Wednesday, April 18
GFL ($9.99), Richard Pierson vs Charles Hayward, John Thompson vs Jamond Bourgeois. It's a full card, but I don't want to type in everyone's name, since that's a lot of bold text, plus it's the first thing listed, so it would look even worse. If you've got nothing better to do with your life on a Wednesday night, this is available for $9.99. I am 70-30 sure I won't be watching. 70-30. I think the Cubs are in a night game since they're on the road. Yeah, I just checked. I'm out.
Friday, April 20
Eurosport (UK), 5:00 p.m. EDT, Chas Symonds vs Gavin Tait II. This is on television overseas.
Boxing360.com (Free Stream), 7:00 p.m. EDT, Angel Luis Ocasio vs Jason Sosa, Venroy July vs Jaywon Woods. This is a full, 10-fight card from Philadelphia.
ESPN2/ESPN3.com, 9:00 p.m. EDT, Adonis Stevenson vs Noe Gonzalez, Eleider Alvarez vs Rayco Saunders. Stevenson has made his mark at 168 since his upset loss to Darnell Boone, coming back a little tentative against Derek Edwards after a year off, but then blasting him in three. He followed that by squashing Dion Savage in a round, and then spent eight-plus rounds beating the living hell out of Aaron Pryor Jr before it was mercifully stopped. Last time out he Incredible Hulked all over Jesus Gonzales (sorry, I can't contribute another "pimp hand" joke to that story, I don't have it in me) and sent him back to Arizona with his tail between his legs. Now up is Noe Gonzalez, whose greatest pro boxing achievement to date would be his wide 2007 loss to Felix Sturm in one of Sturm's routinely shitty Universum-promoted title defenses. Well, Gonzalez would later go on to break Mariano Carrera's jaw, so that's something. That was enough to retire Carrera. Who knows? Stevenson is hittable and has been stopped before. The co-feature is prospect vs level one gatekeeper. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
SHO, 11:00 p.m. EDT, Jermain Taylor vs Caleb Truax, Erislandy Lara vs Ronald Hearns. Look, everyone! Oh happy day! It's a special edition of ShoBox: The Old Generation! In this one, we're being treated to Jermain Taylor's second soft touch on his comeback journey, as he takes on Minnesota club fighter Caleb Truax, one of those very very local circuit guys who fluffs up a record and then maybe dares risk it on a fight like this. Truax did beat Andy Kolle, so he is the King of Minnesota, I suppose.
Erislandy Lara is a legit contender at 154, though, so his fight, erm, sort of matters. Unfortunately it's against Ronald Hearns, and though Ronald seems like a friendly enough person from a distance (maybe he's a dick -- I have no idea), let's not mince words: He can't fight at this sort of level. Felix Sturm completely wiped him out last year in one of Sturm's all-time worst title defenses, one he couldn't even blame on Universum. This is Lara's first fight since he was robbed last July against Paul Williams, so beware ring rust, I suppose. Here is your intrigue for these two fights: (1) "Is Jermain Taylor really OK enough to continue fighting?" and (2) "Is Erislandy Lara suuuuuper rusty?" Them's yer stories! Get to gettin'! Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage. (Note: This card was supposed to be a triple-header with another Al Haymon fighter, the would-be-rebounding Fernando Guerrero, but he's out with an injury. Instead of Haymon signing one of the kids on the undercard and putting him on Showtime, it's just going to be a doubleheader.)
Saturday, April 21
BoxNation (UK), 2:30 p.m. EDT, James DeGale vs Cristian Sanavia, Patrick Nielsen vs Gaston Alejandro Vega, Andreas Evensen vs Willie Casey. DeGale and Sanavia likely won't go on last since neither of them are local in Denmark, which is a stupid place for England's DeGale to face Italy's Sanavia, but whatever, that's how it works. I don't believe DeGale has officially signed with Sauerland, so I think technically he's still promoted by Frank Warren, although it would sure seem like he's basically fighting for Sauerland now, which isn't that odd, I guess, considering that it's boxing where lots of dumb shit happens all the time that doesn't really make any sense, and also Warren and Sauerland have a great working relationship, including Sauerland being a key provider of content for the fledgling and struggling (so I'm told) BoxNation.
