By Cliff Rold

This is how boxing should always be.  After a lull (and, given there is no off season, boxing fans can suck it up during a lull in major action), a string of weeks that leave fans talking about the fights they saw, and the fights they want to see next, rocks.

This isn’t bitching about what isn’t.  It’s celebrating what is.  What boxing is, right now, is hot for the late fall and winter of 2010.  Great fights, big knockouts, and…

…ring…

That’s the bell for the next round.

These are the picks of the week.

Pick Tourney: #3 Yohnny Perez vs. #6 Joseph Agbeko & #5 Abner Mares vs. #8 Vic Darchinyan  (Saturday, Showtime, 9 PM EST/PST)

There are arguments that can be made to say Bantamweight is not the best division in boxing right now.  It’s unclear what they are but it is supposed someone could come up with one.  Those arguments = wrong.  With the addition of Nonito Donaire to the mix last weekend, the best just got better and they’ll be showing their wares big time this weekend.  Kicking off Showtime’s four-man class run-off, we’ve got a rematch of one of the best fights of 2009 as Agbeko (27-2, 20 KO) attempts to regain the IBF belt from Perez (20-0-1, 14 KO).  In the co-feature, World Jr. Bantamweight king Darchinyan (35-2-1, 27 KO) makes a big step towards permanently leaving that smaller class against the former Mexican Olympian Mares (20-0-1, 13 KO).  The winners will square off next year.  The losers are slated to do the same.  When that’s over, someone is going to fight Donaire, or Fernando Montiel, or one of their tournament mates again, or “Chemito” Moreno, or…that’s the point.  It goes on and on, one awesome match after another.  That’s what happens when a division is hot and none are hotter, or of greater overall quality, in the whole of the sport right now. 

Pick Tune-up: #1 Fernando Montiel vs. Eduardo Garcia (Saturday, FSE, 11 PM EST/PST)

 

Speaking of Montiel (43-2-2, 33 KO), the unified titlist will be defending in a rebound-from-motorcycle-crash outing with Donaire on the horizon.  Garcis (21-5-1, 9 KO) should lose, but Montiel can sometimes have off-nights of the head scratching variety.  Those are typically followed with flashes of genius but Donaire could end up the biggest fight of his career, at least on the American side of the Pacific.  A loss here is disastrous.  Coming on the air roughly as Showtime exits, keeping a Bantamweight theme straight through the night is worth a buzz.

Pick Next Best (Division): #3 Amir Khan vs. #5 Marcos Maidana (Saturday, HBO, 9:30 PM EST/6:30 PM PST)

Jr. Welterweight is just a bit of seasoning from being as good as Bantamweight.  It has similar depth and, while this ends up the TIVO special with Showtime’s Bantamweight tournament kicking off at the same time, HBO has a sensational double header here.  It’s one of those ‘as soon as the other show ends (and we watch that Montiel blast), this one is up on the cue.’  If sleeps calls, or the bars do, this show will go great with Sunday Wheaties.  Khan (23-1, 17 KO) has a WBA belt at 140 lbs., an Olympic Silver Medal, a huge fan base overseas and a burgeoning one in the U.S., talent coming out of his ears…and a chin of the same material as that nice dish set from Aunt Millie’s wedding.  Khan is facing the best puncher in his class in Maidana (29-1, 27 KO) and this is, on paper, a game of keep away.  Twelve rounds is a long time.  The co-feature pits another pair of top ten Jr. Welters in #9 Lamont Peterson (28-1, 14 KO) and #10 Victor Ortiz (28-2-1, 22 KO).  That will probably be a better fight but the chase is where the money is. 

Ain’t it always?

Oh, and yes, ESPN3.com (on Saturday, 5 PM EST) and ESPN (via Sunday tape delay) will have the latest title defense from heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko.  It can’t sniff the shows on Showtime and HBO but he’s still the literal king of boxing by virtue of his position and that deserves a nod.  He’s fighting a relative novice in Dereck Chisora.  On paper, it is what it is and it ain’t much.

No one fights on paper.

Back in seven.

For BoxingScene’s latest full divisional ratings, log on to: https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/view.php?pg=boxing-ratings

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com