TV and Internet Fight Schedule - Weekend of July 30

Friday, July 30

Gofightlive.tv, 7:30 p.m. Eastern ($TBD), Derek Ennis vs. Gabriel Rosado.  This one's a pretty solid fight between two Philly fighters for the USBA light middleweight title.  Over the last few years, Ennis has been able to beat a pretty solid slate of domestic opponents, including Eromosele Albert and Troy Browning.  Rosado is much better than his 14-4 record indicates, with wins over Kassim Ouma and Saul Roman, and his last two losses coming in a close one against Fernando Guerrero and a blowout loss against Alfredo Angulo.

ESPN2, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Delvin Rodriguez vs. Ashley Theophane, Don George vs. Francisco Sierra. Rodriguez continues to stick around at the low contender level at welterweight, having been gypped out of a title at least once and ending up on the bad side of a decision for another title eliminator.  He can't seem to get a big fight, but he's been steadily fighting decent competition.  Theophane is no different.  He's a tricky southpaw who beat DeMarcus Corley and should have a win over Danny Garcia.  George was originally supposed to be the headliner of this card in what would have been a great fight with Curtis Stevens, but Stevens pulled out.  Instead, he faces Sierra, who's cleaned out most of the Mexican super middleweight scene, but was blown out by Edison Miranda the last time he stepped up.

Telemunda, 11:30 p.m. Eastern, Danny Garcia vs. Jorge Romero.  After nearly losing to Ashley Theophane a couple fights ago, "Swift" Danny Garcia has taken a step back his matchmaking.  The Philly-based fighter will be fighting in Cancun for this one, against 17-2 Romero.  Despite the glossy record, most of it came against very low level fighters.  

Saturday, July 31

wbcboxing.tv, 7:00 a.m. Eastern, Silvester Lopez vs. Wandee Singwancha, Saenmuangloei Kokietgym vs. Ryan Bito, Warlito Parrenas vs. Jonathan Tacuning.  All of these bouts are for minor WBC titles.  Singwancha hes been toast for a little while now, and this is pretty clearly set up for the three Pinoy fighters to win.  While there's nothing too significant here, a couple of these could be decent fights, if you don't mind getting up early in the morning to watch them.

Eurosport (UK), 2:15 Eastern, Avtandil Khurtsidze vs. Sergei Khomitski.  5'4" Georgian middleweight Khurtsidze will travel to Belarus to challenge Khomitski, who is fresh off a career ending win over Jamie Moore. Khurtidze, who is promoted by the Klitschkos, has been steadily moving up the WBA rankings.

ZDF (Germany), Polsat Sport (Poland), 6:10 p.m. Eastern (ZDF), 12:00 p.m. Eastern (Polsat), Dmitry Sartison vs. Khoren Gevor, Sebastian Zbik vs. Jorge Sebastian Heiland, Alexander Dimitrenko vs. Yaroslav Zavorotnyy. Universum's final card on ZDF is a decent one.  In Sartison vs. Gevor, they have a super middleweight title bout that looks competitive on paper.  Gevor was on the smallish side for middleweight and didn't carry much power there, so we'll have to see how well he's able to adjust at super middleweight.  Zbik is taking another garbage defense of his paper belt, and he'll probably get destroyed if he ever has to take on the real titlist, Sergio Martinez.  Dimitrenko was originally supposed to face the tough Denis Bakhtov on a different card, but after Bakhtov pulled out with an injury, the fight was allowed to go on (still for the title) on this card with Sascha facing a Ukranian journeyman. Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage of this card, simultaneous with the Polsat coverage of the main event fights (and not the ZDF tape delayed coverage, which will only show the Zbik fight live).  

Ringtv.com, approx. 7:00 p.m., Sakio Bika vs. Jean Paul Mendy, George Groves vs. Alfredo Contreras, Seth Mitchell vs. Derek Bryant, David Rodela vs. Juan Montiel, Frankie Gomez vs. Ricardo Calazada. How stacked is the Diaz-Marquez undercard?  Well, there's a fight worthy of headlining a FNF that didn't even make the televised card, and there are a number of other prospect fights that are better than what you'd normally see on Fight Night Club.  Bika and Mendy are two solid super middleweights who have had a lot of trouble getting fights.  They're facing off in an eliminator for the right to challenge Lucian Bute.  Groves is a very good and exciting UK prospect, promoted by David Haye, who is getting his first U.S. exposure in a gimme fight.  Mitchell is a former college football star who went pro at boxing and is taking a step up against powerful journeyman (and also former college football player) Bryant.  Rodela and Gomez are a pair of GBP prospects taking easy fights for the time being.  Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage of this internet undercard.

HBO PPV, Sky Sports (UK), 9:00 p.m. Eastern ($49.95), Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz II, Joel Casamayor vs. Robert Guerrero, Jorge Linares vs. Rocky Juarez, Daniel Jacobs vs. Dmitry Pirog.  I know there are some people out there who have complained that the headline fight isn't pay per view material, but I laud the card that Golden Boy has put together here, and I encourage people to actually go out and buy it.  People complain constantly about crummy undercards - well, this one has four solid fights, all of which are competitive on paper and one of which is a rematch of last year's fight of the year.  I won't go into too much detail on the fights themselves, as we'll be having further coverage during the week, but there shouldn't be a blowout fight on this card, and besides the main event that promises to be a war, all of the undercard fights have decent sleeper potential.  Particularly intriguing is Jacobs vs. Pirog, a matchup between two very good undefeated prospects, both of whom have the potential to be near the top of the middleweight division for a long time.  Win or lose, I expect Pirog to make some new fans, as he has a much more "American" style than most Eastern European fighters.  Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage of this card.

Fox Sports Net, Fox Sports Espanol, TV Azteca (Mexico), 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Jorge Arce vs. Martin Castillo, Simphiwe Nongqayi vs. Juan Alberto Rosas.  Arce vs. Castillo is the nominal headliner, a fight between two Mexican warriors who were great in their heydays, but now are well past their respective bests.  This fight should have happened 6 or 7 years ago, but I guess better late than never.  Nongqayi won his title in an upset over Arce about a year ago, and will be making his second defense against Rosas, who's sure to come in with some over-the-top hairstyle.  It's a shame that there was no fight on Saturday at all last weekend, and then we get a pretty solid Top Rank Live going head to head with a pretty solid pay per view.  

Elsewhere in the world of boxing...

• In Ghana, a couple of blasts from the past will be taking each other on.  Muhammad Abdullaev will travel to Accra to take on former Commonwealth champ Joshua Okine in a bout for a fringe welterweight title.  
• Also taking fights this weekend: Karoly Balzsay, Juan Carlos Gomez, Daniel Edouard, Andy Lee, Gabriel Bracero, Argenis Mendez, Tshifiwa Munyai (still angling for a title shot years after winning and then vacating the Commonwealth title), Michael Faragon, Jose Benavidez Jr., Robert Marroquin, Jesus Singwancha (who not only is unrelated to Wandee, but is a Congolese fighter based out of Thailand), Balweg Bangoyan, Domenico Spada, Oscar Bravo and Emanuele Della Rosa.