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Friday, November 9
RCTI (Indonesia), 8:15 am ET, Chris John vs Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo, Daud Yordan vs Choi Tseveenpurev. John is facing an unbeaten Thai fighter here, as Cholataran is 44-0 with 27 KO wins. It could get interesting, as John is still quite good, but definitely past his prime. Yordan (29-2, 23 KO) is Indonesia's second-best fighter still, with losses only to John and Celestino Caballero, neither anything to be ashamed of at all. Tseveenpurev is a solid veteran from Mongolia, now living in Manchester and fighting mostly in the UK. He won a featherweight Prizefighter tournament in October 2011. We should be able to get round-by-round for this one, but it depends on my finding a stream. Bad Left Hook might have live coverage.
BoxNation, 2:00 pm ET, John Donnelly vs Paul Butler, Ovill McKenzie vs Enzo Maccarinelli, Liam Smith vs Gary McMillan. I'm not totally sure if I'll be around at this time on Friday, but if I am, we'll have live coverage. If I'm not, we won't. It's not that important a card. I figure it's worth just being honest. Bad Left Hook might have live coverage.
TyC Sports (Argentina), 8:00 pm ET, Javier Maciel vs Anderson Clayton.
SHO, 10:00 pm ET, Gary Russell Jr vs Roberto Castaneda. This is the first "Night of the Olympians" card from GBP, and shockingly it didn't wind up on CBS at all. Oh well. Along with Russell's fight, which should be another ho-hum win for the talented featherweight prospect (Castaneda is coming off of a TKO-6 loss to light-hitting Christopher Martin), the pro debuts of Rau'Shee Warren, Terrell Gausha, Dominic Breazeale, Errol Spence, and Marcus Browne will take place on the card. I'm not exactly clear on what will be shown live, but it doesn't particularly matter what is or isn't, I guess. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
Saturday, November 10
Epix and EpixHD.com / 3+ (Denmark), 4:30 pm ET, Robert Helenius vs Sherman Williams, Patrick Nielsen vs Jamel Bakhi. This is the first fight of 2012 for Helenius, who was injured last December in his controversial win over Dereck Chisora, had surgery, and is now returning to the ring. There was a while there when the talk was that Helenius may not be able to box again, but here we are. Williams is a veteran fighter who will give up about seven inches of height and shouldn't win, but he always tries. Helenius-Williams will be broadcast on Epix in the US as the co-feature to Klitschko-Wach. Epix loves them heavyweights, even if the fights suck. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
Epix and EpixHD.com / RTL (Germany), 4:30 pm ET, Wladimir Klitschko vs Mariusz Wach, Rakhim Chakhkiev vs Andres Taylor, Rafal Jackiewicz vs Rick Godding, Tony Harrison vs Daniel Urbanski. Klitschko is the huge favorite as always, and the story that makes Wach sound credible is that he is taller than Wladimir. Which he is; Wach is a mammoth man at 6'9", and he comes across like every bit the gentleman Wladimir does, so I don't begrudge him this fight. Actually, it's by far the best of Wladimir's three bouts this year, in my view, because at least he's a fresh opponent and isn't 5'10". Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
TyC Sports (Argentina), 8:00 pm ET, Juan Carlos Reveco vs Julian Rivera.
SHO Extreme / BoxNation (UK), 8:00 pm ET, Nathan Cleverly vs Shawn Hawk, Antonio Orozco vs Danny Escobar. Cleverly-Hawk is a rotten fight, but it is what it is. That's becoming the standard for Cleverly, whose team wasn't intending to take much better than this in Ryan Coyne. Every fight that Cleverly was supposed to have has gotten worse, from Uzelkov in Cardiff, to Coyne in LA, and now Hawk in LA. Orozco is a good prospect and worth seeing for sure. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
HBO, 9:45 pm ET, Vanes Martirosyan vs Erislandy Lara, Mikey Garcia vs Jonathan Barros. Brent Brookhouse will be handling the round-by-round for the HBO bouts, and it's a solid pair of fights, and a show we should be glad to have. HBO could easily have pulled the plug on their support when Orlando Salido dropped out of facing Mikey Garcia, but instead Garcia gets a decent replacement opponent in the co-feature, and Martirosyan-Lara is bumped to the main event. It's a fight that needs to happen for both of them, and it's good that it is. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
SHO / BoxNation (UK), 10:00 pm ET, Abner Mares vs Anselmo Moreno, Leo Santa Cruz vs Victor Zaleta, Alfredo Angulo vs Raul Casarez. The main event is very, very intriguing, as Moreno moves up to 122 to take on unbeaten Mares, who has become a golden child at Golden Boy and Showtime, not so much in that he's become a big star (honestly, turnout for this show at Staples Center could be truly awful), but because he's a good fighter, GBP's first homegrown champion ever, and he never has boring fights. Moreno could be all wrong for him, or Mares could be all wrong for Moreno. The undercard bouts are meant to entertain. Santa Cruz defends his IBF bantamweight belt for the second time, having torn through Vusi Malinga and Eric Morel on SHO this year, and he should get a third impressive win here. He's a punch machine and never dull. And Angulo is a fan favorite whose all-out style is well-known. This is his first fight since he was beaten to hell by James Kirkland last November, which was followed by an unfortunate stint in a California ICE detention center. Casarez likely won't tell us where Angulo is beyond whether or not Angulo is really rusty, but it's good to have him back in the ring for sure. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
Televisa (Mexico), 10:00 pm ET, Humberto Soto vs Jose Lopez. Back to more familiar and gentle levels of competition for Soto, who returns to Mexico licking his wounds a bit after being beaten up by Lucas Matthysse in June. Lopez is young (21) and has lost two of his last five, and if his handlers had really, truly high hopes for him, it's doubtful he'd be going in against Soto right now.