weak and he can be an exciting fighter, so he's likely to get another shot sometime. A rematch with Sylvester would be suitable, but probably unlikely. Gonzalez (17-9-1, 11 KO) never really had much of a chance. This was a total comeback fight.
• Felix Diaz UD-6 Orlando Membreno. Former Olympian Diaz (5-0, 3 KO) gets some rounds in after flooring Membreno in the opening round. Nicaraguan Membreno (11-13-1, 10 KO) has been knocked out six times. Insane in the Membreno. Sorry. I'm really sorry.
  

Prague, Czech Republic

• Lukas Konecny TKO-4 Ionut Trandafir Ilie. Never let it be said that only the major sanctioning bodies pull stunts like this. Konecny (43-3, 21 KO) fought for the vacant Czech middleweight title on December 30 against Attila Kiss, who has a truly standing ovation-worthy name but also a 9-56-3 record coming into that fight. But Konecny didn't make weight. Now Konecny has won the interim Czech middleweight title over Ilie (13-3-1, 1 KO). Konecny is probably best-known for losing a 154-pound title shot against Sergiy Dzinziruk in 2008, if he's known to you at all.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

• Paul Spadafora TKO-8 Ivan Fiorletta. Spadafora, 34, seems pretty realistic about what his career is. After two years of what would have been his prime was spent in prison, he's fought guys like Fiorletta (24-6-2, 7 KO) and beaten them, but really shown little interest in going higher than that. This time his team imported the 30-year-old Italian, who had fought in the States just twice before, both on small cards in Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. It sort of reminds me of the influx of Japanese talent in Major League Baseball from early last decade, after Ichiro really blew the doors open, and these teams would bring in these old, mediocre pitchers, and you'd wonder, "You couldn't find this in Triple-A? You had to import it?" Also dorky noteworthy: this fight was held at one of the consistent tour venues for the original ECW.

Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand

• Wisanu Pornobnum UD-12 Ichal Tobidal. This is the sort of great, 12-round title fight matchup you can only get in Thailand. Pornobnum (34-7-2, 12 KO) successfully staved off the challenge from the definitely qualified and worthy Tobidal (6-5, 5 KO) to retain his PABA junior flyweight title. This comes on the heels of very strong defenses against Deni Timor (5-5-1), Donnie Mabao (12-8-1), Edo Resilay (12-5-2) and some non-title fights against dangerous opponents such as Johan Wahyudi (4-10) and Alwi Alhabsyi (11-15-3).

Mashantucket, Connecticut

• Tony Grano UD-10 Mark Brown. Grano (17-1-1, 13 KO) isn't going to be a real heavyweight contender, and neither is Brown (15-3, 7 KO). But I'm glad Grano won so that maybe we can get a Grano-Kauffman rematch.
• Mike Oliver KO-3 Kermin Guardia. Oliver (23-2, 8 KO) looked like a possible American contender at 122 pounds before back-to-back bad losses to Reynaldo Lopez and Antonio Escalante (both TKO-3) in 2008. Now he's on the comeback trail, and at 30, he better get a move on. The knockout shot was to the body. Guardia (37-12, 21 KO) is about as close to done as it's going to get without just retiring. The 40-year-old Colombian hasn't won a fight since 2007. He's lost six in a row now, and 10 of his last 12. We're talking about a guy who challenged the great Finito Lopez for his strawweight title back in 1994.

We finally get our first truly big fight of the year, and the promoters have basically cleared out the schedule in anticipation of it.  There is, however, also a solid card going on in Germany the day of Pacquiao-Clottey, and Bob Arum as usual has a lead-in card the night before the big fight, and a Friday Night Fights substitute will be on ESPN Deportes instead of ESPN2.

Friday, March 12

Eurosport (EU), 3:00 p.m. Eastern, Lukas Konecny vs. Ionut Trandafir Ilie.   Ilie is a late replacement for Attila Kovacs, but probably isn't much of a step down.  Konecny is most prominent for nearly beating Sergei Dzinziruk a few years ago, and now is ranked as a middleweight by a couple of sanctioning bodies.  The proceeds of this fight will go towards relief in Haiti.

