Giovanni Lorenzo will try to win a vacant title against Sebastian Sylvester. via www.sportschau.de

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We have a megafight this weekend, but there's still a lot going on, even if you don't want to use one of the million ways to watch the fight.  Even if Mayweather-Marquez doesn't pique your fancy, there are potential fireworks on all three undercard fights. Don't get Pay Per View?  Go watch it at a movie theater.

Friday, September 18

Sky Sports, Noon Eastern: Lenny Daws vs. Barry Morrison; Matthew Marsh vs. Josh Wale.  Daws and Morrison will face off for the BBoC light welterweight title that Ajose Olusegan just vacated.  Olusegan was supposed to defend until a few days ago, when he jumped ship when he was offered a title eliminator bout against Jo Jo Dan.

GoFightLive.tv, 7:30 p.m. Eastern ($4.95): Carlos Zambrano vs. Jason Rori, and a whole bunch of others.

ESPN2., 9:00 p.m. Eastern: Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. GIovanni Andrade; Yordanis Despaigne vs. Micky Scaraborough; Yudel Johnson vs. Frankie Santos.  All three fighters are Cuban Olympic medalists who are recent defectors.  Rigondeaux is the most promising of the three, and is taking a massive step up in facing Andrade, who is 60-11 with 49 knockouts.  To this point, Rigondeaux has only taken on no-hopers in four round bouts, and now he gets a former fringe titlist in a 10 round bout.  However, the last time we saw Andrade on US TV, he got shellacked by Juan Manuel Lopez in a round.

Showtime, 11:00 p.m. Eastern: Travis Kaufman vs. Tony Grano; Chris Avalos vs. Giovanni Caro.  Kaufman is a heavyweight prospect who goes by "GW Hope" (yes, great white hope).  He has some skills, but isn't necessarily the most exciting fighter in the world.  In this era of weak heavyweights, he could be a contender.

Saturday, September 19

ARD, 3:00 p.m. Eastern: Sebastian Sylvester vs. Giovanni Lorenzo; Francisco Pianeta vs. Matt Skelton; Alexander Frenkel vs. Joszef Nady.  Sylvester vs. Lorenzo is for the middleweight title that Arthur Abraham vacated.  Both are decent fighters in or near the bottom half of the middleweight top 10, but that's not saying much in a division as weak as it is.  Pianeta's coming off a disappointing draw to Albert Sosnowski, who was subsequently almost knocked out by Zuri Lawrence.  He's still tall and he's still an awkward southpaw, so he could still become a contender, but he'll need to improve his workrate and fundamentals to get there.    How's this for aggressive scheduling - last weekend, Frenkel beat 22-4 Lazslo Hubert on the Kessler-Perdomo undercard.  Exactly a week later, he faces 21-4 Nady to try to get his 20th win.  At least you need to give credit to Sauerland for trying to turn him into a draw, as cruiserweight is a big money division in Germany.

HBO PPV, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($45.95): Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez; Chris John vs. Rocky Juarez; Vicente Escobedo vs. Michael Katsidis; Cornelius Lock vs. Orlando Cruz.  Somehow, GBP convinced the WBO to give up an interim title for Escobedo-Katsidis, which seems kind of whack to me.  Also on the undercard is Erislandy Lara vs. Jose Varela.  Also on the undercard - Said Ouali, Jesse Vargas and Dion Savage.  Check on Yahoo, as they often broadcast the untelevised undercards of the major Golden Boy pay per views - you might be able to catch it there. 

TyC Sports, 10:00 Eastern: Gaston Alejandro Vega vs. Jorge Sebastian Heiland.  I had no idea this channel even existed until 10 minutes ago, but evidently it's an Argentinian sports channel that you can get on the DirectTV international package.  This is a bout between two undefeated middleweight prospects that will push the winner pretty high up the WBO's rankings.

