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Saturday, Dec. 22
DAZN / Sky Sports Box Office (UK), 1:00 pm ET, Dillian Whyte vs Dereck Chisora II. This card also features a flyweight world title fight between Cristofer Rosales and Charlie Edwards, a British featherweight title fight between Ryan Walsh and Reece Bellotti, light heavyweight prospect Joshua Buatsi, and David Price facing Tom Little as Price doggedly continues to try to salvage a busted career. BLH will have live coverage.
ESPN+ / BT Sport (UK), 3:00 pm ET, Josh Warrington vs Carl Frampton. This show also has Mark Heffron vs Liam Williams for the vacant British middleweight title, Billy Joe Saunders back in a tune-up, Martin Murray vs Hassan N’dam, Michael Conlan vs Jason Cunningham, and Nathan Gorman vs Razvan Cojanu. BLH will have live coverage.
FOX, 8:00 pm ET, Jermall Charlo vs Matt Korobov, Jermell Charlo vs Tony Harrison, Dominic Breazeale vs Carlos Negron. I was at the bar on Sunday to grab some lunch and be overwhelmed by enthusiastic Chicago Bears fans for a few hours, and during the Bears-Packers game FOX ran multiple ads for this fight, which was neat, and most people just ignored them like they would most commercials, because most people at the bar on a Sunday at Noon central are as likely to tune in to this show as they are to run out and buy a brand new Ford truck or whatever, but eventually a fella in a still crisp-looking Johnny Knox jersey chimed in, “Is the same guy fighting twice?” And his friend replied, “Looks like it. Or they’re twins.” And I’m not usually one to talk boxing in public, y’know, with the rubes, unless a friend asks about the rare Big Fight, because frankly I talk to you all hard core boxing freaks on this web site about it plenty enough to get my fill, but I said, “They’re twins. Jermall and Jermell.” And this dude lit up. “Jermall and Jermell?! That’s awesome! Are they any good?” And I said, “Yeah, they’re both pretty good!” because I didn’t want to get into a whole Thing, you know? And I do think they’re both pretty good, just — I can ramble about boxing political bullshit for too long, about how records don’t always reflect quality, about how the Charlos, while clearly talented, have rarely faced real resistance in opposition, and how that’s totally by professional matchmaker design, and that’s just how boxing works. And that guy didn’t want or need to hear about any of it. So I hope that guy tunes in, because he’ll probably be impressed by Jermall and Jermell likely tearing through their carefully chosen opposition, and maybe from there he will, over time, morph into the same cynical, hypercritical obsessive that the most of us become watching this sweetest of sciences. Anyway, BLH will have live coverage.