By Cliff Rold
Zab Judah added to the depth at Jr. Welterweight. Denis Lebedev grew the depth of Cruiserweight. A trio of Middleweight-ish prospects took steps towards contention.
Oh, and the best Bantamweight and Jr. Welter battlers in the world showed off why they hold such esteem in style.
All in a week’s work.
Consider the coming weekend a bit of calm before a massive three week storm…and an appropriate prologue to boot.
These are the picks of the week.
Pick Prologue: #8 Vyecheslav Uzelkov vs. Beibut Shumenov (Friday, ESPN2, 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST)
Given how often they have three guys, in the same division, running around with ‘world’ title belts, the seriousness one should bestow on the WBA is nil. It is apropos then that similar seriousness should be given to their current Light Heavyweight beltholder. Anyone who saw Beibut Shumenov (9-1, 6 KO) ‘win’ a decision against Gabriel Campillo earlier this year knows. They also know Shumenov is not incompetent, even comes to fight, and his chance to be taken serious begins Friday with a serious threat from an Uzelkov (22-0, 14 KO) who knocked Campillo cold in 2007. It’s also a chance to get ready for a spectacular slate at 175 in August with the winner of Uzelkov-Shumenov garnering the sort of exposure which can make them at least discussable in the futures of the winners of Tavoris Cloud-Glen Johnson and Chad Dawson-Jean Pascal.
Even if the fight stinks, any reason to discuss those other two is good enough.
Pick Scottish En Espanol: Craig McEwan-Danny Perez (Friday, Telefutura, 11:30 PM EST/PST)
Whether he become a champion one day or not, the Scottish-born McEwan (18-0, 10 KO) make for some decent scraps and, with a veteran in front of him this week, has a chance to show off whether he has contention in him. Perez (34-7, 17 KO) is well past his days on the fringes of the Welterweight top ten and has dropped two straight…but both of those were to younger men and went the route. He goes rounds, and rounds are a requirement in the learning process. Seeing what lessons McEwan’s picks up could be time well spent even if only on the Saturday morning TIVO run.
Pick If Found: #8 Danny Green vs. Paul Briggs (Wednesday, ?)
While not slated for U.S. TV, if this one ends up on YouTube, however long it lasts, watch it. Briggs (26-3, 18 KO) hasn’t fought since 2007 while Green (29-3, 26 KO) is 4-0 since a 2009 comeback started off (and has picked up even the scalp of an aged Roy Jones). However, the last two times Briggs rolled out, he lost a bruising Fight of the Year candidate to Tomasz Adamek before a win on the way to time off. He’s got a fighters heart. So does Green, a come forward aggressor who will bring that heart out. This is a war waiting to happen if Briggs has anything in the tank and, two years younger than Green, he should. It could end up the best Cruiserweight fight of the year.
Back in seven.
For BoxingScene’s latest full divisional ratings, log on to: https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/view.php?pg=boxing-ratings
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
