Keeping up with our recent theme of historical headpunching, here’s a picture of “two women boxing” from an unknown year. It’s from Flickr Commons, which, like I’ve previously said, is bloody addictive. This week there’s plenty of the regularkind of non-historical boxing on, with fights in Japan, North Dakota, New Jersey and Mexico. Globalisation is a hell of a thing. Let’s get into it.
- Sergey Kovalev vs. Cedric Agnew, Saturday, HBO, Atlantic City N.J. Poor old Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KO), his probable future dance partner Adonis Stevenson has gone to Showtime and the dark side, leaving him out in the cold. Instead of a huge fight with Stevenson, stuck fighting a guy called Cedric Agnew (26-0, 13 KO) that nobody has heard of. Tim Starks has the full preview through that previous link. Some are giving Agnew an outside chance, but not Tim (or me, for that matter). If the main event turns out to be a one-sided demolition, the junior welterweight undercard bout between Karim Mayfield (18-0-1, 11 KO) and Thomas Dulorme (20-1, 14 KO) may provide some satisfaction, albeit at a lower level. Dulorme was a highly fancied prospect until he got knocked down a peg by Luis Abregu in 2012 in a stoppage loss. The main problem in that fight was that Dulorme just couldn’t take Abregu’s shots, and he may have the same issue on Saturday, since Mayfield isn’t exactly the shy and retiring type. He will have seen what Abregu did and he’s going to be running to center ring and trying to ping right hands off Dulorme’s noggin all night. Afterward, 24/7 Pacquiao-Bradley 2 debuts.
- “Boxcino” lightweight tournament, Friday, ESPN2, New Town N.D. Wow, are we up to the second round of ESPN’s lightweight tournament already? The quarterfinals were great fun, and as a result we have two great match-ups on Friday. The tournament’s surprise packet, gangly Tennessean Chris Rudd (13-1, 8 KO) is in a tough match-up with likely tournament favourite Petr Petrov (33-4-2, 15 KO). Rudd’s activity might work in his favour, but Petrov is much more skilled than Yakubu Amidu, Rudd’s previous opponent. He’s going to pick off Rudd all night, putting hard punches between his spaghetti-armed shots. Add to that the fact that Rudd has never gone eight rounds before, and this one’s a pretty easy choice (even though I like Rudd and wish it wasn’t). The other fight pits Cleveland wannabe slickster Miguel Gonzalez (23-3, 16 KO) against Fernando Carcamo (16-5, 13 KO). It’s an intriguing match-up, since both guys can box a bit, yet neither is afraid to throw bombs. I’m going to pick Carcamo, who despite his one knockout loss somehow seems a little more sturdy, but not by much.
- Denkaosen Kaovichit vs. Kohei Kono, Wednesday, Tokyo. A rather nice clash between former world titlists in Tokyo, with Transnational Boxing Rankings Board #5 junior bantamweight Kohei Kono (29-8, 12 KO) taking on Thailand’s Denkaosan Kaovichit (62-3, 1). These are not the ultra-fast, ultra-skilled little men you might have seen on TV. Neither man has ever worried too much about getting punched in the face, which is generally a good recipe for an entertaining boxing match. Tune in if you can.
- The Rest. On Friday Telemundo have a card from Mexico City, with bantamweights Marvin Mabait (19-1-2, 13 KO) and Alejandro Hernandez (26-10-2, 14 KO) headlining… The same night, on an Integrated Sports pay-per-view, Canadian welterweight prospect/fringe contender Antonin Decarie (29-2, 9 KO) fights Pablo Munguia (29-2, 9 KO) in Quebec… On UniMas on Saturday junior lightweight Alejandro Perez (19-3-1, 13 KO) stays busy against hard headed veteran Juan Carlos Martinez (19-14-1, 7 KO).
