There's really one fight that matters this weekend. But here are a few others, in case you need a little warm-up to get the blood pumping.
Friday, November 13
Sky Sports, 5 p.m. Eastern, Matthew Hatton vs. Lovemore N'Dou, Darren McDermott vs. Danny Butler, Rob Norton vs. Akinyemi Laleye. Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage. This is the first "title fight" that Ricky Hatton is promoting. Former junior welterweight paper titlist N'Dou will take on tough but not skilled Hatton in an IBO welterweight bout. This is a really solid card top to bottom, and I can't guarantee which other fights will air. McDermott is another tough guy, and his fight with Butler will be for the English middleweight title. Norton vs. Laleye will be for the commonwealth cruiserweight title. Scott Lawton vs. Derry Matthews features two fighters who were highly regarded coming up but who have since fallen from grace.
Azteca America, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Federico Catubay vs. Juan Alberto Rosas, Mark Melligan vs. Michel Rosales. This is part of Bob Arum's calm before the storm. Somehow, 30-5 Rosas against 25-15 Catubay is a title eliminator. Z Gorres and Roberto Marroquin will also be on the undercard. As per usual, it's halfway impossible for me to confirm these Azteca fights, so if you have Azteca America, you may want to double-check the schedule yourself, as they may have dropped this card now that the Pacquiao-Cotto card has been added.
Saturday, November 14
Superchannel 2, 5:30 p.m. Eastern, Andy Lee vs. Affif Belgecham. Andy Lee is still on the comeback trail from his loss to Brian Vera, and has mostly been trying to build up a name in Ireland. Affif is a former French and European middleweight champion who's a bit of a step up, but doesn't even come close to having enough power to bother Lee.
HBO PPV, 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($59.95), Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto, Daniel Santos vs. Yuri Foreman, Alfonso Gomez vs. Jesus Soto-Karass, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Troy Rowland. Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage. In addition, check Yahoo before the fight starts, as they often air the untelevised undercards of these HBO pay per views. This one includes Matt Korobov. Also, for those of you near the Mexican border, TV Azteca (not Azteca America) will be airing the main event and the Julio Cesar Chavez fight for free.
Elsewhere in the world of boxing.....there is no elsewhere. Boxing promoters were pretty smart this week and mostly realized they couldn't compete with the main event. Minnesota local attractions Matt Vanda and Wilton Hilario will be facing light touches in a Minneapolis card. Former hotshot cruiserweight prospect Eric Fields will be facing a 10-1 prospect in his native Oklahoma. Jackson Bonsu takes a bounceback fight in his native Belgium. In Algeria, Ali Chebah will take on Javier Prieto in a decent prospect-prospect fight. Monk Foreman will try to maul some no-name in Louisiana.