I tried watching and scoring the FSN fights last night, but it just didn't work out that way. I did see Andre Dirrell embarrass Kenny Kost in the first televised fight, and Dirrell couldn't get away with that cockiness and grandstanding against a fighter with any real boxing skills, but he so overmatched Kost that he didn't need to try, really. On the bright side, you could see that Dirrell has real potential, but the fact that he couldn't knock Kost out -- and he unloaded on him pretty well at various points -- may mean something. Or it just might mean that Kenny Kost has a hell of a chin if nothing else. Dirrell failed to work the body at all, which was also interesting. Kost literally did nothing.
Seeing the results today, D.C.'s Tony Thompson beat Timor Ibragimov via unanimous decision. I saw two rounds of this fight before I gave up, partially due to being dog tired and partially because Timor Ibragimov is death to watch fight. This puts the 35-year old Thompson (29-1, 17 KO) in line to become a possible contender, and pretty much takes the 32-year old Ibragimov (21-2-1, 13 KO) out of anyone's plans, having lost his last two fights. Granted, for all I know right now, Timor really won this fight and the scoring was controversial and pro-American, but even still, he's lost his last two fights now, both televised for anyone to see.
On Friday Night Fights, Verno Phillips and Alonzo Butler won, as expected.
The FSN commentators made note that all of the top heavyweights that aren't Samuel Peter are 30 or older, but they said lots of things that weren't quite true. Ruslan Chagaev is 28 and has a 22-0-1 record. Chagaev is hardly flooding the coast with the waves he's making, but he's out there and he's a contender now. 24-year old Eddie Chambers is starting to make a lot of noise. There's Chris Arreola (25), Alexander Dimitrenko (24), Albert Sosnowski (27), Butler (27), and plenty of other guys. I think we're pretty much starting to run our course on a lot of the guys that are 30+, save for Klitschko. Maskaev defense of his title will probably be the last time he's considered a top heavyweight, and the same could probably go for Briggs. Plus, once Valuev loses, that really ends his marketability, because then he's just a gigantic, shitty fighter that no one wants to see. The undefeated behemoth is one thing, the behemoth that some real boxer pounded on is another.
Once we cycle out a lot of these guys (Thompson, Tye Fields, Ray Austin, so on and so forth) that are in line to receive or are receiving title shots, or the champions themselves, we'll see guys like Butler and Chambers and probably Chagaev move their way in to freshen up the division. It's not to say all of the "top contenders" that are 30 and over are going away, but a lot of them are going to get one shot to stick around, and that'll be it. Fields, Austin and probably Thompson fit this bill perfectly.
We'll be live later on tonight for the three-fight showcase on Boxing After Dark, which should be a really fun show.