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Mike Tyson sure roasted Jeffrey Ross a lot harder than he did Charlie Sheen. It’s that kind of week. There are a whole lot of good boxers fighting guys that aren’t the level of guys that they should be fighting. Let’s just hope they land as many hard blows as Iron Mike and keep us all amused. There’s also the replay of Mayweather-Ortiz on HBO on Saturday, in case you’ve been on a business trip to Outer Mongolia for the last week and have no idea what happened — although in all likelihood, Outer Mongolian horsemen were probably making small talk to you about it next to their yurts.
- Vicente Escobedo vs. Rocky Juarez, Friday, TeleFutura, Indio Calif. One of the more interesting scraps of the week is at lightweight, between perpetual fall shorter (or short faller?) Juarez (28-8-1) and veteran Escobedo (23-3). Escobedo is merely inconsistent, managing to survive to the bell in losses against elite foes Michael Katsidis and Roberto Guerrero, but losing to this month’s Eloy Peroz KO victim, Daniel Jiminez. Juarez just consistently sucks these days, going 3-7-1 in his last 11 fights. This loser of this fight can truly be scratched off even the fringe contender list. Juarez is the more powerful puncher, but Escobedo has more left. Expect Juarez to snatch defeat from the jaws of probable defeat.
- Jorge Arce vs. Simphiwe Nongqayi, Saturday, Fox Sports Net/Fox Deportes, Mexicali Mexico. It’s rematch time on Saturday, with Jorge Arce (57-6-2) taking on his most recent conqueror, South Africa’s Simphiew Nongqayi (16-1-1). Arce didn’t just get beaten by Nongqayi, he got embarrassingly schooled in front of a Mexican crowd on Mexican Independence Day weekend in 2009. Still, Arce showed that there’s life in the old dog yet by beating Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. earlier in the year, while Nongqayi hasn’t exactly parlayed the win into a brilliant career, going 0-1-1 in two fights since. Even though Nongqayi can somehow avoid putting a U after the Q in his name, I don’t expect him to beat Arce again.
- Marcos Maidana vs. Peter Petrov, Friday, Buenos Aires Argentina. A rather underwhelming substitute for Robert Guerrero, Russia’s Petrov (29-2-2) shouldn’t do much to bother Maidana (30-2). Still, Maidana seems to fight to the level of his opponents. He’s always a caveman, but sometimes he lacks the will to focus his destructive Fred Flintstone fists. See: Erik Morales, DeMarcus Corley. He’s also reportedly had a little trouble making the 140-pound weight limit for some fights. Hopefully he gets it together and wants to put on a good show in front of his home town crowd, though.
- Floyd Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz replay, Saturday, HBO. There is nothing new to say about this matter. I, for one, will not be staying in my yurt to watch this. Still, it might be worth coming home early from hitting on throat singing girls to watch the first ever post-fight 24/7, which debuts after the replay. I’m not sure you’ll gain to much, apart from Floyd saying “that’s all she wrote” a couple of times and Ortiz being goofy, but it could be interesting.
- The Rest. The Ring’s number one-rated junior flyweight contender, Adrian Hernandez (21-1-1), takes a more easily pronounceable South African challenger in the form of Gideon Buthelzi (12-2), Friday… Middleweight upset artist Dmitry Pirog (18-0) fights a Gennady that isn’t a Golovkin and a Martirosyan that isn’t a Vanes in Gennady Martirosyan (22-2) in Russia on Sunday. Not that bad a fight, but way to spin your wheels, bro… Alexander Dimitrenko (31-1) does his tall heavyweight thing against one time Audley Harrison conqueror Michael Sprott (36-16). This is not a good fight. Sprott has not won anything scheduled for more than six rounds since 2007… AT&T U-Verse has a card Saturday.
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