by David P. Greisman

Absence indeed makes the heart grow fonder — and big-time boxing, after being on hiatus for more than a month, returns with much to love in a month defined by that sentiment.

The sweet science has still been around for the past seven weeks, the period between Andre Ward’s win over Carl Froch on Dec. 17 and the fight this Saturday between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Marco Antonio Rubio. There is more to the sport than its million-dollar main events. Cards from “Friday Night Fights,” “ShoBox” and NBC Sports Network’s new “Fight Night” series have sated our appetites.

The main courses are on their way.

There will be major fights broadcast on HBO, Showtime and Epix for eight straight weeks, starting Feb. 4 on HBO with Chavez-Rubio and Nonito Donaire vs. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and continuing through to March 24 and the HBO doubleheader featuring Erik Morales vs. Danny Garcia and James Kirkland vs. Carlos Molina.

That’s 18 fights between those three networks, and that’s not even including the numerous smaller broadcasts or less noteworthy fights scheduled between now and then.

Boxing doesn’t need to be on pay-per-view to be captivating or compelling. The four pay-per-views that aired in the final four months were important events. These four weeks bring important storylines.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been in the spotlight for nearly seven years, once a prospect featured on pay-per-view undercards merely out of curiosity, the child of a great champion developing as a pubescent pro, a kid we weren’t yet sure would be able to make it in a sport that tests manhood.

He was closer to questionable than he was to contention, but he grew into the sport, grew into his body, added some skills and added himself to the list of fighters with an alphabet soup world title. It will never be fair to compare him to his Hall of Fame heritage, but he’s proven comparable to his middling middleweight competition.

That’s been a product, in part, of wise matchmaking. There comes a time, however, when matchmaking can only take a fighter so far.

It’s taken him to a point where he must either defend his world title against a true challenger, or give up that belt and accept that he’ll never truly allow himself to be challenged.

In Marco Antonio Rubio, Chavez Jr. is facing an estimable veteran, a capable challenger who is dangerous when underestimated. Despite the five losses on his record, and despite the seemingly ordinary opposition he provides, Rubio has more than enough grit and ability to pose a threat and expose a fighter’s weaknesses. He did just that last April against a touted, undefeated prospect in David Lemieux.

Though at 31 Rubio is just six years older than Chavez Jr. and has been a pro for only three years longer, there are those who see this fight as man against boy. It will either be Rubio who proves them right — or Chavez Jr. who proves them wrong.

This is the right fight to be made. Putting Chavez Jr. in with Sergio Martinez would be like putting Arturo Gatti in with Floyd Mayweather Jr. It is better to see what conclusion Chavez Jr. can bring to questions we do not know the answer to, as opposed to seeing a result that everyone expects.

A week later, Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto will have a rematch of their April 2011 back-and-forth battle, a bout that was one of the best fights of last year.

Ortiz was the underdog in that first fight, a contender who had failed in his biggest fights, whose shortcomings led many to describe him as not having what it takes to succeed. Berto, meanwhile, was thought to be a titleholder who had never truly been tested, one of boxing’s promoter- and network-made millionaires.

They elevated each other, and they did so by dropping each other repeatedly. Ortiz, with the victory, ascended to the spot Berto had been seeking, the young world titlist vying for a shot at the stars. Berto, meanwhile, fell to where Ortiz was, a boxer who came up short in the big one and now needed to dispel doubts.

Ortiz went on to melt down against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Berto bounced back with a win against Jan Zaveck. Now they are back in a similar spot to the one they were in 10 months ago. Both men are trying to prove themselves, to remain viable in a sport where one loss can be damaging and two can be damning. Again, they stand in each other’s way.

Feb. 18 brings three notable bouts: Vitali Klitschko’s heavyweight title defense against Dereck Chisora, Paul Williams’ return against Nobuhiro Ishida, and what could be an exciting light heavyweight clash between Tavoris Cloud and Gabriel Campillo.

Feb. 25 also has a heavyweight title bout, this one with Alexander Povetkin and Marco Huck. But the dark horse fight rounding out the month is a 10-round welterweight bout between two boxers without a world title: Marcos Maidana and Devon Alexander.

Alexander’s last bout against a crude slugger was two years ago, when he surprisingly stopped Juan Urango with well-placed, well-timed uppercuts. Since then, he has fought three times and gone 2-1, though there are some who believe he should actually be 0-3. Alexander out-pointed Andriy Kotelnik in August 2010 and Lucas Matthysse in June 2011, bouts some scored for his opponents. In-between, Alexander lost a technical decision to Timothy Bradley in January 2011.

Though he’s lost just once, he has not impressed since the Urango fight. He needs to right his ship before it veers completely off course.

He’ll attempt to do this against Maidana, one of those fighters who does not seem as if he should be as successful as he is but whose performances prove him to be better than he looks. He broke down Victor Ortiz, stopped Victor Cayo, had what some considered the “Fight of the Year” with Amir Khan — and then had a surprisingly close contest with an aged Erik Morales.