Elsewhere in the world of boxing:

• Puerto Rican flyweight prospect Cesar Seda Jr. takes on Omar Soto in a step up fight.  Soto recently fought for Omar Narvaez's title, and should present Seda with a decent test.  Seda may be someone to watch out for in the future.  
• Mahir Oral is back in action after his knockout loss to Arthur Abraham.  He'll face European journeyman Alexander Sipos.  On the same card, Steffan Kretschmann tries to come back from his own shocking loss to Denis Bakhtov against, well, a 3-13 bum. 
• Matt Remillard takes on Rafael Lora in another battle of undefeated prospects.  Remillard is the known qualtity here, and they're bringing him along at a decent pace. 
  
• On Monday, Takefumi Sakata takes a bounceback fight against the hilariously named Decky Putra.  You know superfly is weak when you still need to consider Sakata's name when putting together a top 10 list.  
• On Wednesday, Omar Sheika takes on Antwun Echols in a fight nobody wants to see.  This would have been a great one in, say, 2000.  Hopefully loser has to retire.

Saul Alvarez (yes, he's Mexican, not Irish) is too young to know any better than to pose with the WBC Diamond Belt (which actually has pictures of Pacquiao and Cotto on it). via www.boxeoeditores.com

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This is that time of year when we seem to go from weak week to strong weak on an almost weekly basis.  This week, there are actually two low-level pay per views scheduled, which just can't be good for anyone, considering a lot of providers only have the slot for one sports pay per view in a given timeslot.  In even more scheduling madness, there are two Mexican cards involving multiple championship fights going on Tuesday night.  Why can't the promoters just play nice and spread out the cards?  If half of these fights had been last weekend and half of them this weekend, we would have had two decent weekends of fights, instead of complete dreck followed by an overload.

Thursday, September 10

Canal+, 3:30 p.m. Eastern, Nadjib "Iron Djib" Mohammedi vs. Thierry Karl; Karim Bennama vs. David Greter; Jean Paul Mendy vs. Nathan King.  The first two fights are part of Le Grand Tournoi, a boxing tournament they have had in France the last few years.

Friday, September 11

Sky Sports, Noon Eastern, Tyson Fury vs. John McDermott. This one's for the English heavyweight crown.  McDermott's certainly an English-level fighter, but he's a pretty decent one.  His last two fights were both close losses to Danny Williams, and he's beaten some decent British heavies like Scott Gammer and Pete Reid.  Fury, only 7-0, is taking a decent step up, but I like the aggressiveness in his scheduling for such a young fighter.  The way he's staying in the media, he should be able to make a decent living boxing, even if he does flame out a la Audley Harrison.

Gofightlive.tv, 7:30 p.m. Eastern ($4.99), Steve Upshur vs. James Helms; Jules Blackwell vs. Joselito Collado; Darren Fallen vs. Joshua Onyango and others.

Gofightlive.tv, 8:00 p.m. Eastern ($7.99), Rodney King vs. Simon Aouad.  Yes, THAT Rodney King.  This is touted as celebrity boxing, meaning it's probably not pro rules, but King is the only guy on the card I've ever heard of.

Telemundo, 11:35 p.m. Eastern, Alejandro Hernandez vs. Wilbert Uicab.  It's very clearly Telemundo when the headline fight involved guys who are 22-6 and 25-5, respectively.  Should be a good flyweight scrap though.

Saturday, September 12

Integrated PPV, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($29.95), Ivan Calderon vs. Rodel Mayol; Roman Martinez vs. Vicente Rodriguez; Juan Mercedes vs. Jesus Martinez; Carlos Negron vs. Larry Carter.  Calderon seems to be fading, and Mayol's trainer Freddie Roach seems confident he can squeeze out a victory.  Calderon tried to brawl too much in his last couple fights, but if he goes back to boxing defensively, he shouldn't have too many problems with Mayol, who Calderon drew in his last fight.  Martinez makes the first defense of the title he won from Nicky Cook.  For those of you who don't get this pay per view over the cable box, the card is also available at Gofightlive.tv for $9.95.

