Well cut of my legs and call me shorty, is it time for the schedule again? This week’s video comes courtesy of Western Force rugby player Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins, who has some interesting things to say, doesn’t he? His fellow Aussies Daniel Geale and Garth Wood are fighting this week, and there are a few other titbits besides, so let’s get down to it.
- Daniel Geale vs. Garth Wood, Wednesday, Sydney. Geale (29-2, 15 KO) turned down a fight with Gennady Golovkin because it was going to be on a date that wasn’t available for Australian pay-per-view. It was a legitimate excuse, but Wood (12-3-1-, 8 KO) isn’t much of a Golovkin replacement. The mauling Sydneysider has local notoriety, though, thanks to his upset knockout win over Anthony Mundine in 2010. In the long term, it may only be notable for featuring some of the least convincing trash talk of all time.
- Boxcino lightweight tournament, Friday, ESPN2, Laughlin Nev. Cheers to ESPN for getting in on some boxing tournament action, despite the fact that Friday Night Fights often produces utter garbage (though to be fair, it also produces a lot of great fights). The first instalment of their Boxcino tournament gets straight to the quarterfinals, with eight lightweights doing battle. Some are familiar FNF faces, including Yakubu Amidu (21-4-2, 19 KO), who held Juan Carlos Burgos to a draw last year, and Miguel Gonzalez (22-3, 16 KO), who lost to Mike Dallas, Jr. in 2012. Others are unknown unknowns, like Ghana’s Samuel Kotey Neequaye (21-0, 15 KO). The tournament seems unlikely to face some of the issues that dogged Showtime’s Super Six, seeing as these fighters are on a different (read: lower) rung of boxing’s economic ladder and this represents a big opportunity. With this many six rounders and a lot of punchers in the mix, the tournament is guaranteed to be fun. I couldn’t pick the best fight of the bunch, but Kotey vs. Fernando Carcamo (15-5, 12 KO) will definitely test if Kotey’s record is artificially inflated, while Gonzalez against fellow Miguel, Mendoza (21-2-2, 21 KO) has the potential to be a war. The all Russian match-up between brawler Fedor Papazov (14-0, 9 KO) and boxer Petr Petrov (32-4-2, 15 KO) also has potential.
- Hank Lundy vs. Angelo Santana, Friday, Showtime, Cleveland. Hanky Lundy (23-3-1, 11 KO) would have graduated from ShoBox years ago if his ceiling was that high. Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for us) it isn’t, so here he is again, fighting Cuba’s Angelo Santana (14-1, 11 KO). I think this’ll be a good night for Lundy, though, seeing how he beat Olusegen Ajose, who’s a lot like what a better version of Santana would look like. The Cuban southpaw is just a bit too slow and predictable, and Lundy’s dynamism should win the day.
- Miguel Vazquez vs. Denis Shafikov, Saturday, HBO2, Macau. Technically the main event for this one is flyweight Zou Shiming against Thailand’s Yokthong Kokietgym, but it’s a bit hard to get worked up for that, despite Shiming’s enjoyable performance last time out. Come to think of it, it might be even harder to get excited for a Miguel Vazquez (33-3, 13 KO) fight. The lightweight Mexican spoiler is taking on Russia’s Denis Shafikov (33-0-1, 18 KO) in what figures to be one of the more difficult fights of his career. Shafikov is a little pitbull, but is he prepared for Vazquez’s mauling? I hope so, because then I’d likely never have to watch “El Titere” again.
- The Rest. Lots of fights in dear old England on Saturday, with lightweight Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell headlining one card in Hull and awesomely named cruiserweight Tony Conquest (12-1, 5 KO) headlining the other in London, against Australia’s Daniel Amman (29-5-1, 6 KO)… There’s a club show that’s available online at iron-boy.com on Saturday from Phoenix with heavyweight Sergei Liakhovich and middleweight Joachim Alcine the most noteworthy names… Panamanian flyweight and Transnational Boxing Rankings Board #10 in the division, Luis Concepcion (30-3, 22 KO) fights Mexico’s Carlos Fontes (17-1, 14 KO) in Panama City on Thursday.
