BoxingScene.com's Television Picks of the Week
by Cliff Rold
If the word out of the Mayweather side is true, Manny Pacquiao is about to have a lot more to worry about than the scoring debate after his third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. All indications have been Floyd Mayweather kept his dance card clear for THE showdown. Allegedly, Team Pacquiao isn’t interested?
After years of screaming about Mayweather ducking them?
This could get interesting. For now, we have a famous fighter’s kid selling tickets and waiting for the inevitable (not that it’s coming this week).
These are the picks of the week.
Pick It: #10 Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Peter Manfredo (Saturday, HBO, 10:30 PM EST/PST)
Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KO) puts his WBC Middleweight belt on the line against a veteran who has seen better days and may never get a better chance. Manfredo (37-6, 20 KO) was the first runner-up on “The Contender” and he’s never been more than that. Chavez might be the chance to change that. This is a fun match and could sneak up in the way Chavez-Sebastian Zbik did. The kid is big for the weight and has porous defense. Manfredo can still string shots together. If Chavez doesn’t whack him out of there, and he has yet to show serious power above the county fair circuit, this could be scoring nightmare. If not, this show will still also have the Pacquiao-Marquez rubber match replay. If it’s done Mayweather-Ortiz style, as an extra episode of 24/7, it will be a must-see experience. Plus, scoring it again will raise new aggravation, or validation, to the surface depending on where one sits.
Pick Rematch: Cosme Rivera vs. Antonio Pitalua (Friday, Telemundo, 11:35 PM EST/PST)
A pair of veteran former title challengers, Rivera (33-14-3, 24 KO) and Pitalua (52-5-1, 46 KO) went to a split draw earlier this year and, with no one beating down their doors and a chance to move up the WBC Welterweight ratings, they’ll do it again. In this corner, pairings like this always get a look. Old warhorses like these are why we never run out of boxing movies or out of nowhere wars. The first time, they both had their moments and moved leather. There is no reason to expect less this time.
For the interested, Joan Guzman will be on ESPN Deportes this weekend. Guzman isn’t interesting here so no pick.
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
