Your humble correspondent is in Vietnam, a country better known for its crazy scooter-riding than its boxing. The Vietnamese’s sole claim to pugilistic fame is tough-as-nails featherweight Dat Nguyen. Being called Dat Nguyen in Vietnam is a bit like being called John Smith in America, but it lends itself to many more jokes along the lines of “Dat Guy.” I could go on with these potentially racially insensitive puns for quite a while, though, so why don’t we just get to the schedule?
- Paulie Malignaggi vs. Zab Judah, Saturday, Showtime, Brooklyn. The mighty Sam Sheppard is going to have a full preview of this welterweight fight for you, so as usual I’ll limit myself to some rough observations and the undercard. Judah (42-8, 29 KO) and Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KO) are Brooklyn’s current biggest boxing stars and contrasting studies in late-career revivals. Malignaggi is a fighter who traded off his legs, toughness and mouth (of which only his toughness and mouth remain), while Judah is a faded southpaw speedster with power. Judah won’t be discouraged by anything Malignaggi throws, so I’ve gotta back him. The undercard is rather stacked, with moustachioed welterweight grunter Devon Alexander (25-1, 14 KO) fighting recently graduated prospect Shawn Porter (22-0-1, 14 KO). I like Porter, but he doesn’t really have an identity as a fighter (Is he a counterpuncher? A seek and destroy type? A boxer?). That’s fine against the Phil Lo Grecos and Alfonso Gomezes of the world, but Alexander seems to mostly find a way to win, no matter how ugly. And that’s what I think will happen here. After some early feeling out rounds, Alexander is going to pick his spots and eke out a wide-ish, boring decision with a fair few close rounds. Before that there’s junior middleweights Erislandy Lara (18-1-2, 12 KO) and Austin Trout (26-1, 14 KO) doing their thing in a fight that’s also unlikely to be a barnburner. In a clash of southpaws, I have to lean towards Lara — a rather typical Cuban stick-and-mover with breathtaking footwork. I don’t think Trout, more of a wacky puncher/boxer, will be able to overwhelm Lara. The dynamic will be quality vs. quantity, and I think the Cuban’s pinpoint left hand will be the difference. And in the opening television bout, frustratingly slowly moved super middleweight prospect Anthony Dirrell (26-0, 22 KO) finally takes a big step up, against the “rugged” Sakio Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO). We’re going to find out a lot about Dirrell in this fight. If he has any of the psychological weaknesses of his brother Andre, Bika is going to expose them. Dirrell ain’t going to knock out the Cameroonian hardcase, so he’s going to need to win in the trenches or box smartly or some mix of the two. I have absolutely no idea who takes it. There’ll also be the premiere of the info-mentary/docu-mercial series All Access: Broner vs. Maidana, for Adrien Broner and Marcos Maidana’s welterweight fight on the 14th. You can’t deny Broner is a “character” and Maidana is a stone cold killer, which has its own appeal, so the show could be good. That’ll be the launch of a week of promotional activities for the fight, including a whole lot of their classic fights being broadcast on Sho Extreme throughout the week.
- Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Joseph Agbeko, Saturday, HBO, Atlantic City. It’s a big week of boxing on the east coast and the man, the legend, the beard, the one and only Patrick Connor will be doing the in depth preview of this junior featherweight clash. I don’t think it’s a particularly hard one to pick, despite his reluctance to engage in anything that resembles an actual fight, Cuba’s Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO) is perhaps the most skilled boxer in the sport today. He’s going to run rings (perhaps literally) around Ghana’s Agbeko (29-4, 22 KO). The African is nothing if not game, so his response to the shocking speed, skill and power differential will decide what the fight look like. If he bites down and has even a bit of success mugging Rigondeaux, then it’s going to be a boring fight with the Cuban on his bicycle. If he looks hapless, then Rigondeaux will go into hunter-killer mode and stop him in the mid rounds with a spectacular body shot. Junior middleweight crazy person James Kirkland (31-1, 27 KO) is back on the undercard, and it’s not against some soft touch. His opponent Glen Tapia (20-0, 12 KO) is a somewhat fancied prospect with decent power. And let’s face it, you don’t even need decent power to put Kirkland on the floor. The Texan is back with his on-again off-again trainer and “baddest bitch on the planet” Ann Wolfe, which is a tick for him. He’s been out of the ring a long time, though and he didn’t exactly look like a world beater against Carlos Molina and Alfredo Angulo (as fun as the latter fight was). As always with Kirkland, you can count on it to be a good show as long as it lasts. The final undercard bout pits wannabe Irish Birmingham middleweight Matthew Macklin (29-5, 20 KO) against Lamar Russ (14-0, 7 KO). Russ is a virtually unknown prospect who stepped up from club fight level to face the Englishman after Willy Nelson withdrew injured. Don’t expect much apart from a Macklin showcase.