Top Rank PPV, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($39.95), Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Jason LeHoullier; Fernando Montiel vs. Alex Valdez; Donnie Nietes vs. Manuel Vargas; Z Gorres vs. Cruz Carvajal.  Gorres vs. Carvajal might actually be the most exciting and competitive fight on the card.  Chavez-LeHoullier might also be closer than some people might think, but LeHoullier doesn't have the power to end Chavez.  Another pretty lackluster card for a big price tag from Top Rank.  The Televisa card on Tuesday is a significantly better card from top to bottom.  On the bright side, if you get Azteca, you can probably watch this one for free on delay.

Showtime, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Mikkel Kessler vs. Gusmyl Perdomo; Andre Ward vs. Shelby Pudwill.  Bad Left Hook will be providing coverage of these fights, which will help set up Kessler vs. Ward in the opening round of the Super Six tournament.  Perdomo is actually a crafty southpaw who is Kessler's mandatory.  He's probably not much of a threat to win, but he could put up a decent fight.  Pudwill, on the other hand, is best known for being Tocker's less talented brother, and is just bait to get knocked out early.

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After a couple of relatively strong weeks of televised boxing, we've hit another lull.  ESPN's boxing season is officially over (although there will be a 'special' boxing presentation of a card loaded with Cubans next weekend), and with all the huge fights being made, HBO's and Showtime's boxing budgets are pretty much eaten up for the year.

As an aside, whatever happened to Showtime airing boxing the first weekend of the month?  It seems like it's been forever since they've actually done so. 

Friday, September 4

Sky (UK), 11:30 a.m. Eastern - John Simpson vs. Paul Truscott.  This one's for the BBoC Featherweight TItle, and is a rematch of a bout from earlier in the year where Truscott was leading, but lost the fight on a cut that, on replay, appeared to be caused by an accidental clash of heads rather than a punch.

Saturday, September 5

ITV4 (UK), 1:45 p.m. Eastern - John O'Donnell vs. Tom Glover; Peter McDonagh vs. Lee Purdy. 

TSN (Canada), 11:30 p.m. Eastern (tape delay) - Jose "Carita" Lopez vs. Marvin Sonsona; Steve Molitor vs. Francisco Ledezma.  Seems like somewhat of a shame that this card couldn't at least land on an internet feed in the US, as this one could be a real coming out party.  I've been leading (the only member of?) the Sonsona bandwagon for a while now, and I think this kid could be something special long-term.  Lopez is a longtime fringe contender and one of the good guys in boxing.  It was nice to see him finally win a title at 37 years old, and he's a better fighter now than he was when he last lost nearly 8 years ago to Fernando Montiel.  Still, this is a battle of youth versus experience - Sonsona is literally half Lopez's age and has immense physical talent but has had only 14 pro fights with very little amateur experience, while Lopez has been a pro fighter for nearly 20 years and knows every trick of the trade, plus he's not the type to let up or get discouraged.

Elsewhere in the boxing world...

• The WBA is having one of their massive Panamanian cards on Saturday.  This time, Luis Concepcion fights Omar Salado for a completely useless interim title, and Daniel Ponce de Leon faces former title challenger Roinet Caballero in a 126 pound title eliminator.  Also on the completely stacked card - 19-0 prospect Austin Trout vs. Nilson Tapia, Fernando Angulo vs. Ameth Diaz and Alberto Mosquera vs. Henry Aurad.  It looks like there should be a stream available somewhere for this one if you look around.
  
• Luis Carlos Abregu goes back to fighting cans in Argentina.  While he's been in some exciting fights this year, and shows a little bit of flash, his fight against Irving Garcia showed that he's not quite ready for prime time yet.  It couldn't hurt him to try refining his skills in his homeland for a few fights before trying to get a bigger fight in the US.  As an aside, I'd love to see him and Andre Berto face off someday. 
  
