Plenty of boxing action on TV this weekend, and a lot of live coverage coming your way over a couple of days, too.
Thursday, September 8
TV Max (Panama), 9 p.m. EDT, Chanttall Martinez vs Marylin Hernandez, Irving Berry vs Aristedes Perez, Vicente Mosquera vs Loel Barrantes. This one is for Martinez's WBA female super bantamweight title. Martinez (14-4, 6 KO) is 20 years old and fights out of David, Panama. As a point of reference for those who follow women's boxing as much as I do (which is to say not much), Martinez fought and lost to Jackie Nava in 2010, but did knock Nava down in the sixth round. Hernandez (20-7, 12 KO) is a Dominican fighter, age 27, who is getting this title shot after beating an 0-8 fighter following a loss to Dahiana Santana. As for the fellas, Berry and Mosquera are the local flavor, and you may remember Perez as the worst opponent in a slate of bad opponents for Humberto Soto back in September 2009, when he faced Soto for the WBC super featherweight belt despite coming into the fight with a 15-0-1 record against opponents whose combined record was 13-93-4. Today, Perez is 20-5-1 (13 KO) and still hasn't beaten anyone remotely passable, let alone good.
Friday, September 9
Sky Sports 1 (U.K.), 5 p.m. EDT, Obodai Sai vs Jamie Cox. This is for the Commonwealth junior middleweight title held by Sai (15-0, 10 KO), a 27-year-old Ghanaian fighter who took the vacant belt in a fight against Joseph Lamptey in Ghana on June 18. Sai will be fighting outside of Ghana for the first time against Swindon's Cox (15-0, 9 KO), a 25-year-old southpaw who has done the ladder through the journeymen and is now ready to move up. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
Direct TV (Argentina), 9 p.m. EDT, Monica Acosta vs Erin McGowan. Acosta (14-0-2, 2 KO) holds the WBA and WBC female belts at 140 pounds, and is ranked No. 3 in the world in that division by BoxRec. McGowan (14-0, 7 KO) is a 30-year-old Aussie ranked No. 9 in the world by BoxRec.
Cadena Tres (Mexico), 10 p.m. EDT, Ivan Alvarez vs Aaron Dominguez. This one is, well, somewhere within the junior welterweight range. Alvarez is 10-2 (8 KO), while Dominguez comes in at 13-6-1 (7 KO).
Showtime, 11 p.m. EDT, Vincent Arroyo vs Hector Sanchez, Lateef Kayode vs Felix Cora Jr. This is supposed the ShoBox sendoff for cruiserweight Kayode (17-0, 14 KO), who has been victorious on the series this year against Nicholas Iannuzzi and Matt Godfrey. Cora (22-5-2, 12 KO) is a sideways step at best from that competition. I don't know who they could pair Kayode with on a Showtime Championship Boxing if not Antonio Tarver or maybe Steve Cunningham. The reality is that the cruiserweight division still has no foothold in the States. I wouldn't object to either fight, and Showtime is known for putting fights like that in prominent positions, but it would require one of those guys to fight Kayode, too. Not that they would be scared to, mind you, but would the money be worth it for either of them when they can make more outside o the United States? The main event is between the junior welterweight and welterweight limits, and another chance for Arroyo (11-1, 7 KO) to shine against a more hyped, absurdly tall fighter in Sanchez (19-1, 9 KO), who stands 6'1". Arroyo beat the 6'3" Willie Nelson in his last fight on April 8, also a ShoBox bout. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
Telefutura, 11:30 p.m. EDT, Gabriel Rosado vs Keenan Collins, Ronald Cruz vs Christopher Fernandez. This is a lower-end Solo Boxeo Tecate, as it would be hard to call anyone but Cruz a prospect. Rosado (17-5, 10 KO) is a tough Philly fighter who at age 25 has already been cast as an opponent more than anything. He's working on a three-fight win streak, but none of those wins were very special. Collins (13-6-2, 9 KO, 34 years old) is just a fighter. Cruz (13-0, 10 KO) is a Puerto Rican-born welterweight who fights out of Bethlehem, Penn., these days. His opponent Fernandez (19-13-1, 12 KO) is familiar to his role in this matchup. This card is being held at the building I refuse to call anything but the ECW Arena.
