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After a couple weeks of a main event and very little else, there's almost too much good boxing this weekend, if there's such a thing.
Friday, June 19
Sky Sports - 10:30 a.m. Eastern - Ricky Burns vs. Kevin O'Hara, Alex Arthur vs. Mohamed Benbiaou
Gofightlive.tv - 8:00 p.m. Eastern ($9.99) - Freddie Curiel v Francisco Ruben Osorio
Versus - 9:00 p.m. Eastern - Adrian Diaconu vs. Jean Pascal, Troy Ross vs. Michael Simms. We'll be doing round by round coverage of this card. Diaconu-Pascal is a compelling fight between two fighters with a lot to prove, and I see it as a true 50/50 fight. Mick Hennessy will be ringside for this one, presumably to try to negotiate a Bute-Froch matchup.
Prizefighttv.com - 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($4.99) - Fernando Guerrero vs. Brian Norman, Shawn Porter vs. Dion Savage, Dominic Wade vs. Anthony Cannon, Farah Ennis vs. Bobby Jordan. Fernando Guerrero will be lighting up Salisbury once again. The opponents aren't spectacular, but the fact that this is about as good as the Friday Night Fights card is impressive.
ESPN2 - 10:00 p.m. Eastern - Mean Joe Greene vs. Delray Raines, Monty Meza-Clay vs. Fernando Beltran Jr., Demetrius Andrade vs. TBA. While I'm disappointed that ESPN cut Wednesday Night Fights, I have to at least applaud them for generally having a more loaded season than usual on Friday Night Fights.
Saturday, June 20
ESPN Classic - 5:00 p.m. Eastern - Wladimir Klitschko vs. Ruslan Chagaev. We'll be here for this one as well. If you're into classic boxing, that's what will be on Classic all day Saturday.
Azteca America - 11:00 p.m. Eastern - Joksan Hernandez vs. Hector Velazquez, Omar Chavez vs. Marco Nazareth, Luis Uribe vs. Michael Rosales
Elsewhere this weekend...
- Luis Collazo is hot on the comeback trail after his close decision loss to Andre Berto. He'll be facing David Gogichaishvili. Supposedly, Paul Williams will be ringside for this one, although I don't want to read too much into that. The WBA has already made a Collazo rematch the mandatory for Berto, so it seems pretty likely that fight will happen soon, especially with no other big money options on the table for Berto. Travis Simms makes an appearance against the almighty TBA. Since 2003, he's fought 4 times, which is just plain stupid for a former title holder. Has Don King sunk so low that he's really putting on cards at the Radisson Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina?
- Tye Fields makes his first appearance since getting KTFOed by Monte Barrett. Fortunately, he's been banished to an Indian reservation in Alberta. For what it's worth, I'd still favor him over Valuev, purely due to the style matchup.
- Hugo Hernan Garay defends his light heavyweight belt against Gabriel Campillo, the same guy who was supposed to be the step-up fight for Irish-based Cuban Luis Garcia. Campillo is more than a solid last-minute replacement for a title fight. Now that Garay's with Universum, hopefully he doesn't go the easy route. He has a pretty solid resume, and arguably should have two wins over Zsolt Erdei. I'd love to see him take a couple fights in the US to try and build him into a legitimate challenger for Chad Dawson.
- On the Klitschko undercard, former K-1 fighter Alexander Ustinov faces British Gatekeeper Michael Sprott, Johnathon Banks tests his chin at heavyweight, and Klitschko sparring partner Andy Lee takes on yet another soft touch.
- Edgar Sosa attempts the 9th defense of the belt he won against Brian Viloria, against granite-bearded gatekeeper Carlos Melo. Some really good fights on this card, which is only being aired in Mexico. In case anyone missed it, Sosa's becoming a pretty big star in Mexico, routinely selling out 15,000 seat stadiums. Not half bad for a guy who had 5 losses early in his career. He'll never be a huge draw in the US due to his size, but he stays active and has an exciting style.