Sky Sports (UK), 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Paul Smith vs. Tony Dodson, Kell Brook vs. Krzyzstof Bienias.  Former "Contender" participant Smith will attempt the first defense of his BBBoC super middleweight title against exciting gatekeeper Dodson.  Brook it taking his first (sort of) step up in trying to take Pole Bienias' WBO intercontinental trinket.  Brook has been making a lot of noise lately about how he's gunning for Miguel Cotto and ready to face the big boys in the welterweight division, but that's all a pipe dream until he starts facing a few guys people have heard of. 

Gofightlive.tv, 8:00 p.m. ($9.99), Tony Grano vs. Mark Brown, Mike Oliver vs. Kermin Guardia, Sadam Ali vs. Jose Duran.  Grano is coming off his upset of Travis Kaufman and is trying to avenge is only loss, which came to Brown.  He's exciting, but he's still a four round fighter.  122 pound contender Oliver will take on former titlist Guardia, who is now 40 years old, fighting six weight classes above where he won his title and has lost five in a row.

ESPN Deportes, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Giovanni Lorenzo vs. Wilmer Gonzalez, Kenny Galarza vs. Miguel Casillas, Felix Diaz vs. Orlando Membreno.  So there isn't officially a Friday Night Fights this weekend, but this card is about as good as a lesser FNF, just you'll need to watch it in Spanish because of college basketball.  This is a bounceback fight for Lorenzo, who in his last bout lost a split decision to titlist Sebastian Sylvester.  Blue chip Dominican prospects Galarza and Diaz will be taking small steps up as well.

Fox Sports Net / Fox Sports Espanol, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Sam Peter vs. Nagy Aguilera, Hernan Marquez vs. Richie Mepranum.  Peter vs. Aguilera is a title eliminator for the belt held by Vitali Klitschko.  Since losing to Eddie Chambers, Peter has supposedly refocused and gotten back to his old self in a series of off-TV bouts with new promoter Top Rank.  Aguilera knocked out Oleg Maskaev for this chance, bit he's a bit wild and rudimentary, and probably isn't much better than the guys Peter was knocking out before he fought Wladimir Klitschko.  This bout should be a good litmus test.  Marquez vs. Mepranum is potentially a great fight between prospects.  Marquez is an undefeated power punching southpaw who's only 21 years old, and he's exciting but VERY raw.  Mepranum is only 22 himself and has a couple of losses, but one was to a hotshot Thai prospect and the other was to recent titlist Denkaosan Kaovichit. Anthony Peterson, Omar Henry and Jose Benavidez Jr. are also slated to fight on the undercard, in case things run short.  Check your schedules on this one - the English language broadcast is probably pre-empted by college basketball in most places, but it should still be carried by Fox Sports Espanol.

Saturday, March 13

ARD (Germany), 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Marco Huck vs. Adam Richards, Alexander Povetkin vs. Javier Mora.  Huck is a fairly entertaining fighter who punches with authority, though has a tendency to fight in spurts.  Richards is an exciting fighter who goes all-out, and who has recently moved down to cruiserweight.  Team Richards has essentially guaranteed that this fight will end in a knockout - he's going for the KO, and if he doesn't get it, he'll get KOed trying.  Check back here near fight time, as we may have live round by round coverage of this one.

HBO PPV, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($49.95), Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey, Humberto Soto vs. David Diaz, Jose Luis Castillo vs. Alfonso Gomez, John Duddy vs. Michael Medina.  Click here to get full fight previews of each of these bouts.  Bad Left Hook will have live round by round coverage of this card.

Sunday, March 14

Brandhatton.com, 9:00 a.m. Eastern (2.99 pounds), Dean Harrison vs. Ben Lawler.  Ricky Hatton tries his entry into the internet pay per view realm with this minor card involving a fight for the Midlands light welterweight title.  About 8 other fights will be on the card as well.