• Koki Kameda takes on Humberto Pool in a warmup bout for his megafight against Daisuke Naito.  Much like next week's Kessler/Ward doubleheader, this is a risky strategy.  Kameda-Naito is the biggest fight that could be made in Japan, period, and if Kameda gets cut, that could be a huge payday out the window.  Pool is 2-4 in his last 6 fights, but sadly is the best opposition Kameda will have faced in about a year and a half.

Balzsay and Stieglitz are all smiles...for now.

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Nothing at all going on on Friday this weekend, but there are three good cards on Saturday.  Unfortunately, one of them is only televised in Germany, and one of them is on Azteca, meaning that only a limited number of markets in the southwest will get it.

Saturday, August 22

ZDF (Germany), 3:00 p.m. Eastern, Karoly Balzsay vs. Robert Stieglitz (for a SMW trinket); Jurgen Braehmer vs. Aleksy Kuziemski (for a vacant LHW interim paper title).  Stieglitz and Braehmer are both native German fighters who are very popular over there but also very physically limited.  Stieglitz was last seen by American viewers getting his ass kicked by Librado Andrade, and while Balzsay doesn't turn on the pressure like Andrade, he's a much better boxer than Andrade and it's hard to imagine that the results will be all that different.  Braehmer has beaten a who's who of Euro level fighters, but lost in his only previous title shot against Hernan Hugo Garay.  Kuziemsky is a Polish Olympian Sven Ottke clone who's technically sound and undefeated, but doesn't throw many punches and couldn't crack an egg with his punches.

HBO, 9:45 p.m. Eastern, Juan Diaz vs. Paulie Malignaggi; Malcolm Klassen vs. Robert Guerrero (for Klassen's SFW trinket); Daniel Jacobs vs. Ishe Smith.  BLH will have round by round coverage of these fights.  Klassen vs. Guerrero is the most interesting of these fights to me.  Klassen has never been on US TV before (and doesn't even have any fights up on Youtube), but he's consensus top 2 in the weight class and fights like a miniature version of Timothy Bradley. 

Azteca America, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Sergey Gulyakevich vs. Humberto Mauro Gutierrez (for a SFW interim paper title), Raul Garcia vs. Sammy Gutierrrez (for a minimumweight title).

Elsewhere in the boxing world:

• While the main events aren't necessarily fights that look like barnburners on paper, you can't fault Golden Boy for not stacking the card with prospects.  It seems like half their young guys are fighting on this card.  Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, Kelvin Price (the former All-American basketball player at UNC-Charlotte who's gone pro in boxing) and Mike Perez are all scheduled to fight on the card.
• Oliver McCall is trying to piggyback a career for his son Elijah, while he can still fight.  The two face weak opponents on a Friday card in Vegas.
• Andy Lee is back in action stateside, and is back to facing softer touches.  He'll take on 20-6 Anthony Shuler.  Antwun Echols and Owen "What the Heck" Beck will also be featured on the card.
• The drunken master of boxing is back after mearly a year off.  In his 75th pro bout, Emmanuel Augustus will be facing undefeated prospect Oyewale Omotoso in Australia.  Omotoso's been knocking out cans, so I guess his promoters figure that Augustus will get him rounds, but he's not the first guy I'd choose to have an inexperienced prospect face.  Augustus doesn't make anyone look good, and he has more than his fair share of upsets over the years.
• Deandre Latimore will try to bounce back from his recent title bout loss to Cory Spinks against rugged vet Sammy Sparkman.  Elsewhere, Grady Brewer will be keeping busy in Oklahoma.

 After a very lackluster week last week, there's a lot of action going on this weekend, even if there aren't any high profile fights. 

