By Cliff Rold

While last weekend may have felt like the end of the 2008 Boxing calendar, we assure you it was not.  As good as last Saturday’s Manny Pacquiao performance and Carl Froch-Jean Pascal fights were, this week promises another slate of potentially memorable action.  The best heavyweight in the world faces a former champion of the division and it’s not even the best action on tap.  In fact, compared to two other bouts, it may be an afterthought.

These are the picks of the week.

Pick a New World Champ: Steve Cunningham-Tomasz Adamek (Versus, Thursday 8 PM EST/PST)

It’s long past time for references to the moribund past at Cruiserweight to cease.  The now-200 lb. class has been a reliable source for Boxing action, and quality, for the bulk of this decade and Thursday night will be no different.  The IBF titlist Cunningham (21-1, 11 KO) earned but never got his shots at former World Champions O’Neil Bell, Jean Marc Mormeck or David Haye.  Haye’s decision to vacate earlier this year and move to Heavyweight is hard to begrudge, but Cunningham was the one name he left unsettled.  Cunningham has a chance to make a case for why it matters against Adamek (35-1, 24 KO) on Thursday.  The winner will, rightly, be recognized by Ring Magazine as the new Cruiserweight champion and the bout is a fair start for new lineage in the division.  Adamek’s stoppage of Bell earlier this year, Cunningham’s perfect-if-not-for-home-cooking record and quality of opposition, as well as Cunningham victim Guillermo Jones’ stoppage of WBA titlist Firat Arslan, make this a match of the world’s two best.  Adamek has had a lone bad night, losing wide (if with a scored knockdown) to Light Heavyweight Chad Dawson.  His wars with Paul Briggs and dominance of Bell, before and after, are yet more evidence that a loss is just a loss.  Cunningham has the physical tools to duplicate Dawson’s performance; Adamek has the power to make him fight.  This could be a classic.

Pick The Late Sub: Kendall Holt-Demetrius Hopkins (Showtime, Saturday 11 PM EST/ PST)

This was all to be just short of hype for this weekend’s Holt-Ricardo Torres rubber match…a great preview paragraph if ever one was written.  Alas, cursor-block and delete.  There will be no III, at least not now.  In situations like this, a fighter like Holt (24-2, 13 KO) is often forced to take on Willie Standup just to save the card.

We’ve got a much better outcome.

In Torres’ stead, in steps Demetrius Hopkins (28-0-1, 11 KO).  Yes, the name is familiar and the other Hopkins is a relative.  It’s a solid pedigree.  Hopkins hasn’t fought in over a year but he must be in shape because this will still be for the WBO 140-lb. belt.  It’s not to say Hopkins is a tornado of thrills in the ring, but this is the sort of fight which has the makings of a battle.  Two well skilled fighters with little time to mentally prepare, to game plan for each other, can often make for violence.  Think Vitali Klitschko-Lennox Lewis, but don’t get hopes quite that high. 

Of course, it could just as easily be a tentative dud, but what fun is that sort of speculation?  Let’s be glad we didn’t get ol’ Willie off his stool one more time.  

Why Not It: Wladimir Klitschko-Hasim Rahman (HBO, Saturday 4:45 PM EST/1:45 PST)

With the WBO and IBF belts in tow, and a healthy 9-fight winning streak beneath him, Wladimir Klitschko (51-3, 45 KO) was all set to face undefeated young contender Alexander Povetkin before a training injury scratched the bout.  In its place, the latest chance for revival in a career full of them falls to former World Heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (45-6-2, 36 KO).  Most will assume a rout going in, but in the still-afternoon hours, it’s hard to miss.  Even if a rout ensues, if Rahman is obliterated, it won’t take much time out of a day and leaves time for evening debauchery.  And it’s Rahman, he that wins when not supposed to and loses unfathomably, he of the massive Lennox Lewis upset in 2001.  Klitschko is still a fighter whose chin is questioned and Rahman has the proverbial punchers chance.  Not much of one, but enough to 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