TV and Internet Fight Schedule - Weekend of May 6, 2011

Thursday, May 5

Gofightlive.tv, 8:00 p.m. Eastern ($9.99), Edgar Santana vs. Robert Jones.  Santana has become a local favorite in the NYC area.  Oddly, this appears to be the only 'televised' fight anywhere on Cinco de Mayo itself.  Usually there would at least be a couple of Mexican bouts on this day.

Friday, May 6

ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Diego Magdaleno vs. Gilberto Sanchez Leon, Bernabe Concepcion vs. Juan Carlos Martinez.  In what I can only assume is an effort to cross-promote the Pacquiao-Mosley fight, Top Rank actually hosts this date of Friday Night Fights.  Magdaleno is a cutie southpaw with an undefeated record, and Leon is a light-hitting journeyman with a solid chin who's been known to brawl.  Concepcion takes his first fight in nearly a year since getting knocked out by Juan Manuel Lopez in a title shot.  Notre Dame alum Mike Lee will also fight on the card, and I assume they'll show him in a swing bout.

Telefutura, 11:35 p.m. Eastern, Librado Andrade vs. Aaron Pryor Jr., Enrique Ornelas vs. Hector Hernandez.  This main event could be somewhat interesting.  Pryor doesn't have the skills of his father, or the power, but he certainly has the length.  While he lost his last time out to prospect Edwin Rodriguez, he also has a recent victory over Dyah Davis that looks a lot better now than it did at the time.  Andrade is known for relentlessly coming forward and throwing punches, eventually wearing his opponents out.  However, his previously granite chin has started to show a few cracks, and it will be interesting to see how much longer he can have success.  Ornelas is coming back from a title fight loss against Robert Stieglitz in a bout he probably had no business being offered in the first place. It's also worth mentioning that, despite different last names, Andrade and Ornelas are brothers, and this is the first time in quite a while they'll be fighting on the same card.  Brick's Pick - Pryor doesn't carry enough power to deter Andrade at this point, and after enough attacks on that skinny body of his, Pryor will weaken and eventually go down.  Andrade KO-6. 

Saturday, May 7

TBS (Japan), 6:00 a.m. Eastern, Koki Kameda vs. Daniel Diaz, Tomoki Kameda vs. Nathan Bolcio.  It seems that Kameda's hype train has died down somewhat in Japan lately, but he keeps trucking along and will attempt the first defense of his bantamweight paper title.  Diaz has a decent 18-2 record, but his opponents are largely unknowns and he's never fought outside of Central America.  Tomoki, the youngest of the Kameda brothers, has typically fought in Mexico more than Japan, but he returns home for what looks like a showcase bout, though I'm not sure if that one is airing live (or at all).  Undefeated super featherweight Masao Nakamura will also fight on the card.

Sky Sports 1 (UK), 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Prizefighter heavyweights, featuring Juan Carlos Gomez, Konstantin Airich, Kevin Johnson, Gregory Tony, Michael Sprott, Mike Perez, Tye Fields and the almighty TBA.  This is the first Prizefighter tournament to be made open to fighters outside of the UK, so it's no surprise that, on paper, this is easily the best field in Prizefighter history.  The field features a former cruiserweight titlist (Gomez), a hotshot prospect (Perez), a comebacking title challenger (Johnson), a faded former title challenger but local favorite (Sprott), a couple solid European level fighters (Tony and Airich), and a guy who's, well, really really big (Fields).  Brick's pick: I'm going in a completely different direction on this one.  In this field, I do believe the only guys with little chance of winning are Sprott and Airich.  Gomez may be the most talented of the bunch, but a three-round format doesn't play well to his strengths.  Even before a putrid performance against Vitali Klitschko, Johnson made it a habit of nicking rounds rather than trying to dominate, so I see him losing somewhere in here and complaining loudly about it.  Fields may even pull off an upset or two - once someone catches him on the chin, he's out, but until then his high workrate style will play well in this format.  But I think the two guys with the best shot here are Perez and Tony.  Perez might be the most skillful fighter after Gomez, and he's aggressive, which will play well here.  He's also undersized and doesn't pack a big punch, which will play against him.  He's a longshot, but between his size and his punch (and the relative lack of other punchers in the tournament, since Tony doesn't seem to be able to handle punchers well), I'm picking Gregory Tony to win this.

