Crawford vs Diaz, Russell vs Escandon, more: Boxing fight times and TV schedule for May 18-20

Thursday, May 18

ESPN, 10:00 pm ET, Diego De La Hoya vs Erik Ruiz, D’Mitrius Ballard vs Denis Douglin. Pretty standard Golden Boy card. De La Hoya’s last two fights, counting this one, have been a step back from the path they had him on before, but he’s still just 22. Ballard has also stalled as a prospect for a while now, and Douglin is something of a step forward, but should be a winnable fight. BLH will have live coverage.

Saturday, May 20

BT Sport / BoxNation (UK), 2:30 pm ET, Gervonta Davis vs Liam Walsh, Ryan Walsh vs Marco McCullough. A world title main event, with Davis going on the road in London in a fight that, if he’s what he’s supposed to be, he should win. We’ll have live coverage of the main event, but as part of the SHO broadcast listed below.

SHO, 6:00 pm ET, Gary Russell Jr vs Oscar Escandon, Andre Dirrell vs Jose Uzcategui, Rances Barthelemy vs Kiryl Relikh, Gervonta Davis vs Liam Walsh. Early start! This is a big block of TV set for 6-10 pm ET on SHO, with Davis-Walsh from the UK and the rest of the fights in Maryland. The good news is this won’t go head-to-head with the HBO broadcast on the same night. BLH will have live coverage.

FS1, 10:00 pm ET, David Benavidez vs Rogelio Medina, Jorge Lara vs Mario Briones. Benavidez-Medina is an interesting matchup — if Benavidez is too hung up on his power, veteran tough guy Medina could take him into deeper waters than he’s prepared for at this point. Lara-Briones is a standard co-feature for this type of show. If for some reason you’re a PBC loyalist, you can in theory watch the SHO fights and this card without watching evil Top Rank on HBO.

HBO, 10:15 pm ET, Terence Crawford vs Felix Diaz Jr, Ray Beltran vs Jonathan Maicelo. Not exactly what anyone was hoping for from Crawford’s next fight after his last one, but it’s a decent opponent. Diaz can fight. The actual problem Crawford has at 140 is that he’s already the division’s clear ruler and there’s just not that much by way of truly interesting challenges for him. He wants to unify the division, but politically that’s going to be really hard. Beltran-Maicelo is pretty substandard for an HBO co-feature. BLH will have live coverage.