Anyway, I'd actually much rather watch the Sky card because I think the fights will be better, but something is telling me to watch this one to see DeGale. He wasn't much against either George Groves or Piotr Wilczewski last year, and I'm really starting to smell bust with him. I just don't know that he really has it. If he has problems with this guy, then the alarms should go off for everyone. Nielsen-Vega is a "yay that guy's the same nationality as us, hooray!" fight that people in countries where they care about their own fighters and blindly root for them apparently like seeing, while Evensen vs Casey is a matchup of two guys who aren't any damn good, to be blunt. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
Sky Sports (UK), 4:30 p.m. EDT, Anthony Crolla vs Derry Mathews, Matty Askin vs Jon Lewis Dickinson. Like I said, this is honestly the better fight card, on paper. Crolla-Mathews should be a good little battle, even if Crolla dominates a slipping Mathews as I expect, and Askin is probably legitimately England's best cruiserweight at the moment. If Hatton Promotions really cared about appearance and title belts, they'd be doing everything in their power to force him into a British title shot. We're in a world where Shane McPhilbin just held the title and basically got jobbed just to lose it to the dusty old remains of Enzo Maccarinelli.
SHO Extreme, 7:00 p.m. EDT, Librado Andrade vs Rowland Bryant, Francisco Vargas vs Rafael Lora. Neither should be a challenge for either of the guys named first. Leave it to Golden Boy to come up with pure turdery for the SHO Extreme idea. It had to be the or Top Rank, I guess. I mean they could be giving us some kind of halfway intriguing Luis Ramos Jr fight, or Sharif Bogere or something, but nah, mid-30s Andrade vs club guy. Vargas-Lora is actually fine for this -- it's a test for a young fighter. Read more about these fights here, if'n ya want. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
TyC Sports (Argentina), 8:00 p.m. EDT, Omar Narvaez vs Jose Cabrera. This should totally be Narvaez's entrance song.
SHO, 9:30 p.m. EDT, Abner Mares vs Eric Morel, Anselmo Moreno vs David De La Mora. We'll have more on these two fights, but let me say that it's not some oversight that Eric Morel hasn't been on TV in a long time. He's not some hard-luck vet who just hasn't gotten the breaks. He's a dull, uninteresting fighter whose skills don't match his record. Mares should make mincemeat of him if the world is just. Also, for the record, no, Abner Mares will not be fighting Nonito Donaire any time soon. Or Guillermo Rigondeaux. I have no earthly idea why people who write about boxing for a living ask any Golden Boy fighter if he wants to face a Top Rank guy, or vice versa, because it will not happen. Moreno is a heavy favorite over De La Mora, who once gave Koki Kameda a little more than he was bargaining for. It's a credible fight, I'd say, but I like Moreno to come out of this night as the clear new No. 1 bantamweight in the world, unless he announces a sure move up to 122 to follow Mares, which is a fight that could actually happen. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
TV Azteca (Mexico), 9:30 p.m. EDT, Cristian Mijares vs Eddy Julio, Al Sabaupan vs Marvin Quintero. Word around the campfire is that if Mijares wins, he will move on to a totally uninteresting fight with Nonito Donaire on July 14 at Cowboys Stadium. The reason it's not interesting is that Mijares can't punch and figures to stink out the joint if he does take the fight. It's almost as if Top Rank learned nothing from the Donaire-Narvaez fight last year, when they matched Donaire with someone they clearly hadn't scouted, or at least that was the impression you'd get when they all acted surprised afterward that Narvaez, who has no history of interesting fights, turned up and didn't let Donaire slug him in the face for a spectacular KO. Mijares is a known commodity to them. Or else they've forgotten who he is. The only possible entertaining fight between Donaire and Mijares is a pure Donaire blowout where he beats the hell out of Mijares.
Telefutura, 11:00 p.m. EDT, Jose Miguel Cotto vs Eric Cruz. This is the "sorry we booked you to fight Jose Luis Castillo because he's Erik Morales' buddy. Love, Golden Boy" fight for Miguel Cotto's big brother Jose.