Weekend Fight Schedule - Friday, February 5
Sky Sports (UK), 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Jason Booth vs. Matthew Marsh. This is for the BBBoC super bantamweight title and looks to be a relatively even fight on paper.
Gofightlive.tv, 8:00 p.m. ($5.99), Derek Ennis vs. Edwin Vasquez, Eric Hunter vs. Roberto Bonilla, Joey Dawejko vs. Damon Clement. Ennis and Hunter are both local Philly attractions who are building up decent records. Each is facing a sturdy journeyman who has lost his last several fights. Dawejko, AKA "Polish Thunder", is a heavyweight in his second pro fight. As an 18-year old, he won the world junior championships at super heavyweight, and he's now promoted by Hasim Rahman. I've seen tape of him, and he's sort of similar to the heavyweight version of James Toney, so he may be someone to watch out for in the future.
ESPN2, 10:00 p.m., Glen Johnson vs. Yusaf Mack, Ed Paredes vs. Joey Hernandez. Johnson-Mack is an eliminator for the right to face Tavoris Cloud. This just goes to show why Glen Johnson is so easy to root for. He gets defeated by Chad Dawson twice, and right away he comes back for a tough fight against a top 10 contender where he's making peanuts, just because he wants to get another shot at the title. The fight was supposed to be on the undercard of Mosley-Berto, but was salvaged and moved here (and on to TV) when Mosley-Berto got canceled. Mack might be a tough cookie to crack, and in a lot of ways is similar to Dawson, although he doesn't have the same level of stamina. Paredes-Hernandez is a rematch of a draw from last year. Since this is in Miami, the card is also loaded with Cuban prospects, with Guillermo Rigondeaux (who was pushed off TV when Johnson-Mack was moved onto this card), Yudel Jhonson and Yordanis Despaigne all fighting in bouts on the untelevised undercard. Please join Bad Left Hook for live coverage of this card.
Showtime, 11:00 p.m., Freddy Hernandez vs. DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley, Lateef Kayode vs. David Whittom. This one's a little different than your standard Shobox card. Hernandez, 27-1 and 30 years old, isn't really a prospect at this point, and he's been beating good but not great competition for years now without ever taking that step up to the championship level. Corley is a former titlist who's fallen on hard luck, going 5-8 in the last few years (including at least two losses to prospects that were questionable), but his poor recent record belies the fact that he's actually still a good fighter. Kayode is a huge punching heavyweight who's facing Whittom, a Canadian tough guy (who's also better than his record indicates) with a good chin who usually fights at light heavyweight.
Saturday, February 6
Ringstars.ru, Noon Eastern, Dmitry Pirog vs. Eric Mitchell, Timur Ibragimov vs. Awadh Tamim, Vitaliy Demyanenko vs. Jorge Miranda. The website says this one will be streaming live on the promoter's website, but isn't clear whether the stream will be free. Pirog faces Mitchell in a WBO middleweight eliminator after twin brother Aaron Mitchell pulled out. Ibragimov and 11-1 Tanzanian Tamim will be fighting for a minor IBF belt. 17-0 Demyanenko takes on Miranda for a fringe WBO welterweight title.
Polsat Sport (Poland), 2:00 p.m. Eastern, Dawid Kostecki vs. Dario Cichello, Tomasz Hutkowski vs. Jozsef Nagy. For those who are interested, the rest of the day on Polsat Sport, they'll be replaying about 10 Tomasz Adamek fights, including the Estrada fight from the night before.
Gofightlive.tv, 7:00 p.m. Eastern ($5.99), Shamone Alvarez vs. Alexis Camacho, Vinny Maddalone vs. Dominique Alexander, Yathomas Riley vs. Walter Foster. This one actually isn't bad for a cheap internet PPV, it just has the misfortune of going up against a number of bigger fights. Alvarez and Camacho are both welterweight fringe contenders trying to get back into the title picture.
Gofightlive.tv, 8:00 p.m. Eastern ($9.99), Tomasz Adamek vs. Jason Estrada, Peter Quillin vs. Fernando Zuniga. Adamek is taking his second bout as a heavyweight, and reports are that he's looking much more like a real heavyweight these days, weighing in around 222 pounds with most of the extra mass being muscle. Estrada is a former Olympian and fringe contender who's a good boxer but lacks any pop in his fists whatsoever. This one actually has some sleeper potential, and could look a lot like Adamek-Cunningham. Quillin, a once-promising prospect who's lost some steam, gets back into the ring for the first time in over a year, taking on the durable gatekeeper Zuniga. A number of New York prospects also appear on the undercard. Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage of this card.
Secondsout.tv (subscription only), 9:00 p.m. Eastern, David Lemieux vs. Jason Naugler, Herman Ngoudjo vs. Silverio Ortiz. This one's for the Canadian super middleweight title. The most intriguing part will be whether Lemieux can knock out Naugler. All 20 of Lemieux's wins are by knockout, and Naugler has been stopped only once in 11 losses.
TV Azteca (Mexico), 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Jorge Solis vs. Likar Ramos. This one's for an interim WBA super featherweight title. It's hard to believe, but Solis has never won a title, while Ramos is actually defending after the WBA gifted him one of the least deserving titles ever.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Edwin Valero vs. Antonio DeMarco, Luis Carlos Abregu vs. Richar Gutierrez. Valero-DeMarco could bring some real fireworks, and should tell us a lot about both of these relatively untested lightweights. Bad Left Hook will be providing live round by round coverage of this fight.
FSN / Fox Sports Espanol, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Brandon Rios vs. Jorge Teron, Tomas Villa vs. Juan Ruiz, Robert Marroquin vs. Robert Guillen. This is a bit of a step up for the undefeated Rios. Fellow prospect Teron was tested recently against Aldo Valtierra, losing a close fight but winning a rematch. They haven't announced which of the undercard fights will be televised. Marroquin is a good prospect, and Bob Arum is probably more likely to give him face time, but let's hope it's Villa vs. Ruiz, since that one has the potential to be an absolute war. Villa's been involved in a number of closet classics, even if he isn't the best fighter in the world. I also wouldn't be shocked if the Marroquin fight got canceled, since he's scheduled to fight on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard in his hometown of Dallas in a month.
