This may not be the strongest week for televised fights, but hopefully it's an omen of good things to come. For the next few months, there should be at least one solid fight on TV each week, and this week leads off with a title unification match in the junior welterweight division. In a stroke of genius, every meaningful fight this weekend is scheduled for pretty much the same time.
Friday, March 5
Sky Sports, 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Gary Sykes vs. Andy Morris, Tyson Fury vs. TBA. This one is for the British super featherweight title. Fury's been out of commission for a while, and considering we still don't know his opponent, I'd expect it's someone particularly bad.
ESPN2, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Wilton Hilario vs. Martin Honorio, Rico Ramos vs. Cecilio Santos. Martin Honorio scored an upset his last time out against John Molina and is looking to get another title shot. Undefeated Minneapolis attraction Wilton Hilario is supposed to be another step on that ladder, although while he's not as big of a name, lanky boxer Hilario might be a tougher fight than was Molina. Ramos is an undefeated prospect who's taking a decent step up against four-time title challenger (and current gatekeeper) Santos.
Saturday, March 6
Polsat Sport (Poland), 12:50 p.m. Eastern, Mateusz Masternak vs. Faisal Arrami, Matt Zegan vs. Pierre Francois Bonciel. Both fights are for regional trinkets. About five other fights will also be televised, including a comeback fight for Aleksy Kuziemski.
Gofightlive.tv, 8:00 p.m. Eastern ($6.99), Shamone Alvarez vs. Alexis Camacho, Vinnie Maddalone vs. Dominique Alexander, Yathomas Riley vs. Walter Foster. This card was rescheduled after the blizzard in New Jersey a few weeks ago.
TyC Sports (Argentina), 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Javier Francisco Maciel vs. Ricardo Manuel Genero.
Secondsout.tv (Subscribers only), V (Quebec), 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Sebastian Demers vs. William Joppy, Kevin Bizier vs. Noel Cortez.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Vic Darchinyan vs. Rodrigo Guerrero, Lenny Zappa vs. Fernando Angulo. In the main event, Darchinyan faces his weakest opponent in quite a while in Guerrero, who is only 13-1-1, but has decent recent wins over Luis Maldonado and Juan Alberto Rosas. Guerrero's never been down before and is a bit of a wild card, so we'll see if this one's much of a competition. Much more interesting is the undercard, which pits undefeated Australian prospect Leonardo Zappavigna (who goes by Lenny Zappa) against the always exciting Fernando Angulo. Zappa's been down a few times before, and Angulo is a puncher, so this could be a risky fight of Zappa's U.S. debut with Gary Shaw.
HBO, 9:30 p.m. Eastern, Devon Alexander vs. Juan Urango. Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage of this one.
FSN / Fox Sports Espanol, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Ricardo Dominguez vs. Ivan Valle. This is really the first throwaway of Top Rank's new series, although it's not a bad backup fight considering the original main event was scrapped. Dominguez recently won Campeon Azteca, a 'Contender' style competition in Mexico. Valle lost in the semifinals of the same tournament. While it could be an exciting fight, it's going up against several other bouts that are more significant. The main event was supposed to be a rematch of Ulises Solis against Bert Batawang in a title eliminator, but Top Rank has inexplicably removed the fight from its Facebook page. No word yet on why Solis-Batawang isn't happening.
Televisa Canal 5 (Mexico), 11:30 p.m. Eastern, Saul Alvarez vs. Brian Camechis, Rafael Guzman vs. Carlos Cardenas. Alvarez was already locked into this fight before getting signed to Golden Boy. If he gets through this one unscathed, we'll see him on the televised undercard of Mayweather-Mosley, possibly against Matthew Hatton. Don't be shocked if this one's a late add to the suljos.com lineup - they've been adding a lot of the Televisa bouts lately.
Elsewhere in the world of boxing...
- Billy Dib continues to fight his personal bum of the month club to rehabilitate his image after his disgraceful NC against Kenichi Yamaguchi. He'll take on 20-5 Indonesian Carlos Lopez.
- Prospects Lateef Kayode and Ruben Rivera will also be on the Darchinyan undercard. The Alexander undercard will feature Derric Rossy pointlessly rematching Zack Page and Steve Forbes pointlessly fighting Harrison Cuello.
- Sharif Bogere is keeping a hell of a schedule. You may remember him as the guy who comes into the ring wearing a lion's head while in a cage carried by four oiled musclemen. Last weekend, he beat 10-1 Jose Hernandez. Having come out unscathed, it appears he'll be fighting Lowell Brownfield this weekend.