Friday, August 14

Armstrong Cable; Mintofight.com - 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($10.00) - Brian Minto vs. Donnell Holmes.  Those of you fortunate enough to live in the parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia covered by the nation's 16th largest cable provider will be able to watch for free on Armstrong's sports channel.  The rest of us will have to buy the fight on internet pay per view, or just forego the opportunity.  I've never seen Holmes fight before, but Minto always brings it, and it's at least a big step up for the undefeated Holmes.  If Minto can get by Donnell Holmes, I think he should try to wipe out all the undefeated pretenders - Faruq Saleem, JD Chapman, David Rodriguez, etc. 

ESPN2, 10:00 p.m. Eastern - Vivian Harris vs. Noe Bolanos; Danny Garcia vs. Jermaine White; Deontay Wilder vs. Travis Allen.  Keith Thurman is also on the card and might make it on in the case of a short main event.

Telemundo, 11:35 p.m. Eastern - Antonio Pitalua vs. Jose Reyes.  Pitalua is coming fresh off his destruction by Edwin Valero.  Reyes is a solid fighter with a couple of decent wins over Ivan Valle, Noe Bolanos and Javier Jaregui, but has lost his past two, and has six losses, all to decent competition.  On paper, this is probably the most even bout of the night.

Saturday, August 15

Top Rank PPV, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($39.95) - Nonito Donaire vs. Rafael Concepcion; Steven Luevano vs. Bernabe Concepcion; Mark Melligen vs. Michel Rosales; Anthony Peterson vs. Luis Arceo.  BLH will be providing round by round coverage of this one.  Probably the closest matchup here is Luevano vs. Concepcion.  Concepcion looks like a promising prospect, but he's taking a huge step up with this one.  Lord knows Bob Arum would probably prefer that Concepcion win, as he has a much more fan-friendly style than Luevano, and I doubt he'd make this matchup unless he either thought that Concepcion was ready for it or thought he wasn't going anywhere.  Rafael Concepcion is only 13-3-1, but he's won an interim title, and has wins over AJ Banal and Kermin Guardia, together with an exciting and closely contested loss against Jorge Arce.  The other two fights are just showcases, and probably not exciting ones at that.

Square Ring PPV, gofightlive.tv, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($34.95) - Roy Jones Jr. vs. Jeff Lacy; Danny Green vs. Julio Cesar Dominguez; B.J. Flores vs. Epifanio Mendoza; Jason Litzau vs. Verquan Kimbrough.  The lower undercard of this one nominally looks better than the Top Rank pay per view.  Dominguez is making his first US appearance in what is supposed to be a showcase fight to set up a Roy Jones-Danny Green fight, if each can win their bouts here.  That fight would likely be in Australia, and could rival the Australian record $8 million purse for the Green-Mundine fight.  Flores takes on another big puncher with a sketchy chin.  Maybe he'll work to erase our memories of his wins over Darnell Wilson and Jose Luis Herrera.  Litzau tries to be flashy like Roy, but without nearly as much success, so he makes sense to fill out the card.  Good job of also making this one available on the internet, since a number of cable providers probably won't be able to air it due to other pay per view obligations. 

Televisa, 10:00 p.m. Eastern - Francisco Rosas vs. Juan Carlos Reveco for a vacant light flyweight title.  Rosas recently lost a close decision to mini-Valero Roman Gonzalez, while Reveco is a former titlist who's most prominent fight was a close loss to Brahim Asloum.  Seems like a pretty even match on paper between two deserving challengers.  This isn't being televised in the US, but those of you living near the Mexican border should be able to steal a signal for it. 

Sunday, August 16

Gofightlive.tv, on demand, free - Hank Lundy vs. Gary Bergeron.  Who knows who else is on the card, since it's changed a lot from the poster and the promoters don't have a website.  My favorite though - Elizabeth Sherman is on the card.  Note the boxrec entry under her pro debut: "Pro debuts for Sherman and Ward. Samatha Ward has no boxing skills."  Gotta love when they provide their own commentary.

