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Friday, May 18
Fox Sports 3 (Australia), 6:00 a.m. EDT, Will Tomlinson vs Daniel Ruiz. Tomlinson (18-0-1, 12 KO) is a 25-year-old super featherweight prospect who has looked solid thus far. In this one, he's matched against Mexican "Cañerito" Ruiz (27-4-1, 19 KO), who pushed Logan McGuinness to a majority decision in June 2011, losing on scores of 96-94 (twice) and 95-95. On the undercard, light heavyweights Blake Caparello (11-0-1, 5 KO) and Robert Berridge (15-0-1, 11 KO) do battle, and cruiserweight prospect Brad Pitt (12-0, 10 KO) is in action.
BoxNation (UK), 2:30 p.m. EDT, BoxAcademy. This series, the brainchild of Frank Warren's sons Francis and George, has had a tough go getting off the ground. The first show of the series was canceled, and now this one has lost its set main event of Ronnie Heffron vs Liam Smith. In action will be light heavyweight Callum Johnson (4-0, 2 KO), super featherweight Terry Flannigan (13-0, 4 KO), junior middleweight Joe Selkirk (8-0, 5 KO), and former Prizefighter super middleweight winner Rocky Fielding (9-0, 3 KO).
GFL ($9.99), 7:00 p.m. EDT, Franklin Lawrence vs Mike Mollo, Michael Stewart vs Christopher Feranndez. Lawrence (17-2-2, 12 KO) has emerged as a potential heavyweight contender with wins over Lance Whitaker, Jason Estrada, and Jason Gavern, but he's also 36 years old and could very well lose a fight like this. Mollo (20-3-1, 12 KO) was exposed in back-to-back fights by Andrew Golota and Jameel McCline in 2008, and hasn't fought since August 2010. He had a bit of a fanbase in Chicago (he's from Oak Lawn), but his upside is non-existent at this point. Lawrence can't afford to lose, and the 32-year-old Mollo has nothing to lose.
ESPN2 and ESPN3.com, 9:00 p.m. EDT, Karim Mayfield vs Raymond Serrano, Nick Brinson vs Jason Escalera. Mayfield (15-0-1, 9 KO) is highly-regarded locally in Northern California, but reality says he's a 31-year-old with little time to lose. At least he's taking on real fighters, instead of trying to pad a record and talk up a future that can't exist without taking risks. Plus he's going on the road to Albany, NY, for this one. I've been assured that Mayfield is better than he looked last year against Steve Forbes. Serrano (18-0, 8 KO) is a 22-year-old Philly prospect who also seems to lack the X-factor that might take him into the world of contention, but again, at least this is a real fight. One of them will take another step forward, the other takes two back. Escalera (13-0, 12 KO) is a 27-year-old Jersey fighter who has campaigned between 165 and light heavyweight. Brinson, 24, is a New Yorker with a record of 9-1-1 (5 KO), and has fought between 155 and 175. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
Argentina TV Publica (Argentina), 9:00 p.m. EDT, Alejandra Oliveras vs Claudia Lopez, Luis Abregu vs TBA.
Telemundo, 11:35 p.m. EDT, Mauricio Pintor vs Ivan Cano. Pintor (17-0-1, 11 KO) is a 5'10" junior welterweight who went to a draw with fellow prospect Abdiel Ramirez in his last outing. Cano (20-4, 14 KO) has the record of a club fighter.
Saturday, May 19
BoxNation (UK) / PPV (Denmark) / Ma Chaine Sport (France) / TV 10 (Sweden) / Viasat Sport (Norway) / Polsat Sport (Poland), 2:30 p.m. EDT, Mikkel Kessler vs Allan Green. That's a lot of TV channels. Kessler (44-2, 33 KO) is moving up to light heavyweight for this fight, as is Green (31-3, 21 KO). Common sense dictates that Kessler will have little trouble here, but with a potentially goofy eye and the fact that he hasn't fought since June of last year, when he beat the shit out of the very game Mehdi Bouadla in a comeback mismatch, you just never really know. Green, 32, does not lack physically, but just hasn't put it together as a pro, and really hasn't had a good performance since smashing Carlos De Leon Jr -- that was three years ago, and seems longer. We'll take a deeper look at this fight on Friday. The undercard is filled with showcase fights for the likes of Mateusz Masternak and Patrick Nielsen, who has the hopes of being the next Kessler on his back. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.
Sky Sports 1 (UK), 5:30 p.m. EDT, David Price vs Sam Sexton, Paul Edwards vs Kevin Satchell. Hopefully we can get both shows in, but it might not be possible. Price (12-0, 10 KO) is a very interesting heavyweight prospect, with legitimately huge power that seems to come from minimal effort. At 6'8", he's not quite as clunky or awkward as a lot of guys his size, possessing some athletic ability, and he doesn't have to wind up for a big shot to put guys on their backsides. He's been absolutely destroying guys in his recent fights. Sexton (15-2, 6 KO) is a competent domestic-level fighter but really nothing more. If he wins this one, it's a big-time upset and would really sort of gut promoter Frank Maloney's potential biggest money-maker. Sexton has been stopped twice by Dereck Chisora in his only two losses. The co-feature is interesting -- Edwards (9-1, 3 KO) and Satchell (7-0, 0 KO) both can't punch, but they're decent boxers. Satchell wailed on Martin Power in his last fight. Ashley Theophane was originally scheduled for the co-feature, but his opponent dropped out. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage, if times line up.
GFL ($9.99), 7:30 p.m. EDT, Jamaal Davis vs Eberto Medina II. This is a Peltz Boxing card in Atlantic City, and our own Ryan Bivins will be in the house to cover the event, with a post-fight report coming after. If you missed it, read Ryan's last Peltz report will be in action. Todd Unthank-May who stole part of the show last time out, is also in action on this card.
GFL ($9.99), 7:30 p.m. EDT, Battle of the Badges 4: FDNY vs New England.
TyC Sports (Argentina), 8:00 p.m. EDT, Claudio Olmedo vs Likar Ramos. Yes, that Likar Ramos. He's actually not quite as terrible as he appeared in the Marquez flop fight, but he's not very good, either.
HBO, 9:00 p.m. EDT, 24/7: Road to Pacquiao-Bradley. This is the first installment of the series, and has been set up more as a preliminary sort of episode, leading to the proper series debut next week. You can view a trailer for the show, and take a look inside the Pacquiao camp.
Televisa (Mexico), 10:00 p.m. EDT, Denver Cuello vs Ganigan Lopez. Cuello (30-4-6, 20 KO) is a contender at 105 pounds, and travels to Mexico to face Lopez (20-4, 14 KO). The two lowest weight classes can be so damn hard to predict that it's not even worth venturing a guess here. Cuello really is a good fighter, but who knows?
TV Azteca (Mexico), 10:30 p.m. EDT, Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr vs Juan Alberto Rosas. This fight has changed dates roughly a half-dozen times or so. Sanchez (13-1-1, 7 KO) is one of the weakest titleholders in the sport, as he picked up the IBF super flyweight belt from Rodrigo Guerrero on February 11. That fight was pretty controversial, with Sanchez winning on 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109 scores, the latter score completely atrocious and defying any logical explanation. I scored it 115-113 for Guerrero, but didn't really so much have a problem with Sanchez winning as I did one of the cards apparently being filled out ahead of time. That fight really deserved a rematch, but Rosas (36-6, 27 KO) is a tough challenger himself.