BoxingScene.com's Television Picks of the Week
By Cliff Rold
Sometimes the hype machine is hard to take serious in boxing. Phrases like “back against the wall” or “decade in the making” might be true, but more often than not it’s carnival barking.
Step right this way. See the bearded lady in the tent.
This weekend, the bearded lady has real whiskers.
In Japan, Mexico’s Fernando Montiel gets a passport stamp and a chance to stamp a legacy in the lower weight classes. He enters under the perceptual dark cloud named “slipped.”
In Las Vegas, more than a decade has passed since first the names Mosley and Mayweather were linked as a superfight of the future. Will it all be worth the wait?
These are the picks of the week.
Pick It: #1 Shane Mosley-#3 Floyd Mayweather (Saturday, HBO PPV, 9 PM EST/6 PM PST)
Working off the assumption that even casual boxing fans are ready for this one, Mosley-Mayweather is almost here and as easy a top pick for a week as could be come up with. It’s got everything. Year’s long rivalry? Check. Some sparks of genuine animosity? Check. The winner exiting with the right to call themselves the real Welterweight champion of the world? Check again. When Floyd Mayweather briefly retired between 2008-09, he vacated the lineal Welterweight title without losing it in the ring. Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO) stepped up, knocking out Antonio Margarito to emerge as the man in class and promptly watched the rest of the Welterweights do everything they could to fight anyone but him for most of the last year and change. Mayweather was supposed to be fighting Pacquiao this spring; Mosley was supposed to be fighting Andre Berto. Mosley and Mayweather was a fight which should have happened years ago and whose time, it seemed, might never be at all. Then it’s time was right. Anyone who calls themselves a boxing fan and isn’t watching this on Saturday is lying.
Pick Replay: #1 Hozumi Hasegawa-#6 Fernando Montiel (Saturday/Sunday, Azteca America)
The fight is live Friday but a replay may be heading continental the day after. This could be on during the BIG fight; Mosley-Mayweather could just as easy be over before this one sees air in the States. Allegedly, it’s supposed to see air. If it does not, YouTube will come calling. Let’s hope for better. The temptation is there to say that all boxing fans must see this one too, but it might be a little too deep on the hardcore treasure menu for some. So be it; this could be a special fight and qualifies as a Superfight in Japan. It’s the first clash between reigning titlists at Bantamweight in decades and one of them, the WBC titlist Hasegawa (28-2, 12 KO), might be the best fighter from Japan since Jiro Watanabe. The man across the ring is no slouch and Saturday we’ll find out if indications of slippage have been only mirage. Holding a WBO title in his third weight class, Mexico’s Fernando Montiel (40-2-2, 30 KO) has the deeper resume; does he have the deeper reserves? This one is as worth getting excited about as any, yes any, fight in boxing.
Pick Friday Standards: ShoBox and Welcome Back Solo Boxeo
Along with the two main events of the week, Friday night welcomes back the latest edition of ShoBox on Showtime at 11 PM EST/PST and, in pleasant turn, the night will also welcome Telefutura back into the game. The home of some of the previous decades best off-Broadway shows, fights like Julio Gonzalez-Glen Johnson and Miguel Barrera-Roberto Leyva II, a new “Solo Boxeo” kicks off at 11:30 PM EST/PST with Jr. Lightweight titlist Robert Guerrero in the main event. It’s probably not the best pick though for the night as Showtime goes with Super Middleweight action between young undefeated talents Marcus Johnson (18-0, 14 KO) and Derek Edwards (25-0, 13 KO). Fox Sports and Telemundo will also have shows on the weekend.
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