Elsewhere in the boxing world:

• On Thursday night, Ronald Hearns will try to come off his loss to Harry Joe Yorgey against 15-14 Patrick Thompson.  Despite being thought of as a 'prospect', Hearns is already 30 years old, so he's probably nearing the end of the line if he can't move back up the ranks quickly and really improve his game.
• Gabriel Campillo puts his surprise title on the line against nine-fight novice Beibut Shumenov.  Under normal circumstances, you'd think this is a soft touch for Campillo, who won his title against Hugo Garay in Argentina in a huge upset.  Not in this case.  Shumenov has stepped up about as quickly as anyone, already fighting a number of former titlists in 12-round fights, and he'll have the backing of a screaming stadium in his hometown of Astana, Kazakhstan.  The fight will eventually be syndicated on SNY and other channels, if you watch out for it.  Also on the card is Chop Chop Corley, who only seems to be able to get a decision to go his way when he's in Kazakhstan. 
• Russian prospect Zaurbek Baysangurov tries to bounce back from his loss to Cornelius Bundrage against Ermosele Albert.  Albert is a solid opponent who can box but doesn't have much of a punch, last seen on TV getting flattened by James Kirkland and earning a draw against tough as nails journeyman Ossie Duran.  The winner gets in line to fight for one of the titles. 
• Daud Yordan has been staying busy since his aborted fight against Robert Guerrero, where he looked like he has some real promise.  He's taking on 14-3 Pinoy Ricky Susmundo.
• Sam Soliman, who's been inactive since losing to Anthony Mundine over a year ago, returns to action on a small Australian card.  He's taking light touch Sintung Kietbusaba. 
• Former Christian Mijares victem Teppei Kikui is back in action.  Normally, this wouldn't be news, except for his awesome name change.  He's now going by Salaryman Teppei. 

Gabriel Rosado will try to tattoo Alfredo Angulo with his punches this Friday night.

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After putting these schedules together for a few months, I've come to realize that boxing just tends to get scheduled in clumps.  Last week, there were four televised cards and a number of other major foreign bouts.  This week, we get one decent fight, and that's about it.

Friday, August 7

ESPN2, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Alfredo Angulo vs. Gabriel Rosado.  Anthony Dirrell, Gary Russell Jr. and Travis Kaufman all face scrubs on the undercard, so I have no idea what the undercard matches will be.  Angulo is coming off of the first loss of his career, in which Kermit Cintron made Angulo look slow and immobile.  If this is the bounceback fight, then someone really screwed up with their matchmaking.  Rosado may only be 12-3, but he's beaten Kassim Ouma and James Moore, and he came very close to beating Fernando Guerrero, knocking him down and making him generally look bad.  Rosado may not be slick or quick enough to hand Angulo another loss, but he's Philly tough, and I'd be surprised if Angulo's able to look too good against him.  For those who are interested, there's actually a full documentary about Rosado up on Youtube.

Saturday, August 8

GoFightLive.tv, 7:30 p.m. Eastern ($5.99), Mike Jones vs. Lenin Arroyo, Willis Lockett vs. Jerson Ravelo, Francisco Palacios vs. Frank Trader.  This card was mildly interesting for an internet PPV when it was first scheduled a few months ago, and included a headline fight of Jones against former prospect (and Shane's cousin) Larry Mosley.  Now, it's just a bout to get Jones some rounds.  Arroyo is 20-9, but has never been down in his career.

Elsewhere in the world...

• Heavyweight prospect Eugene Hill failed in his step up against Zack Page a few months back.  Tonight, Lou Savarese is promoting the rematch between the two in Houston. Lanardo Tyner is also on the card.
• Mlungisi Dlamini isn't a name you hear much, probably because it's impossible to actually say.  However, he does own dominant wins over a couple decent fighters in Gairy St. Clair and Ivan Bustos.   He'll take on Francisco Lorenzo, who almost acted his way to a title against Humberto Soto.  On the same card, 13-0 Bongani Mwelase will face Attila Kovacs.  If Mwelase wins, it will be the third solid gatekeeper he's beaten.  Obviously we won't see them now, but Dlamini and Mwelase might be guys to keep an eye on long-term.
• In Argentina, Jorge Barrios has his first fight since Rocky Juarez turned him into the Joker.  He'll face low-end gatekeeper Moises Castro. 

