Vargas vs Salido, Barthelemy vs Bey, PBC on ESPN, more: Boxing fight times and TV schedule for June 3-4

Friday, June 3

Spike, 9:00 p.m. ET, Rances Barthelemy vs Mickey Bey Jr, Emmanuel Rodriguez vs Alberto Guevara. Barthelemy defends the IBF 135-pound belt against Bey, who never lost it. But it's not a hard luck story for Bey, he had a fight against mandatory challenger Victor Shafikov, refused to take the fight, and was stripped. He never should have won the belt in the first place, but that's another story for another time, or, well, considering it was a Miguel Vazquez-Mickey Bey fight, let's let sleeping dogs lie. Anyway, this is on TV. BLH will have live coverage.

Live Stream / Estrella TV, 11:00 p.m. ET, Ronny Rios vs Efrain Esquivias, Zachary Ochoa vs Luis Joel Gonzalez. Rios once again looked like a prospect/contender in his last fight, a November 21 win over Jayson Velez, and he's back here with a stay busy fight. If you recognize Esquivias' name, it's probably from his 2013 win over a shot Rafael Marquez. We'll have a live stream and live coverage. BLH will have live streaming coverage.

Saturday, June 4

BoxNation (UK), 1:00 p.m. ET, Liam Smith vs Predrag Radosevic, Ryan Farrag vs Karim Guerfi, Paul Butler vs Petchbarngborn Kokietgym, Zolani Tete vs Victor Ruiz. Frank Warren is really putting some effort into making Liam Smith the worst world champion in all of boxing, isn't he? Radosevic's only decent opponent was Felix Sturm in 2013, and Sturm crushed him in four. BLH will have live coverage.

MDR (DEU), 4:30 p.m. ET, Tom Schwarz vs Dennis Lewandowski, Agit Kabayel vs Christian Lewandowski. Four unbeaten young heavyweights, kind of a German ShoBox of sorts.

HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET, Francisco Vargas vs Orlando Salido, Julian Ramirez vs Abraham Lopez. How close to a guarantee can one really give for something as a potential Fight of the Year contender? Because I think Vargas-Salido ticks pretty much every box. Vargas is coming off of the 2015 Fight of the Year, a bloody war against Takashi Miura in November, while Salido had two FotY contenders last year against Rocky Martinez. Their styles seem to match up for action. And the fight's at the StubHub Center, which is closing in on being holy ground in the sport. BLH will have live coverage.

ESPN, 11:00 p.m. ET, Artur Beterbiev vs Ezequiel Maderna, Bryant Perrella vs David Grayton. Eleider Alvarez and Oscar Rivas are also slated for this card, but don't have opponents as of right now, so I'm guessing that Perrella-Grayton is the TV co-feature. Anyway, Beterbiev is not exactly in tough here, and this is the first PBC on ESPN card of 2016. Beterbiev is 9-0 (9 KO) and Maderna's never been stopped, so if you're looking for an in-fight storyline, there you go. Perrella is a really interesting prospect, and you know about Beterbiev, so we'll have live coverage. BLH will have live coverage.

Televisa (MEX), 11:00 p.m. ET, Cristian Mijares vs Andres Gutierrez, Irma Garcia vs Miriam Avila, Edgar Jimenez vs Jovylito Aligarbes. The main event is important because it will likely determine a WBC featherweight title challenger in the near future, that belt currently held by Gary Russell Jr. And it's a decent crossroads matchup between veteran Mijares and the unbeaten Gutierrez, too. (Also, Oscar Escandon is interim champion, and Ronny Rios won one of these "Silver" belts in his last fight, too, but doesn't have to defend it in his Friday fight, and anyway, the point is, THIS winner will be IN THE MIX!)