ARD (Germany), Main Event PPV (Australia), 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Sebastian Sylvester vs. Daniel Geale, Eduard Gutknecht vs. Danny McIntosh.  Liliputian middleweight Sylvester has gotten a lot of mileage out of being a halfway decent German, and if this bout wasn't at home, I'd be confident that this is the end of his reign.   Geale is a pretty good boxer, though he's not a knockout threat, and he may need that in Germany.  Gutknecht and McIntosh will face off for the European light heavyweight title, which is a darn good matchup for that trinket.  Brick's picks - I don't see Geale having a problem using his length advantage to easily outbox Sylvester.  Here's to hoping justice actually prevails.  I think McIntosh is just a hair better than Gutknecht overall, but Gutknecht is hard to hit and has the home field advantage.  Geale UD-12, Gutknecht SD-12.

Independent PPV, ViaSat PPV (Denmark), 6:00 p.m. Eastern, Evander Holyfield vs. Brian Nielsen, Kubrat Pulev vs. Derric Rossy, Dustin Dirks vs. Patrick Maxwell, Cecilia Braekhus vs. Chevelle Hallback.  The main event of this one will see over 90 years of experience in the ring.  That's not a good thing.  The undercard is actually fairly solid.  Pulev is one of the best heavyweight prospects at the moment, and will take on Rossy, a pretty decent boxer who generally has lost when he's stepped up his level of competition.  Dirks is an undefeated prospect at super middleweight, but probably in the second tier of prospects in that weight class.  Braekhus is a women's champ who is wildly popular in Denmark.

Toprank.com, around 7:00 p.m. Eastern, Rodel Mayol vs. Javier Gallo, Jose Benavidez Jr. vs. James Hope, Pier Olivier Cote vs. Ariz Ambriz.  Top Rank will be airing the untelevised undercard of Pacquiao-Mosley for free, likely on the PPV channel before the card 'starts' at 8:30, likely on their website, and likely on Yahoo.com.  Benavidez is the showcase here.  While the 18-year old uberprospect recently parted ways with Freddie Roach, he's still about as bright of a prospect as there is out there.  Hope has lost three of his last four by knockout, and nine of Benavidez's 10 wins have come by knockout, so you do the math.

Showtime PPV, Sky Sports 1 (UK), Main Event (Australia), 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley, Kelly Pavlik vs. Alfonso Lopez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. vs. Jorge Arce, Mike Alvarado vs. Ray Narh.  We'll have tons of Pacman vs. Sugar Shane coverage during the week, so I won't focus on that one here.  Lopez seems like a safe comeback bout for Pavlik, who moves up to super middleweight.  Lopez is undefeated, but also mostly untested.  Vazquez-Arce is a changing of the guard fight, although Arce is WAY over his best weight and might be the oldest 33 year old out there.  Alvarado and Narh both have good records, but neither is really a prospect at this point.  Alvarado at least tends to make good fights, and it seems relatively evenly matched, so the late replacement bout may still wind up being the fight of the card.  Brick's Picks - Pacquiao UD12 Mosley, Pavlik TKO-7 Lopez, Vazquez TKO-6 Arce, Alvarado controversial UD-10 over Narh.  Bad Left Hook will have live round by round coverage of this card.

TyC Sports (Argentina), 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Diego Gabriel Chaves vs. Hector Carlos Santana.  Both fighters are undefeated welterweights with impressive knockout numbers, albeit exclusively against Argentinian competition. 

• For those of you in the northeast, there will be a decent card at the Foxwoods on Friday night, featuring raw but exciting puncher Vladine Biosse against tested veteran Saul Duran, and former title challenger Elvin Ayala against George Armenta. 
• Also in smaller bouts this weekend:  Carson Jones, Grady Brewer, Jose Alfaro, Jonathan Oquendo, Randy Caballero, Deontay Wilder, Karo Murat, Enad Licina and Edmund Gerber.