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After a dud of a weekend last week, everyone schedules all their fights to happen this week.  Note the early start time for FNF this week.

Thursday, July 30

Versus,10:00 p.m. Eastern, Charles Huerta vs. Derrick Wilson, Luis Ramos vs. Sandro Marcos, Enrique Ornelas vs. Robert Baro.  In the second installment of the GBP Club Nokia Fight Night, the fights look more like a WNF card than like the mediocre prospect versus mediocre prospect matchups we saw on the first show.  Huerta's an 11-0 prospect who won on the first show, but he's facing someone who's only 4-0-1.  Ramos is also 11-0, but at least they're matching him up with an experienced gatekeeper.  Ornelas isn't a prospect at all - his title eliminator against Marco Antonio Rubio was one of the better fights of 2008.

Friday, July 31

ESPN2, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Julio Diaz vs. Victor Cayo, Carl Davis Drumond vs. Derric Rossy.  How often is there boxing on both ESPN2 and Showtime on the same night, and you can say that the card on ESPN2 is legitimately better?  Diaz vs. Cayo could easily be the fight of the weekend.  Diaz, a recent titleholder, was upset against Rolando Reyes, but he's a forward-moving fighter with a high workrate who was among the weight class's elite only a year ago.  Cayo is an undefeated prospect with some talent, but some massive flaws.  His style in the ring seems to be based on watching Roy Jones Jr. fights when he was a kid, and since he's not actually as quick as Jones, he has a lot of vulnerabilities.  Drumond is a decent heavyweight who held his own against Ruslan Chagaev, but he has a low workrate, so I wouldn't expect his fight to be too exciting.

Showtime, 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Marvin Quintero vs. Tyrone Harris, Chris Avalos vs. Andre Wilson.  Gary Shaw has been pushing Quintero hard as his next big Mexican prospect, especially since Perro Angulo was upset.  Harris is a perfectly respectable gatekeeper who's only lost to good fighters, but who has never beaten a particularly good fighter.  I'm guessing as to the second televised fight, which well could be undefeated HW prospect Bowie Tupou against plodding power puncher Demetrice King.

Saturday, August 1

GoFightLive.tv., 8:00 p.m. Eastern ($9.95), Delvin Rodriguez vs. Isaac Hlathswayo.  This one's for the title Joshua Clottey vacated to take on Miguel Cotto. The first match was a draw that, by most accounts, Rodriguez should have won.  Also on the undercard - Demetrius Andrade, Yathomas Riley, Tarvis "don't call me Travis" Simms and Raymond Serrano.

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Timothy Bradley vs. Nate Campbell, Devon Alexander vs. Junior Witter

Elsewhere in the world of boxing...