- Darren Barker vs. Felix Sturm, Saturday, Stuttgart. This clash of top ten middleweights will be interesting. Barker (26-1, 16 KO) has never looked like all that and a bag of chips to me, but he’s turned in several creditable performances, most recently a defeat of Daniel Geale. Now he faces divisional stalwart Sturm (38-3-2, 17 KO), who was himself defeated by Geale last year. Sturm, who was beaten by both Geale and Sam Soliman before the latter fight’s result was overturned thanks to Soliman’s positive drug test, is clearly on a bit of a slide. His high-handed defence isn’t what it once was, nor are his legs. He’s still a tough style match up, though. Barker, who has at times looked anaemic, proved in the fight with Geale that he’s got a bigger engine than anyone suspected. That gives him an edge over Sturm and I think he’ll scrape by in this one, with the German’s face looking much worse than the scorecards at the final bell.
- Ryoto Murata vs. Dave Peterson, Saturday, Tokyo. Ok, forget the main event on this card (though the Olympic gold medallist Murata’s second fight will no doubt be an impressive showcase). The main action is on the undercard, with Transnational Boxing Rankings Board flyweight champion Akira Yaegeshi (18-3, 9 KO) taking on the #3 contender, Edgar Sosa (49-7, 29 KO). It’s going to be a barnburner because, well, every Yaegeshi fight is. If Sosa is to win, I think he’ll need to concentrate on quality counter shots and not get dragged into a rock-em-sock-em brawl. But I don’t think anyone will mind if that’s what happens.
- Krzysztof Wlodarczyk vs. Giacobbe Fragomeni, Friday, ESPN3, Chicago. Chicago loves its Eastern Euros, which is why they’ve got a two showcase bouts for Polish fighters at the UIC Pavilion on Friday. The headline bout is a third rematch between Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (48-2-1, 34 KO) and Italy’s Giacobbe Fragomeni (31-3-2, 12 KO). They drew in their first meeting, all the way back in 2009 and Wlodarczyk won the next one by TKO. Don’t expect a different result this time, the Pole’s career has been on the up, while the Italian has stagnated. The other Pole is Windy City resident and light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara (24-2, 14 KO), who takes a break from a run of good fights to take on Colombia’s Samuel Miller (26-7, 23 KO). It’s possible that Miller will check Fonfara’s chin, but I wouldn’t bet on it (and I’d bet on two fleas).
- J’Leon Love vs. Lajuan Simon, Friday, Showtime, Shelton Wash. ShoBox returns on Friday with four fight card that features two boxers who’ve been busted for performance enhancing drug use. Woo – who’s pumped for that? Anybody? The headline bout has J’Leon Love (15-0, 8 KO), who controversially beat Gabe Rosado in May before the result was overturned due to the aforementioned positive test for a diuretic. Love is moving up to super middleweight to fight Lajuan Simon (23-4-2, 12 KO) who was last seen getting K’ed-the-F-O by Gennady Golovkin in 2011 and hasn’t fought since. Personally I’d prefer if this fight (indeed, this whole card) J’ust disappeared. Lightweight Mickey Bey (18-1-1, 9 KO) is the other PED user in action, and he’s fighting Carlos Cardenas (20-6-1, 13 KO) after a pair of losses. No-one is Bey-ing to see him fight again (look, I know that was bad but you have to make your own fun with cards like this). The other two fights are less icky and pit super middleweight Badou Jack (15-0-1, 10 KO) against Rogelio Medina (31-4, 25 KO) and middleweight Chris Pearson (9-0, 8 KO) against Acacio Ferreira (14-0-1, 12 KO).
- The Rest. In chronological order; Wednesday you can pay for some of Lou DiBella’s club fights from New York on gofightlive.tv, headlined by junior middleweights Boyd Melson (12-1-1, 4 KO) and Gundrick King (18-10, 11 KO)… Friday brings fights from Perth Australia (nothing happens in Perth Scotland, I’m reliably informed). If you count long-time featherweight contender Chris John (48-0-3, 22 KO) fighting a more or less unknown South African called Simpiwe Vetyeka (25-2, 15 KO) as something happening, then Perth is going to be going off… And Saturday on UniMas featherweights Daniel Diaz (20-5-1, 14 KO) and Robert Marroquin (23-3, 16 KO) do a rematch of their June fight, which Diaz won.
