Chavez Jr vs Martinez, Canelo vs Lopez, Hernandez vs Ross, More: Boxing TV Schedule For Sept. 13-15

Thursday, September 13

ESPN2, 10:00 pm EDT, Jessie Vargas vs Aaron Martinez, Luis Cruz vs Casey Ramos. This will be the Top Rank debut for welterweight Vargas (19-0, 9 KO), who gets sort of a set-up role main event for the big weekend shows on Saturday. With the Friday Night Fights season having come to an end in August, this is a special broadcast for ESPN. Martinez (18-1-1, 4 KO) is a decent fighter -- he doesn't have a lot of power, but Vargas has never been any sort of blue chipper outside of press releases, and I wouldn't be shocked by an upset here. The co-feature is also a pretty good matchup. Cruz (20-1, 16 KO) and Ramos (16-0, 5 KO) are guys who can't afford a setback if they want to keep moving forward. Really, this is the sort of show I wish ESPN and/or ShoBox always had. These are significant matchups for where these guys are at right now. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.

Friday, September 14

BoxNation (UK), 2:30 pm EDT, Billy Joe Saunders vs Jarrod Fletcher, Bradley Skeete vs Peter McDonagh. Saunders (14-0, 9 KO) will be defending the Commonwealth middleweight belt against Australia's Fletcher (12-0, 7 KO). Saunders is a really solid prospect, I think -- a guy who could well get to the world stage at some point if his hands hold up for him. He's a smart fighter, attacks well, and has the pedigree. I don't know anything about Fletcher other than his record, the fact he's 28, and his sheet doesn't have any big wins or anything like that. He's not as well-regarded as Saunders, but we'll see what he's got. Skeete (8-0, 3 KO) is not a favorite prospect of mine, but he's got talent. McDonagh (18-24, 2 KO) is a well-known guy for being sub-.500. The 24-year-old Skeete has built an early rep for being a bit dull, and possibly unfortunately, this fight is set for 10 rounds.

Eurosport (UK), 3:00 pm EDT, Timo Hoffmann vs Steffen Kretschmann. Hoffman (40-7-2, 23 KO) has been around the block a few times, but at 37 is winding down a career that fell short of even the European title. Kretstchmann (16-2, 15 KO) has lost twice, both stoppages against Denis Bakhtov in 2009 and 2010.

Telemundo, 11:35 pm EDT, Omar Soto vs Glenn Donaire. Soto (22-9-2, 15 KO) was knocked out in two rounds by Roman Gonzalez a year ago and hasn't fought since. Donaire (19-4-1, 10 KO) has a famous brother and Telemundo loves him. In all serious, Glenn is a respectable fighter and has looked pretty sharp since launching his comeback.

Saturday, September 15

BoxNation (UK), 2:30 pm EDT, Yoan Pablo Hernandez vs Troy Ross, Dominik Britsch vs Roberto Santos II, Mateusz Masternak vs David Quinonero. Hernandez (26-1, 13 KO) holds the IBF belt and the Ring title at the moment, but Ross (25-2, 16 KO) is far from a pushover, and I think this is a potentially very interesting fight. Britsch (26-0-1, 9 KO) is a 24-year-old German middleweight prospect who went to a draw with Spain's Santos (17-6-2, 9 KO) in February, so they're doing it again. Masternak (27-0, 20 KO) and Quinonero (27-0, 26 KO) are interesting on paper, with neither having proven much with his unbeaten record yet. Also in action will be uninspiring heavyweight prospect Edmund Gerber (20-0, 13 KO) against Michael Sprott (36-18, 17 KO), and middleweight Marcos Nader (15-0, 2 KO) taking on Damien Bertu (25-6-1, 7 KO).

SHO Extreme, 8:00 pm EDT, Sergio Thompson vs Cristian Palma. I think this is the Extreme fight, anyway. It's the best one. Given that we'll be scrambling around like chickens with our heads cut off by this point of the evening, I can only say I might cover the Extreme stuff in the Canelo-Lopez thread before Brent comes in there and I move to the PPV.

Click banner for full coverage

HBO PPV (US) / Azteca (Mexico) / Primetime PPV (UK), 9:00 pm EDT, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs Sergio Martinez, Guillermo Rigondeaux vs Robert Marroquin, Roman Martinez vs Miguel Beltran Jr, Matthew Macklin vs Joachim Alcine, Mike Lee vs Paul Harness. We'll obviously have much more on this card all week, leading up to the fights on Saturday night. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.

Click banner for full coverage

SHO (US) / BoxNation (UK), 9:00 pm EDT, Canelo Alvarez vs Josesito Lopez, Jhonny Gonzalez vs Daniel Ponce De Leon, Marcos Maidana vs Jesus Soto Karass, Leo Santa Cruz vs Eric Morel. We'll obviously have much more on this card all week, leading up to the fights on Saturday night. Bad Left Hook will have live round-by-round coverage.