A nice, solid week of head punching this week. It’s no quite a smorgasbord, but there’s a nice HBO split-site doubleheader and a few other interesting tidbits. Saturday’s big show is coming from both Mexico City and Cincinnati and features Saul “El Canelo” Alvarez and Adrien Broner against solid but less than stellar opposition. Apart from that, we have the Selcuk Aydin vs. Jo Jo Dan rematch which TQBR mistakenly had on the schedule last week, another Jorge Arce rematch, a battle of Italian cruiserweights and shows from Scotland and South Africa. Let’s get to it.
As usual, the video has nothing to do with the schedule. Those Indian guys are better at taking punishment than either of last week’s stars, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. and Peter Manfredo, Jr., who are both pretty good at it themselves. The Indian guys have better facial hair, too.
- Saul Alvarez vs. Kermit Cintron and Adrien Broner vs. Vicente Rodriguez, Saturday, HBO, Mexico City and Cincinnati. A full preview of the biggest show in the week will be up later in the week. Briefly, neither Broner nor Alvarez is fighting the best available opponent, but the bouts nevertheless have some potential. Junior middleweight Alvarez (38-0-1) is already a superstar in Mexico, despite being only 21 and only just having reached contender status. The fact that he has a belt underlines the craziness of the sanctioning bodies and after this fight, it’ll be time to step up in competition, if it isn’t already. Cintron (33-4-1) hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in recent performances and seems to be on the slide. Still, some give him a chance at the upset. In Cincinnati, Lightweight Adrien Broner (21-0) faces Argentina’s Vicente Rodriguez (34-2-1). Rodriguez lost to previous Broner KO victim Willie Kickett and is mainly famous for having his own Evander Holyfield moment earlier in the year. On the untelevised undercard in Cincinnati, much fancied featherweight prospect Gary Russell Jr. (18-0) takes on late replacement Heriberto Ruiz (48-11-2) after declining to fight a living, HBO-approved opponent. Also fighting is heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (19-0), the only American to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics. He’s up against local guy David Long (11-1) who hasn’t really fought much of anyone, but then again, neither has Wilder.
- Jorge Arce vs. Angky Angkotta II, Saturday, Fox Deportes, Mazatlan Mexico. Mini-Mexican action hero Jorge Arce drops down to bantamweight to fight Indonesia’s Angky Angkotta, who he already easily beat, for a vacant belt. Yay, sanctioning bodies. No more mentioning of them, it’s just tiresome. Arce (58-6-2) seems to be out of the Nonito Donaire sweepstakes, so he’s gone back down to bantamweight for an easy fight in his Sinaloa hometown. Not that “El Travieso” ever makes anything easy, but he was handily ahead when his last fight with Angkotta (25-5) was stopped on cuts in 2010. Probably more of the same, but fun nonetheless.
- Selcuk Aydin vs. Jo Jo Dan II, Saturday, Trabazon Turkey. As stated earlier, this wasn’t actually last week. Aydin and Dan put on a good scrap in June 2010, which Turkey’s Aydin lost by controversial hometown decision. There was really very little in it, with Aydin (22-0) applying constant pressure and Dan (29-1) backing up but countering well and landing harder. Not really sure how this one goes any differently but there have been a few recent instances of hometown rematches, like Celestino Caballero vs. Jonathan Victor Barros and Ulises Solis vs. Luis Lazarte, where the hometown judges have got things right the second time round. Since it’s an alphabet title eliminator, the fight might have interesting repercussions for the welterweight division, but it probably won’t. The alphabet gang have a way of not caring about their own rules when they involve fighters from Turkey and Romania who don’t make much money.
- The Rest. The second episode of 24/7 Cotto/Margarito airs before the HBO show on Saturday. Considering how good the first episode was and all the crazy drama that has lead to the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch finally getting the go ahead, I wouldn’t miss it…
Flash-looking South African super middleweight prospect Thomas Oosthuizen (16-0-1) takes on Mexico’s Francisco Sierra (24-1-1) in South Africa Wednesday. It’s a decent fight for Oosthuizen, coming off a victory over Aaron Pryor Jr. He could probably afford to step up, but it’s by no means terrible… Italian cruiserweights Giacobbe Fragomeni (29-3-1), ranked number eight by The Ring, and Silvio Branco (62-10-2) do battle Friday in Rome. Branco turned pro in 1988. Wow… Anthony Crolla (22-2) defends his British lightweight crown against veteran Willie Limond (34-3) in Scotland Friday… Former lightweight Humberto Soto (56-7-2) is now campaigning at junior welter, taking on Adailton de Jesus (29-6) in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico on Saturday.