Telemundo, 11:35 p.m. EDT, Antonio Pitalua vs Cosme Rivera. A matchup of veterans with heart who are low on skill and should make for an entertaining scrap. Rivera (32-14, 23 KO) hasn't been good in years, but once upon a time received a pretty damn well undeserved title shot at lineal welterweight champion Zab Judah. Zab showed all his amazing skills by beating the crap out of Rivera in three rounds. It was really the sort of fight that made you think, "Wow, this Zab Judah is something else. Look at him put the hurt on this non-contender who really shouldn't be here." Pitalua (52-5, 46 KO) is known for two things: His big punching power and his big haircut. Survey says that Pitalua takes this one with that power, but Rivera is a game guy with a sturdy chin that saw him get moidalized by Alfredo Angulo in a gross fight in 2009 before referee Telis Assimenios finally made the long overdue mercy stoppage we were all begging would come.
Saturday, September 10
Sky Sports 3 (U.K.), 3 p.m. EDT, Paul McCloskey vs Breidis Prescott, Carl Frampton vs Mark Quon. Here we are with another U.K. fight for Breidis Prescott, where he is some level of star. Prescott (24-2, 19 KO) is promising a KO and is facing McCloskey for the right to, in theory, rematch Amir Khan, who does still have an open date in December on HBO. The problem with Prescott promising knockouts comes when you realize that for all his alleged superhuman power, he's stopped a grand total of one opponent since knocking out Khan in 2008, and that was club fighter Jason Davis in 2010. McCloskey (22-1, 12 KO) is tricky on his best days, but I think this is closer to a 50-50 fight than anything, and depends on what version of either man shows up. Frampton (10-0, 6 KO) had one hell of a fight in June with Robbie Turley on the Gavin Rees vs Andy Murray card. Now he looks to nab the vacant Commonwealth super bantamweight title against Quon (11-3-1, 2 KO), an Aussie fighter. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
HBO (U.S.) / Sky Sports 3 (U.K.) / RTL (Germany) / PPV (Poland, 40 zł), 4:45 p.m. EDT, Vitali Klitschko vs Tomasz Adamek. This is a big one for both guys. The house will be rocking in Wroclaw, Poland, as Adamek (44-1, 28 KO) looks to defy major odds and upset Vitali Klitschko (42-2, 39 KO) with the WBC heavyweight title on the line. We'll have much more on this one in the coming days. This is apparently the first-ever pay-per-view in Poland. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
TyC Sports (Argentina), 8 p.m. EDT, Adrian Mendoza vs Carlos Ruiz.
HBO, 10 p.m. EDT, Mayweather vs Ortiz 24/7, Episode Three. We'll have a live thread up for this one, then Anthony Wilson's recap on Sunday morning.
Televisa (Mexico), 10 p.m. EDT, Argenis Mendez vs Juan Carlos Salgado. This is a pretty solid matchup between a couple of top ten-ish guys at 130 pounds. Mendez (18-1, 9 KO) was supposed to fight Mzonke Fana a little while back, but shockingly Fana pulled out of the fight. Salgado (23-1-1, 16 KO) is best-known as the guy who knocked out Jorge Linares in the first round in Japan in 2009. He's kind of like Breidis Prescott in that he's probably not really good enough to ever top that one shining moment, and the guy he beat is going to go on and have a much better career. The vacant IBF belt is on the line here.
HBO, 10:30 p.m. EDT, Yuriorkis Gamboa vs Daniel Ponce de Leon. A terrific first fight to get Top Rank and Golden Boy back together. Gamboa (20-0, 16 KO) is the pretty big favorite, because it just seems like his style is a terrible fit for the slow and steady, powerful Ponce de Leon (41-3, 34 KO). But Ponce de Leon has become a better boxer in recent years since getting stopped in one by Juan Manuel Lopez, so if he can neutralize some of that speed from Gamboa, this could be interesting, as Ponce de Leon has the power to stop anybody if he can connect square. He might have to be a counter-puncher in this one, so we'll see how that suits him. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.