Alexander’s trainer, Kevin Cunningham, believes his fighter had remained at 140 pounds for too long, and that he’ll be revitalized at 147, stronger in his new division. He’ll either seek to prove this against an opponent seen as having an iron chin, or he can try to out-box Maidana for the distance. Maidana’s pressure eventually got to the fleet-footed Khan. He can potentially do the same to Alexander.

Their fight could be one of those dramatic affairs between boxer and puncher. It is not the biggest of bouts, nor is it the most elite of events, but it is a good match to make.

February brings the true beginning of boxing in 2012, when each week brings another headline and another storyline. Looking ahead at what’s to come, the calendar of boxing matches, like the best of books, is a page-turner.

The 10 Count

1.  It wasn’t in-demand, but perhaps it was inevitable — Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson will follow up on their debacle of a pay-per-view main event from October, which ended after less than two rounds after Hopkins suffered a bizarre injury.

Hopkins and Dawson will have a rematch on April 28 in Atlantic City.

Last year, those who watched the bout paid for it twice: HBO had bought the bout for broadcast on “World Championship Boxing,” only to put it on pay-per-view to try to get some of that money back.

Fans won’t have to do that again; their subscription fees will cover the cost of the rematch on regular HBO.

Here’s hoping there’s a good undercard bout. That way, people will at least have another reason to tune in to the show before deciding whether to treat Hopkins-Dawson 2 as a walkout bout.

Nevertheless, the rematch needed to happen — though only for the sake of the fighters, not the fans. The result of their first bout was a “no contest” with no resolution. The sniping between Hopkins and Dawson continued in the months after the fight. They have an issue that needs settling and were able to find a network to pay the money to make that happen.

That seems like it should’ve been one tough sale to make. The next one will be even tougher — convincing people to buy tickets.

2.  In search of creativity in boxing headlines and promotion taglines (taken from various websites, in descending chronological order):

- “It’s ‘Repeat or Revenge’ for Berto and Ortiz”
- “Cotto-Margarito II: Repeat or Revenge?”
- “Repeat or Revenge for Woodhouse”
- “Roy Jones Jr. Vs. Bernard Hopkins – Repeat or Revenge”
- “Ivan Calderon-Hugo Cazares: Repeat or Revenge on 8/30”
- “Pacquiao-Barrera II: Repeat or Revenge?”
- “Corrales-Casamayor 3: Repeat or Revenge”
- “Wright-Mosley: Repeat or Revenge?”
- “Ayala vs. Adams, Repeat or Revenge?”
- “Rahman-Lewis II: Will it be Repeat or Revenge?”
- “Bowe-Holyfield II: Repeat or Revenge?”

3.  Boxers Behaving Badly: Undefeated junior welterweight prospect Frankie Gomez was arrested twice in the span of four days and was still behind bars as of Sunday evening, according to online Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department records and a report by BoxingScene’s own Jake Donovan.

Gomez, 19, was arrested Jan. 20 and charged with two misdemeanor counts of failing to appear in court for traffic violations, and one misdemeanor count of petty theft. He was freed on $3,655 bail later that day, Donovan reported.

But Gomez was arrested again four days later, this time on one felony count of possession of narcotics, a charge that came after he was cited for having a suspended driver’s license, according to Donovan.

He is being held on $30,000 bail, according to online records. His next court date is scheduled for Feb. 1.

Gomez is 12-0 with nine knockouts. He last fought in December, knocking out some dude named James Hope.

4.  I don’t know if it’s been done anywhere else, but I found it interesting that a boxing card in the Washington, D.C., area recently put up a deal on Groupon.

Tickets for Jimmy Lange’s fight on Feb. 11 in Northern Virginia were being offered at deep discounts: $37 for $85 seats (including fees), and $62 for $139 seats (also including fees). Those are steep discounts: Groupon gets half of the money, so the show’s promoter will only be getting $18.50 and $31, respectively, for those tickets.

More than 140 people bought the deal (and each could buy up to four tickets), according to Groupon.

This could potentially be a good marketing idea for the promoter. Lange fights often in Northern Virginia — 13 of his last 15 bouts, dating back to 2005, have been at the Patriot Center on the campus of George Mason University. He reportedly pulls in decent crowds at those shows.

Some buyers on Groupon have a reputation of buying a deal and never becoming repeat customers, a gamble that businesses take when giving such discounts in the hope of attracting people back again. It’s also possible that some of those who already attend Lange’s fights took advantage of the deal, and they, too, would not be doing the promoter any good.

However, if these are new fans being reached — and if they are satisfied enough to come back again at full price — then this could prove to be a good move.

5.  I liked what BJ Flores did this past weekend, staying busy rather than remain idle, promoting and fighting on his own show in his hometown.

