By Cliff Rold

The upset bug continued into another week as Breidis Prescott joined Jorge Solis and Vic Darchinyan among the favored to come up short in the last couple weeks.  It would be surprising if anything similar happened this weekend.

It helps when there are few quality fights on an immediate horizon. 

This is one of those weeks where fights scheduled add up to almost a week off.  For the diehards, there will be action but for those looking to make their fandom up to spouses who want a night on the town, opportunity knocks.

Critics say 500 Days of Summer could make a great date night.

This critic still provided boxing picks of the week.

Pick It: Antonio Escalante-Cornelius Lock (Friday, ESPN2, 10 PM EST/7 PM PST)

Maybe ‘crossroads fight’ is overdoing it for this Jr. Featherweight clash but not by much.  Escalante (20-2, 13 KO) has bounced back since being given a knockout lesson from veteran Mauricio Pastrana in 2007.  Knockouts in four of six fights since have moved the 24-year old Mexican into title contention in both the WBA and WBO.  Lock (18-3-1, 11 KO) doesn’t have a similar run in him but he is coming off arguably his best win, a tenth round stoppage of Roger Gonzalez, and two of his three losses have been to the excellent Cristobal Cruz and Mario Santiago.  A case can be made for Lock having faced better competition.  Could the experience edge matter?  We’ll know when the fight unfolds but this is intriguing.  Two fighters who have shown they can be stopped who have also scored some solid stoppages with little room for error.  Friday could provide fireworks in Escalante-Lock.

Pick With Caution: Top Rank PPV (Saturday, PPV, 9 PM EST/6 PM PST)

This show was supposed to be headlined by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. versus Jason LeHoullier (21-1-1, 8 KO) but an injury has seen the main event called off.  The show is set, still to go on and this may be the rare case where a card was improved by the loss of the main event.  Chavez is honestly prying his trade but after 40 fights is arguably in the sideshow mode Top Rank has been happy to provide over the years (see: Butterbean, Mia St. John, Tye Fields).  Fans can choose whether or not it’s worth paying to see what remains.  A WBA Jr. Flyweight title bout between titlist Giovanni Segura (20-1-1, 16 KO) and veteran Sonny Boy Jaro (30-7-5, 19 KO) could be interesting.  Jaro has been stopped four times so a highlight reel moment against the brick handed Segura is possible.  Even better, there is also an interim WBA Lightweight tilt between potential star Urbano Antillon (26-0, 19 KO) and Miguel Acosta (25-3-2, 19 KO).  This one could also produce a highlight or two.  Still, it costs extra so proceed with caution.

Pick the Lion: Ringside: Lennox Lewis (Sunday, ESPN Classic, 1 AM EST/10 PM PST)

It’s nothing new but for anyone who hasn’t seen it next Sunday will present a re-airing of the Ringside retrospective of Lennox Lewis.  Enshrined in the Hall of Fame last month, the special has some solid interviews but, more important, great footage of the fights which made Lewis special.  His destruction of Tommy Morrison, war with Ray Mercer, and defeat of Shannon Briggs for the lineal Heavyweight crown are all on display as is the odd series with Oliver McCall and first bout with Hasim Rahman.  It is a flawed special; footage right preclude use of Lewis’s most important bouts (Rahman II, both Evander Holyfield bouts, and the Mike Tyson show) but it’s still a solid look at the man who, for now, stands as the last great Heavyweight.

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