You thought Timothy Bradley was brave to keep fighting last week with injured ankles and feet and whatnot? Look at these models. What troopers. Like boxing, there’s something a little bit sick and a little bit satisfying about watching that video. Anyway, let’s wash the bitter taste of last week out of our collective mouth with some entertaining boxing this week. Neither Tomasz Adamek nor Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. is at the pinnacle of their division (though I guess JCC Jr. is getting there), but I challenge you to find somebody who cares too much. Both guys promise us fun this weekend, so get into it.
- Tomasz Adamek vs. Eddie Chambers, Saturday, NBC Sports Net, Newark N.J. NBC Sports Net and Kathy Duva’s Main Event Promotions continue to show the big boys how to do more with less with this Saturday’s non-title heavyweight clash. Poland’s Adamek (45-2) is Duva’s cash cow, fighting fairly regularly in front of rabid crowds at the Prudential Center in Jersey. What makes this such a good match-up is the fact that he could easily lose to “Fast” Eddie Chambers (45-2), an equally undersized heavyweight from down the road in Philadelphia. Neither Adamek nor Chambers is a huge puncher, but both men are very good boxers who aren’t afraid to mix it up. That’s a nice recipe for a fun fight between (relatively) big boys. And despite having withdrawn from a recent string of fights with injuries, I see Chambers as a very live underdog. It’d be great to see the winner face Cris Arreola, though the talk has been that he’ll fight Wlad Klitschko. On the undercard American heavyweight prospect Bryant Jennings (13-0) faces Steve Collins (25-1-1), whose record appears to be spectacularly padded. Still, the originally unheralded Jennings is starting to gain some acclaim from those in the know and might even be America’s best heavyweight prospect.
- Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. vs. Andy Lee, Saturday, HBO, El Paso Texas. Boxing fans are virtually guaranteed a border brawl this Saturday when Mexican middleweight superstar Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. faces Irishman Andy Lee in El Paso. Love him or hate him, Chavez (45-0-1) is one of the most consistent action fighters in the sport these days. Put him in with a hard punching, accurate, lefty boxer like Lee (28-1) and you’re going to have a very entertaining game of cat and mouse 99 times out of 100. Again, this is a fight in which the underdog has a better than decent chance of snagging the upset. Still, I think Chavez takes this one. Sure, he has absolutely no defence to speak of. But you don’t really need that when you have a chin like his. Man, can that guy take a shot. Put that together with Lee’s 2008 technical knockout loss to Brian Vera, a much lesser pressure fighter than Chavez, and things don’t look that great for the Irishman. Still, Lee’s a bit better now than he was then. If Chavez, who got done for drunk driving two weeks before his last fight, has been lax at all in his preparation then Lee could be the man to take advantage.
- The Rest. HBO will replay the controversial Manny Pacquiao/Timothy Bradley fight in full on Saturday night, just in case you felt the need to re-score it, re-watch it or re-throw-up-on-your-keyboard. Or just watch it for the first time if you didn’t get the pay-per-view. (SPOILER ALERT: Bradley won, it was controversial)… The second episode of “The Fight Game with Jim Lampley” will also air. Hopefully the show will find its feet with plenty of Pacquiao/Bradley controversy to discuss… Friday night brings a rather nondescript show on Telemundo, with David Quijano (14-2-1) facing Juanito Rubillar (48-18-7) in a junior bantamweight contest in Kissimmee, Fla… The same night France’s Anne Sophie Mathis (26-1) returns to Albuquerque, New Mexico to offer Holly Holm (30-2-3) a rather unnecessary rematch after brutally stopping her in December, despite the referee’s best efforts attempts to save “The Preacher’s Daughter.” Watch it on YouTube if you have a strong stomach and you don’t believe me… On Saturday night British junior featherweights Scott Quigg (24-0) and Rendall Munroe (24-2) face off for an interim strap at the velodrome in Manchester. Should be more interesting than watching guys on pushbikes ride around in circles. Our Andrew Harrison will cover… Saturday night also brings junior welterweight Carlos Molina (16-0-1) to our screens on TeleFutura. There are way too many Carlos Molinas in boxing, it’s just confusing. This one is facing Marcos Jimenez (18-3), who got stopped last time out by Diego Magdaleno. [UPDATE, from the editor: Showtime’s “All Access: Victor Ortiz” debuts Wednesday night in advance of his June 13 welterweight showdown with Josesito Lopez.]
