TV and Internet Fight Schedule - Weekend of September 18

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.