Round And Round, Featuring What’s Next For Chad Dawson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., Tyson Fury And More

Fights in the works. Let’s do this.

Round And Round

Don’t get it twisted, I love ‘Merica as much as everyone else, especially with her birthday coming up. That Canadian flag is about what might happen with light heavyweight Chad Dawson next, after his fight with Jean Pascal in August. Dawson’s team wants a fight with super middleweight Lucian Bute, perhaps at a catchweight. Which sounds tremendous. We’re talking about two men with pound-for-pound props, especially Dawson, who’s in my top 5, with Bute being in some folks’ top 10. And Dawson beating Pascal would make him the true lineal light heavyweight champion of the world, making the bout between the two all the more appealing; Dawson would get a very worthy first defense, and if Bute won, he’d have some enticement to move up to light heavyweight, clearing the path for a lineal super middleweight champ to come out of the Super Six tournament on Showtime. Pascal’s team says of this: “Mais non.” They insist they’ll beat Dawson, of course, but just as importantly both sides have rematch clauses.

I honestly can’t figure out the junior middleweight fight between Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora on Sept. 18. It’s headed for pay-per-view, and HBO may not be supporting the Golden Boy Promotions card. I think it might sell some tickets in L.A. on Mexican Independence Day weekend, but is Mora all that popular with Mexican fans, and does he still have much appeal overall with The Contender tournament he won back on NBC five years ago? On television, it’ll be going up against the potential featherweight clash between Juan Manuel Lopez and Rafael Marquez on Showtime, the latter of whom I suspect is more popular with Mexican fans than Mora, plus there’s the Mexican-Puerto Rican rivalry at work there. Making matters worse for the televised competition is that Showtime might pick up Wladmir Klitschko defending his lineal heavyweight championship against Alexander Povetkin. The undercard would, maybe, pick up some slack, but not much. The talk is of Victor Ortiz-Vivian Harris at 140, which is a fight I like and was talked about for HBO last year and features the Mexican-American Ortiz, and maybe Mexican welterweight prospect Saul Alvarez taking on someone meaningful. I don’t think that overcomes Lopez-Marquez, though. GBP has to be hoping Lopez loses his fight next week with Bernabe Concepcion.

The Aug. 14 Fox Sports Net/Fox Sports en Espanol card has a nice look about it. The headlining bout would be exciting Ji Hoon Kim fighting for a vacant lightweight belt against Miguel Vazquez, who last year looked good upsetting Breidis Prescott. ESPN’s fight schedule lists Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia in a featherweight title eliminator against Cornelius Lock, who would be a good test for Garcia, although Zanfer Promotions’ news release doesn’t mention it. Either way, it’s a very compelling headlining card at worst.

Marco Antonio Barrera might challenge Humberto Soto for his lightweight belt Sept. 11 or Sept. 25, presumably on Top Rank pay–per-view, but there’s a fluid schedule for a couple dates in September. Top Rank has also talked about Yuriorkis Gamboa-Elio Rojas at featherweight for Sept. 11 on HBO, and it’s hard to imagine the company double-booking that date. Barrera-Soto might instead go up against a Showtime doubleheader Sept. 25 for its Super Six tournament, featuring Andre Ward-Andre Dirrell and Mikkel Kessler-Allan Green. That is, of course, if Ward-Dirrell’s site has been worked out by then, which it hasn’t yet.

Middleweight Sebastian Zbik would prefer to fight Sergio Martinez next, since Zbik is the interim titlist and Martinez — who’s also the lineal middleweight champ — holds the full belt of whatever alphabet gang Zbik is the interim in. Another option for Zbik would be Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., and Top Rank wants the fight for Chavez. No doubt because they could say he got a belt if he won, and Zbik, while no schlub, would offer a less imposing target than some others.

ShoBox is interested in airing the next fight of heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury, and that could be in August against Vinny Maddalone. I’m interested in watching it. Has “brawl” written all over it.

Next weekend, junior welterweight DeMarcus Corley will replace Tim Coleman on a card in my area, Washington, D.C., taking on Damian Fuller. Not sure if I’ll go.

(Round and Round sources: ESPN, news releases, Boxing Scene, Fightnews, FanHouse)

About Tim Starks

Tim is the founder of The Queensberry Rules and co-founder of The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (http://www.tbrb.org). He lives in Washington, D.C. He has written for the Guardian, Economist, New Republic, Chicago Tribune and more.

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