By Cliff Rold
After one of the busiest, most hectic, and ultimately exciting weeks of boxing in recent years, things settle down with one (old) star show and an assortment of contests between rising contenders and those trying to remain in the running.
Only two of the shows are scheduled to bump up against one another, on Saturday, and it’s not too big a clash. After all, one of the shows is on Fox and the Fox shows are always a gamble to even appear from region to region, particularly in terms of the English broadcasts.
These are the picks of the week.
Pick It?: #5 Bernard Hopkins vs. Roy Jones Jr. (Saturday, PPV, 9 PM EST/6 PM PST)
Everyone reading this know who is fighting, knows how old they are, and knows whether or not they care. That’s the bottom line. This Light Heavyweight rematch seventeen years in the making isn’t going to be the Fight of the Year. It’s probably not going to be the Fight of the Week. It doesn’t matter
Pick Lara: Erislandy Lara vs. Danny Perez (Friday, Showtime, 11:00 PM EST/PST)
It’s not often that a single fighter gets a pick to himself. Who knows? He could even lose. It’s doubtful. One of the games genuine rising stars, Cuba’s Lara (10-0, 6 KO) makes his first start since stopping Contender Season Two winner Grady Brewer in January. His foe, former Welterweight title challenger Danny Perez (34-6, 17 KO), has won three of four since returning from a multi-year layoff in 2008. The lone loss came last June and by wide margins. Perez is probably there to make Lara look good and that ain’t hard to do. The Cuban has faced only one fighter with a losing record to date, that in his second paid outing, and might be good enough to beat any of the reigning titlists at 154 lbs. right now. He’s a bandwagon worth jumping on early. As a bonus, this edition of ShoBox starts after a pretty solid week of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights where, on the undercard, a possible (likely?) future rival for Lara will be in action as 2008 U.S. Olympian Demetrius Andrade (9-0, 7 KO) makes his second start of 2010. The ESPN main event over Andrade ain’t bad either: Welterweight Delvin Rodriguez (24-4-2, 14 KO) versus Mike Arnaoutis (22-4-2, 10 KO). It’s a solid Friday.
Pick If Found: #3 David Haye vs. #9 John Ruiz (Saturday, ?)
Initially thought was that it would to be part of the Hopkins-Jones broadcast, either as part of the pay show or part of the preview hour. As of now, it’s unsure if or where this will have direct availability to U.S. fans, leaving YouTube Sunday as a probable option. It’s too bad because this is the most meaningful fight of the week. There is no denying WBA Heavyweight titlist and former Cruiserweight king Haye (23-1, 21 KO) is a star overseas and has the makings of a global commodity. What he doesn’t have yet is a resume at Heavyweight that proves, conclusively, that he’s the threat to the Klitschko brothers he likes to say he is. He defends this weekend against the biggest spoiler of his generation, former WBA titlist John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 KO). Athletically, Haye should run this but Ruiz has played those odds before and won out. Does the Massachusetts native have one more left in him? Can the questionable chin of Haye stand up if Ruiz gets his right hand home? The difference between an interesting Heavyweight division and more of the same hangs in the balance.
Back in seven.
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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