by David P. Greisman
This coming weekend brings the first major boxing matches of the month in the United States. This coming weekend is the final weekend of the month. It will be four weeks since HBO aired Sergey Kovalev’s rematch victory over Jean Pascal. We won’t have any such drought over an extended stretch from here on out.
Between now and the May 7 pay-per-view featuring middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan, only two weekends (March 19-20 and April 30-May 1) presently lack a major American boxing broadcast. And April 30 has been listed as a potential date for a possible fight between 168-pound titleholder Badou Jack and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
What that means is a packed slate — major fights on nine of the next 11 weekends, with big bouts for three straight weeks, then one weekend off, then five straight weeks, then one weekend off, and then Canelo vs. Khan.
This packed slate is a mixed bag, though. As with Kovalev-Pascal 2, many of these fights have clear favorites and decidedly overmatched underdogs. As has become the norm in this sport, several of these broadcast main events are essentially meant to kill time, keeping fighters busy and in the spotlight while setting up more competitive and more lucrative clashes later in the year.
They’re not truly meant to kill time, of course. That’s because promoters and networks are in the business of making fighters, not necessarily first and foremost in the business of making great fights. And we as boxing fans enable them, with many of us tuning in or buying tickets because we want to see a certain fighter win, while others among us just want to see the sport we love even if there isn’t anyone whom we love performing that night.
And so this weekend on HBO, the network will present two fighters it is trying to build up or build around. Terence Crawford will defend his 140-pound title against Hank Lundy, who’s been fun to watch at times but has come up short against top- and second-tier opponents at lightweight and junior welterweight. On the undercard, 135-pound contender Felix Verdejo faces William Silva, who’s also unbeaten but is taking a big step up in class.
The main event on Showtime isn’t much better. Leo Santa Cruz, coming off a big win over Abner Mares, will defend his featherweight title against Kiko Martinez, a former 122-pound titleholder who lost a unanimous decision and his belt to Carl Frampton in 2014 and then was put away in four minutes by Scott Quigg last July. The thought is that Martinez will make for a fun fight while it lasts. The questions are how much he can actually do and how long he can actually last.
Thankfully the network also is airing two very good fights. On the undercard is a rematch between 122-pound titleholder Julio Ceja and Hugo Ruiz, who had an enjoyable battle on the undercard of Santa Cruz-Mares and hopefully will be providing the same underneath Santa Cruz-Martinez. Also on the airwaves will be the long-awaited clash between the aforementioned Frampton and Quigg in what will be a great atmosphere in Manchester, England, and will carry great significance in the junior featherweight division and in the sport in general.
(The fourth fight between cruiserweights Marco Huck and Ola Afolabi also is scheduled for this Saturday in Germany, for those who like to look for international streams.)
On March 5, HBO will keep heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz busy against Tony Thompson after it and Ortiz’s promoter were unable to secure another top big man. But given how impressive Ortiz looked in dispatching Bryant Jennings late last year, HBO is spotlighting him and building up, perhaps, to a clash down the line against the winner of the Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko rematch, or at least attempting to make him into a heavyweight star.
The undercard features contenders Sadam Ali and Jessie Vargas in a competitive bout for a vacant welterweight title. And on Showtime that same night, junior middleweight contender Julian Williams will be featured against Marcello Matano, while the undercard has once-beaten middleweight Tony Harrison against Fernando Guerrero, plus middleweight prospect Antoine Douglas against a replacement opponent for the injured Sam Soliman.
March 12 will have a combined broadcast on both CBS and Showtime, with the latter airing a potentially fantastic main event between welterweight titleholder Keith Thurman and former titleholder Shawn Porter. The undercard is expected to feature what could be a truly enjoyable crossroads bout between light heavyweights Edwin Rodriguez and Thomas Williams Jr. Numerous articles have listed it as part of the show, though no official announcement has gone out.
And before the Showtime broadcast will be Abner Mares trying to rebuild and doing so against former 115- and 118-pound titleholder Fernando Montiel, who is one more loss away from retiring.
March 26 will have Andre Ward’s first fight as a full-fledged light heavyweight — since his amateur days, that is — against contender Sullivan Barrera. Ward is expected to face Kovalev before the year is out; the build toward that begins with Barrera, who is coming off a stoppage of Karo Murat but has never faced anyone on Ward’s level, or at least the level that Ward was at before his inactivity and injury. The undercard has a fight between featherweight contenders Joseph Diaz and Jayson Velez.
There’s no big show on Saturday, April 2, but the night before will have a Friday card on Spike TV with 140-pound titleholder Adrien Broner against Ashley Theophane. This fight was panned from the moment Broner called out Theophane after his October victory over Khabib Allakhverdiev. For the past months, some (including this writer) had question whether the bout could even happen as a title fight given that Theophane wasn’t ranked in the Top 15 of the World Boxing Association, whose belt Broner holds.
Not surprisingly, somehow the WBA has just now — as of the ratings for January published on Feb. 15 — installed Theophane at No. 15. This sport rarely ceases to amaze.
April 9 is the first major pay-per-view of the year, with the third fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley. Although Bradley is coming off a win over Brandon Rios and now is entering his second fight with new trainer Teddy Atlas, this bout has been met with indifference. That’s because Pacquiao appeared to beat Bradley clearly in their first fight, although Bradley got the highly controversial decision, and then Pacquiao won the rematch by decision in 2014. It may be Pacquiao’s final fight. Bradley needs a good win. Some storylines are there. Yet there was no great demand for a third installment, never mind one that will cost a sizable sum.
The undercard will have 168-pound titleholder Arthur Abraham against contender Gilberto Ramirez, and rising featherweight Oscar Valdez against fading former titleholder Evgeny Gradovich.
On the same day in London, newly installed heavyweight titleholder Charles Martin will face hyped prospect Anthony Joshua. We should expect (and want) Martin vs. Joshua to be picked up by an American network.
April 16 is expected to bring an interesting doubleheader on NBC between Errol Spence, who is the cream of America’s 2012 Olympic boxing team and a rising contender at welterweight. He faces Chris Algieri, who is trying to improve his skillset since losing to Pacquiao and Amir Khan. The undercard would probably have Krzysztof Glowacki, who came from off the canvas to stop Marco Huck last year, defending his cruiserweight title against Steve Cunningham, who would be returning from heavyweight to the division where he was previously a titleholder.
April 23 is another showcase on HBO for Gennady Golovkin, who once again is waiting for the lineal middleweight champion (previous Miguel Cotto, now Alvarez) to face a fighter otherwise seen as the best at 160. Golovkin, who has titles of his own, will defend against Dominic Wade, who is undefeated but is probably going to be in over his head. Wade is a replacement for Tureano Johnson, who was Golovkin’s mandatory challenger but is injured. Fans want to see Golovkin get in with the other best middleweights. They’ll have to keep waiting, though there’s a hope that Canelo will meet Golovkin later this year.
As became the norm last year, Golovkin’s undercard will feature the flyweight champ Roman Gonzalez, who tops many observers’ pound-for-pound lists. He will defend against McWilliams Arroyo, whose lone loss came against the extremely difficult boxer Amnat Ruenroeng in 2014.
And then May 7 brings Canelo vs. Khan, a match that was chosen because it is a circus that will sell pay-per-views.
Those are the major fights scheduled to be shown stateside over nine of the next 11 weekends. Many of us will watch it all, of course, no matter the quality. The rest of us will catch most of it.
There’s a lot to look for. Alas, only some of it is truly worth looking forward to.
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