Elsewhere in the world of boxing...

• On the German undercard, there are a few more decent fights.  Cruiserweight contender Yoan Pablo Hernandez will face unproven Argentinian Cesar David Crenz for an IBF trinket.  Alexander Frenkel takes a minor step up against durable and boring journeyman Michael Simms.   Kubrat Pulev continues to face really tough tests for someone with fewer than 10 pro fights as he faces Danny Batchelder. 
  
• On the UK undercard, 12-0 Tony Ballew will attempt to win the vacant Commonwealth light heavyweight title against Atoli Moore.  I realize that Ghanian fighters often have more of a record than Boxrec indicates, but this is the third or fourth time lately they've really scraped the bottom of the barrel to fill a vacant title.  Officially, Moore is 4-0.  The combined records of his opponents is 2-7.  COMBINED.  Note to the BBBoC - you folks have one of the few smaller belts that people actually take seriously.  They won't take it seriously for that much longer if you keep filling vacancies with fights like this. 
• Sam Soliman will get back in the ring in Australia against Shannon McMahon.  The fight is for a minor middleweight belt.   
• In Mexico, a couple of gatekeepers will go at it in what should be an exciting fight when Gamaliel Diaz faces Eden Marquez. 
• Paul Spadafora continues his comeback in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  Again, he's facing a much smaller fighter with a decent looking record who is very unproven.  We'll see if he ever decides to step back up, or if he's content to just stay on the regional circuit.  It's pretty likely that he has much left after spending a good chunk of his prime in prison. 

With boxing just about to really kick into full swing for 2010, I'm checking my watch every other day or so for the time someone at ESPN, Fox Sports, Yahoo! Sports, Comedy Central, ET Online or the famed site Old Man Who Used to Like Marciano and Hasn't Seen Boxing in 11 Years to chime in and notice, "HEY!"

"You know what would help?!"

"Heavyweights!"

"People always liked heavyweights before."

"With heavyweights, yada yada, Marciano and Louis and Ali and Frazier and Foreman and Holmes and Tyson and Jersey Joe and I guess Holyfield, too, why not?!"

Personally, I think the sport of boxing does just fine without a dominant heavyweight division, but I also don't deny that of course the game could benefit from a headline-grabbing big man. I also don't deny that without the lettuce, a BLT is just a BT.

For those who might not pay close attention, here are some notable heavyweight fights coming your way. I figure after Pacquiao-Clottey one of those "Hey! The heavyweight division is dead!" articles will pop up, so let's burn this out now.

Friday, March 12: Samuel Peter (33-3, 26 KO) v. Nagy Aguilera (15-2, 10 KO)

The night before the big Pacquiao-Clottey show in Arlington, Top Rank will put an appetizer onto the table about a half hour up the road at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine. Sam Peter is still best-known for knocking down Wladimir Klitschko three times in a 2005 loss, and has in a lot of ways become a hype job because of that performance, despite the constant harping on Klitschko for having a glass jaw that follows the world champion around to this day. If Klitschko's chin is so bad, what's the big deal about Peter knocking him down?

That was the last time Wladimir looked so much as vulnerable, too. Since then, Peter has stopped four guys, and three of them were bums. The fourth, Oleg Maskaev, was stopped in under two minutes by Nagy Aguilera in his last fight. Oleg, for the record, recently said he plans to box on at age 41, and considering how giddy the WBC has proven to be to hand him mandatory challenger positions before, why not, I suppose.

Anyway, this could be a decent sleeper fight if all goes right. Since signing with Top Rank after losing two straight to Vitali Klitschko and Eddie Chambers, Peter has been slowly rebuilding his career. He's run over Marcus McGee, Ronald Bellamy and the free-moving land mass that is Gabe Brown in his last three. Though not a world-beater, Aguilera could be a fair step back up the ladder in terms of competition.

Most likely, though, he isn't, and Peter will blast him out without much trouble. Aguilera's only credible win is over Maskaev, who is really old and never took a punch all that well, and was caught cold.

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