• A number of stay busy fights around the globe.  Sakio Bika finally gets off his duff and has a fight in Australia tonight.  He faces off against Ramon Pedro Moyano, one of Carlos Monzon's sons.  Despite the intimidating bloodlines, Moyano is far from being a threat, with a record of 27-8-3.  Billy Lyell, coming off his upset win over John Duddy, faces Chris Overbey.  Prince Badi Ajamu faces former "title challenger" DeAndrey Abron, who's 0-3 against mediocre competition since getting smashed by Zsolt Erdei. (Update: Bika beat late replacement Nestor Casanova, and called out Anthony Mundine after the fight.)
• Mzonke Fana faces Jasper Seroka in an IBF SFW eliminator.  The belt has been held by a South African since 2006 - Malcolm Klassen, to Fana, to Cassius Baloyi, back to Klassen.  Robert Guererro has the chance to break up that streak.  You can stream this fight over the internet if you can get a South African proxy. 
• George "Monk" Foreman III follows up on his pro debut against a guy with an 0-5 (3 KO) record.  At least he's staying somewhat busy.  On the same card, 18-0 prospect Austin Trout will face gatekeeper Marcos Primera, whose specialty is upsetting prospects.  
• Elsewhere in SoCal tonight, Mike Anchondo, Freddie Norwood, Jose Celaya and Aaron Martinez all fight on a card that looks much more solid than the one being televised by Golden Boy.  I realize the intent byhind the Club Nokia fights, but is it really that hard to at least put together a card with competitive fights like this one?
• 41-year old Christy Martin appears to be taking a 'thank you' fight in her hometown in West Virginia.  Hopefully this means retirement for Martin, who was one of women's boxing's bigger stars for a long time. 

Not a whole lot going on this weekend, and there's even less going on since Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. pulled out of his main event for inability to make weight in time (rather than the reported rib injury).

Friday, July 24

ESPN2, 10:00 p.m. Eastern - Antonio Escalante vs. Cornelius Lock; Juan Velasquez vs. Jose Beranza; Carlos Velasquez vs. Juan Nazario.  Escalante's been on a good run since being upset by Mauricio Pastrana, beating Mike Oliver and Gary Stark in his last two.  Lock does his best to make good fights, but he's a level below Escalante and probably doesn't have the power to knock him out. 

Saturday, July 25

Top Rank PPV, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($39.95 suggested price) - Urbano Antillon vs. Miguel Acosta, Giovani Segura vs. Sonny Boy Jaro, Alejandro Martinez vs. Juan Alberto Rosas, Samuel Peter vs. Marcus McGee.  Antillon can win a paper title if he wins this one, which looks like another gimme.  Segura is defending his title against Jaro, a C-level brawler who upset Eriberto Gejon on the Pinoy Power card.  The other two are filler bouts, no better than what you'd see on Telefutura. 

Elsewhere around the globe:

• Paulus Moses defends his bogus WBA regular lightweight title against Takehiro Shimada, who isn't bad for a late replacement.  I saw his title victory over Yusuke Kobori, and unless he improves pretty drastically, I suspect he'll lose the first time he steps up in class (or maybe sooner).  He may have the same record as fellow Namibian Harry Simon, but he's no Harry Simon.
• Hundred-year old Aussie heavyweight journeyman Bob Mirovic rematches Kiwi John Hopoate in a fight that seems completely inexplicable.  Hopoate convincingly beat Mirovic last year, and Mirovic has lost 5 of his last 6.  I realize he needs to earn a paycheck from somewhere, but maybe it's time to stop getting paid by being hit in the head.
• Fres Oquendo faces off against Bruce Seldon.  Oquendo has had some hard luck in his career - a recent loss to James Toney that looked like a clear win in my book, a controversial stoppage against John Ruiz in a title fight he was keeping close, and close losses to Evander Holyfield and Chris Byrd that many felt he should have won.   Make no two buts about it though - Oquendo usually does just enough to win rounds, and it's his own damn fault for not dominating when he has the ability to do so.  Seldon is just a gatekeeper at this point in his career.  Since coming out of retirement in 2004, he has knockout losses to Tye Fields, Kevin Johnson and Gerald Nobles.  Oquendo should cruise in this one. 
• On Irish television on Saturday, many brothers named Hyland will be fighting.  Can't say I know too much about them, or their opponents (other than Oisan Fagan, who's lost to Amir Khan and Paul Spadafora), but I find it interesting, and you might be able to find a stream if you're interested in watching.
• My favorite named Comanche Boy, George Tahdooahnippah, will be rematching Dan Wallace.  What I find interesting is why they're rematching.  The first one was declared a no-contest, after "severe weather" started after the first round.  In an indoor casino.  Can't make this stuff up.