Tuesday, April 19
Thailand 7, circa 4:00 a.m. Eastern, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym vs. Eric Barcelona, Kwanthai Sithmorseng vs. Muhammad Rachman. Poonsawat has been keeping active since losing his title in a major upset late last year, with this being his third fight since then. Barcelona is much better than his 51-19-4 record indicates. He lost his last three, but all three were close losses on the road, including to Vic Darchinyan. Sithmorseng makes the first defense of his minimumweight title against Rachman. Sithmorseng is still pretty untested overall, despite a 31-0 record, While Rachman was once a legitimate titlist and long-time contender at the weight, he's now 39 years old and pretty close to being shot, having gone 2-5 in his last 7.
Friday, April 22
ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com, 10:30 p.m. Eastern, Breidis Prescott vs. Bayan Jargal, Demetrius Andrade vs. Omar Bell. Prescott's team has been milking his 15 minutes of fame from knocking out Amir Khan for as long as possible, somehow continuing to get him TV fights even though he's either struggled in or lost every single one other than his first round starching of Khan. Jargal is a late replacement Mongolian living in the US who has a 15-1-2 record, but one that's very light and fluffy. The only recognizable name on his record was a loss to Steve Upshur Chambers. Bell is a small step up for the absurdly protected Andrade, which ain't saying much. He's 8-1 against seemingly okay competition, although his loss was a first round knockout loss to Keith Thurman.
Saturday, April 23
Gofightlive.tv, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Omar Sheika vs. Garrett Wilson. Yup, Sheika's still fighting, and he's all the way up at cruiserweight now. This is for a regional title, which is a little nutty. Wilson did upset Aaron Williams (whose chin is already proven to be pretty bad at this point) his last time out, but he's 9-5 overall and has already been knocked out by Sheika previously.
Fox Sports Net, Fox Sports Espanol, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Robert Marroquin vs. Francisco Leal, Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Angel Herrera. Top Rank Live finally returns with a couple of their prospects headlining. Marroquin gets his first headline spot, facing former tiitle challenger Leal in what looks like a pretty big step up for the Dallas featherweight. With Juan Manuel Lopez getting upset this past weekend, look for Top Rank to start moving Marroquin quickly. Andy Ruiz Jr. is a 9-0 heavyweight prospect who looks like Cris Arreola v2.0, including his aggression, his deceptive quickness, his tendency to block punches with his face and his breasts that jiggle just a little too much for my liking for a male professional athlete. That said, Ruiz is only 21 years old and has gone down in weight steadily from fight to fight (debuting around 300 and down to about 255 these days), so maybe he won't have the same issues with lack of motivation. He trains at Wild Card, so that can't hurt. Or maybe he won't have Arreola's solid chin, without which he never would have become relevant to begin with. And ooh oooh ooooh - Tom Zbikowski will be fighting on the card as well.
Shotwime, 10:30 p.m. Eastern, Abner Mares vs. Joseph Agbeko, Vic Darchinyan vs. Yonnhy Perez. So far every weekend this month has had a great fight, and on paper, it looks like this card should continue that hot streak. Mares-Agbeko is the final of Showtime's bantamweight tournament, and the winner should be lined up for some pretty big fights if they want to take them. Both guys have better than recognized technical acumen, a tendency to get drawn into brawls and the ability to throw 1000 punches over 12 rounds. If this one goes like I think it might, it could mean that April was a better month of fights than was the entire year of 2010. Perez and Darchinyan face off in the loser's bracket, and could be a pretty solid fight as well. Darchinyan was a half of my personal fight of the year for 2010 (his close loss to Mares), and Perez was involved in one of the top 5 fights of 2009 (his win over Joseph Agbeko, where he probably threw about 1600 punches). If Vic is all there, this could be exciting, especially since Perez's team doesn't seem to be much for strategy. Brick's picks: Mares may be the better boxer, but he had some trouble with Vic's awkwardness and hasn't seen someone who fights like Agbeko. Agbeko's been inconsistent, but when he's on, he's really on. I like Agbeko to edge out Mares in another fight of the year contender - Agbeko SD-12. As for Vic and Yonnhy, Vic still has trouble with boxers with a chin, plus he still isn't a real bantamweight. Unless Perez gets sloppy and gets caught, I think he rolls in this one - Perez UD-12. Bad Left Hook will have live round by round coverage of this card.
In smaller bouts this weekend: BLH house fighter Martin Tucker (versus Nick Casal), Koji Sato, Julius Jackson, John Jackson, Alfred Tetteh, Monty Meza-Clay, DaVarryl Williamson vs. Mike Marrone, Ed Paredes vs. Cristian Favela, Luis Ortiz, Sonny Boy Jaro and Rolly Matsushita.