Flores stopped Hugo Pineda this past Saturday in Springfield, Mo., on a card that also featured a title elimination bout between Cory Spinks and Sechew Powell.

The cruiserweight contender’s promoter, Don King, “doesn’t have as many dates as he used to have,” Flores explained to me earlier in January. “That’s just boxing these days.  So his fighters nowadays, we’ve got to be creative and go out and develop a home base, somewhere you can fight and the promoter doesn’t have to do all the work every single time and just put you on a card and lose money.”

I like this not only because Flores is trying to create a regional attraction with regular cards (three in Springfield in the past six months), but also because he’s doing what he can to keep from being sidelined.

I like this for the same reason I liked Zab Judah taking a major pay cut for his rematch with Cory Spinks several years ago, knowing that winning the welterweight championship back would bring him bigger paydays.

The lure of bigger paydays too often keeps fighters from being active — they don’t want to endanger those lucrative bouts, either due to a defeat or simply because they might be seen as being unavailable.

So often we see fighters complain about inactivity, and while their complaints might for good reason, they do not do anything about it. They turn down paydays because of what they see as unfavorable circumstances despite nothing bigger or better being available.

This is their right — it is their career and their health. I’d just rather see fighters find ways to get fights made rather than find reasons for them not to be.

6.  Last week I asked a female boxer what she walks around at — the only non-medical situation when it’s okay ask a woman what she weighs.

7.  Teddy Atlas made the right choice for all the right reasons by splitting with Alexander Povetkin, the heavyweight titleholder he’d been working with for more than two years.

“We made an agreement that if I’m going to train him, he’d have to come to the United States while I was working for ESPN,” Atlas explained on last week’s episode of Friday Night Fights, expanding on what he told boxing writer Ron Borges of The Sweet Science earlier this month. “When I’m not working, I would go over there.

“Now they no longer want to stand by that commitment, by that agreement. They’re saying I have to go over there. I can’t go over there. I have a commitment to ESPN. They said they would pay me for the dates I miss, but as far as I’m concerned, paying somebody to break their commitment doesn’t make that commitment go away. … I have a contract with ESPN. I have an obligation with ESPN.”

A wise man once told me never to make a promise you can’t keep, and that’s the philosophy Teddy is adhering to — it doesn’t matter how much money Povetkin’s team offers him if it means breaking a promise and screwing over his employer.

Vladimir Hrunov, Povetkin’s manager, noted to BoxRec News that Atlas had left his duties with ESPN2 for a bit last year to train Povetkin in Russia for his fight with Ruslan Chagaev.

This left out some details, however. Povetkin’s team had pulled the same situation last year — Povetkin remained at home rather than travel to the United States to train. Atlas had initially opted to fulfill his commitment to “Friday Night Fights” before realizing that Povetkin was still trainer-less and barely prepared just weeks out from the fight. Guest commentators filled in for Atlas for the final few weeks of the show’s season.

This time, Povetkin’s fight takes place in the middle of the “Friday Night Fights” season. And once again, it appears like Povetkin’s team has had him just wait around for Atlas while they try to convince Atlas to come overseas. Povetkin has a title defense against Marco Huck in less than a month.

I do wonder how much notice Atlas gave Povetkin’s team that he wouldn’t be coming overseas this time. That doesn’t matter too much, though. Atlas is right in this situation, and it is Povetkin’s team that is doing its fighter wrong.

8.  Mark this date: Jan. 30, 2012 — the day “The 10 Count” had an entry in support of Teddy Atlas.

One more sign that the world’s going to end this year…

9.  I watched it so you didn’t have to — the Team Snooki boxing online pay-per-view, that is.

The “Jersey Shore” celebrity promoted her first boxing card this past Saturday in Atlantic City on what was a busy weekend for worldwide boxing but a dead weekend for televised boxing in the United States. And so, after mulling a drive to New Jersey, I instead opted to pay $10 for the online stream.

The Web cast wasn’t worth it for a fan with no connection to or interest in the fighters, no matter how bored we might’ve been on a Saturday evening. But the live show, which had tickets starting at $50? It definitely appeared to be worth it.

It was a club-quality show, the kind of card entertaining enough for those in attendance. It’s not necessarily destination viewing for those watching online except for fans of the fighters who didn’t travel — and that’s actually a niche market that Internet pay-per-views can and do cater to.

Boxing needs these smaller shows to be successful, to create fight fans, and not just people who only tune in or show up when it’s a big bout. With that in mind, the “Team Snooki” promotion appeared to be a success, a legitimate venture and not a sideshow.

10.  I don’t think anyone was surprised that this was the first sentence in Jose Sulaiman’s column last week, as translated by Fightnews:

“I feel the need today of talking briefly about me.”

How out of character for him…

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.

Follow David on Twitter at twitter.com/fightingwords2 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fightingwordsboxing, or send questions and comments to fightingwords1@gmail.com