By Cliff Rold

It used to be like this more often. 

The build.

It’s a Heavyweight Championship of the World week.

Sure, there have been fights among big boys in recent years.  None of it has been like this.  No matter how low it gets in terms of depth, or intriguing battles, Heavyweight is still where the literal king of this great sport resides.  Because the idea of brothers battling is just wrong, even in a sport without much ethical core too often, it can’t get any better than Saturday night.

Boxing has a Heavyweight champion and he, for one night, has a rival.

These are the picks of the week.

Pick It: World Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko vs. #2 David Haye (Saturday, HBO, 4:45 PM EST/1:45 PM PST)

And just when it seemed not to be able to get better, fans can have themselves a throwback day.  Fans in Europe have to stay up late.  Fans in the States get to go old school.  Fire up the grill, break out some suds and a Slip n’ Slide for the kids and have the night to bask in the glow, or bitch about the lack, of a Heavyweight title fight.  Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO) and Haye (25-1, 23 KO) have led careers that speak to two distinct possibilities. 

Knockout or be knocked out.

They’ll see who will do what in front of some 50,000 fans in Hamburg, Germany. 

Want more?  Go hit up YouTube and watch presser clips from Monday, from the announcement, from the cancelled fight in 2009, highlights of both men…soak it all in and let the goose bumps rise.  This is what it’s supposed to be like.

Pick Deuce: Mark Melligen vs. Sebastian Lujan (Friday, ESPN2, 11 PM EST/8 PM PST)
 
Need some help getting pumped for Saturday?  ESPN2 will function as a de facto pre-fight show.  That it comes with an almost certain action-packed main event is a cherry on the sundae. Melligen (21-2, 14 KO) has won five straight.  Lujan (37-5-2, 23 KO) has won eleven in a row since a decision drop to Jamie Moore in 2007.  Lujan is the same dude who once got his ear literally boxed off by Antonio Margarito.  Bombs away and, at night’s end, the edge of contention for one of the Jr. Middleweights.      

Pick Espanol: #2 Hernan Marquez vs. Edrin Dapudong (Saturday, Fox Deportes, 11 PM EST/PST)

With apologies for failing to update the Flyweight ratings appropriately to reflect the right Marquez (30-2, 23 KO) opponent, after the big boys are done, this fight merits eyes.  In fact, WBA 112 lb. titlist earned them.  His belt win over Luis Concepcion earlier this year remains a leader for Fight of the Year.  Dapudong (22-3, 13 KO) is a serious threat to topple him in his first defense and if this ends up the very best scrap, bell-to-bell, of the weekend it would be no shock.  Heavyweights own the attention this weekend but this Mexico-Philippines clash might steal our hearts.

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