Ward vs Brand, PBC on ESPN, Olympics, more: Boxing TV schedule for August 2-6

Tuesday, August 2

Channel 7 (THA), 2:45 am ET, Wanheng Menayothin vs Saul Juarez. Wanheng is probably the best 105-pound fighter in boxing today, but Juarez is on a nice run, too, beating Adrian Hernandez twice at flyweight and then moving down two divisions to beat Oswaldo Novoa in March.

Wednesday, August 3

Main Event PPV (AUS), 5:30 am ET, Danny Green vs Kane Watts, Czar Amonsot vs Julio de Jesus. Green has to win here in order to make sure he gets that big money rematch with Anthony Mundine either late this year or more likely in January 2017. I mean, they could still do it if he lost, but Mundine would certainly balk at the agreed upon 50-50 split in that case, which would likely torpedo the fight.

Friday, August 5

ESPN, 9:00 pm ET, David Benavidez vs Denis Douglin, Alejandro Luna vs Stephen Ormond. Boxing’s days may be numbered at ESPN, as PBC has just a couple more shows set for the network over the next two Fridays, and then the two-year deal between PBC and ESPN is up. There is some talk that ESPN won’t bring the show back for 2017, even as a limited summer series like this year. And at the end of the day, will we really miss any of it, apart from the team of Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas, who for years now have carried mediocre programming with their fun rapport, actually useful commentary, and a sense of honesty that most commentary teams completely lack nowadays? I don’t know, but I’d say probably not. If we’re coming to the end, then so be it. Anyway, this card is like the other PBC on ESPN cards from this year. BLH will have live coverage.

Estrella TV / RingTVLive.com, 11:00 pm ET, Carlos Morales vs Luis Franco, Joet Gonzalez vs Sergio Lopez. Your standard Golden Boy card at the Belasco. Morales is an interesting prospect, the 13-1-3 record doesn’t stand out, but he can fight, and those setbacks came early in his career.

Saturday, August 6

NBCOlympics.com, 10:00 am ET, Rio 2016. Preliminary round fights for Men’s light flyweight, Men’s lightweight, Men’s light heavyweight, and Men’s heavyweight. BLH will have live coverage.

NBCOlympics.com, 4:00 pm ET, Rio 2016. Preliminary round fights for Men’s lightweight, Men’s welterweight, and Men’s light heavyweight. BLH will have live coverage.

HBO / BoxNation (UK), 10:30 pm ET, Andre Ward vs Alexander Brand. This is the final step toward Kovalev-Ward in November. Sergey Kovalev took care of business against Isaac Chilemba a couple weeks ago, now it’s time for Ward to do so against Alexander Brand, which he almost certainly will. Then we move on to the big fight in three months. This is what it is. It’s also a one-fight show on HBO. BLH will have live coverage.

UniMás, 11:00 pm ET, Juan Diaz vs Cesar Vazquez, Trevor McCumby vs Shujaa El Amin, Egor Mekhontsev vs Alexander Johnson. This is comeback number two for Diaz, and fight number two of comeback number two. McCumby is a decent prospect, and Mekhontsev won gold at London 2012 as a light heavyweight.

Televisa (MEX), 11:00 pm ET, Dante Jardon vs Nery Saguilan.