By Cliff Rold

For one more week, Boxing is dominated by the annual summer slowdown of the paid ranks and the helmets and buttons ranks of the Beijing Olympics.  After the finals next Sunday, there will be bouts of serious withdrawal for some and serious elation for others.  Count this scribe in the former as, warts and all, the Games still hold a mystique few other events do.

Given the unbelievable dedication he’s shown in covering the overnights on CNBC, BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan will likely experience neither elation nor withdrawal, opting instead for a well deserved nap.  Both of our wives will certainly celebrate access to the remote for a day or so.

With ESPN’s Wednesday Night Fights season concluded, the bare cupboard of last week for those who don’t like the amateur game is down to Top Ramen…but as any college grad can tell you, it’s still a meal.  Look around the tube this week and there’s some places to be fed.

These are the picks of the week.

Pick It: Score Along in Beijing

There’s no denying that the Olympic scoring debate is gaining momentum, as it always does, as the Medal rounds draw near.  America’s Raynell Williams and Demetrius Andrade fell victim last week and he didn’t even get it the worst. 

Still, it remains must-see TV.  Look around the landscape of Boxing, look at men like Jermain Taylor, Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya, Alexander Povetkin…the Olympics will provide you a glimpse at Boxing’s future.  Always.  And for all the requisite controversy, the bulks of the fights are still fun to watch.  This week, things certainly get tight for Team USA as only Deontay Wilder closes in on the Bronze Medal round.  Later in the week, a full breakdown report card of Wilder’s bout against Italy’s Clemente Russo is on tap.

As a needed correction, in previous Olympic coverage this scribe had noted that Wilder’s lone medal will be America’s worst haul ever.  That is not the case; it would tie the showing from the 1948 squad.  I had wrongly credited Puerto Rico’s Bronze Medalist Juan Venegas as an American in research notes and apologize.

Pick the Deuce: Takalani Ndlovu vs. Fernando Beltran (ESPN2, Friday 9 PM EST/6 PM PST)
 
This Friday could be wildly entertaining based solely on the equal level of opposition facing off on both ESPN2 and Telefutura.  The Spanish-language broadcast has journeyman lightweights Daniel Jimenez and Fernando Trejo in what could be a good little alley fight.  ESPN2 goes with slightly better quality, even if it’s all still heat-em-up noodles.  In this case, we get a showdown of IBF 122 lb. titlist Steve Molitor’s leftovers.  Ndlovu was stopped by the Canadian in 2007 and Beltran in his previous fight to the titlist this past April.  The loser of this one moves deep into the back of the line for future hopes at the same kind of opportunity and neither is standing all that high on the totem pole in the first place.  The elements are there to make this worth watching…but only after Olympic semis.

Classic Pick: Emile Griffith-Benny Paret I (ESPN Classic, Saturday 1 AM EST/Friday 10 PM PST)

Their rivalry is etched on the consciousness of Boxing forever, a tragic ending which many feel Boxing never truly recovered from in America.  Before the end, there was a beginning not just for the linking in history of these two warriors but also for the Hall of Fame title acquisition run which makes Emile Griffith stand out as one of the best Welterweights and later Middleweights of all time.  These two just paired so well and if you’ve never seen them squared off, do yourself a favor and tune in.

Back in seven.

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