Like poor old Jilted John, boxing fans don’t have much to do this week. Come to think of it, being a committed follower of the sweet science is a bit like having a girlfriend. Both tend to take up your Friday and Saturday nights. When they’re there, you think about how much free time you’d have if they weren’t around, but once they’re gone you don’t know how to fill the hours. Oh well, what are you going to do? “Cry all the way to the chip shop?”
It’s not that there’s nothing on this week, there’s just not very much. Russian junior welterweight fun machine Ruslan Provodnikov is fighting on ESPN, along with Korean fun machine Ji-Hoon Kim. Big night for fun machines. BJ Flores and Cory Spinks are bothing fighting in a mosque in Missouri and Brian Minto is fighting on gofightlive.tv. So in this stretched and twisted boxing/relationship analogy, it’s not a week for deep and meaningful conversations, but rather shallow and meaningless fun. That’d probably be the best prescription for Jilted John as well.
- Ruslan Provodnikov vs. David Torres, Friday, ESPN2, Airway Heights Washington. After a loss to Mauricio Herrera and what was generally reported as a gift victory over DeMarcus Corley in Russia, most of us have got used to the idea that junior welterweight Provodnikov will never be anything better than a Friday Night Fights level fighter. That’s cool, I’ll still tune in to watch you, Ruslan! Probably for the same reasons that you’ll never get to that next level; you have no defence to speak of but you always come to throw down. David Torres (21-2-2) has only won one of his last five fights, so you’d have to suspect that this is being set up as a heroic return for Provodnikov (20-1), who was originally meant to be facing Joel Diaz. On the undercard, Korean lightweight puncher Ji-Hoon Kim (22-7) is fighting Ghana’s Yakubu Amidu (20-2-1). Amidu is a lengthy, awkward boxer puncher whose main claim to fame is being managed by Vince Vaughn. He might be able to outbox Kim, but carries his hands very low. Kind of a dumb thing to do around a guy with Kim’s kind of power. Might be a firefight.
- The Rest. Thanks to alphabet sanctioning body craziness, former lineal welterweight champ Cory Spinks (38-6) fights Sechew Powell (26-3) at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, Mo. for a shot at Cornelius Bundrage’s junior middleweight belt on Saturday. Powell just got KOd by Bundrage so that makes sense, right? Cruiserweight pretty boy B.J. Flores (26-1-1) is on the undercard, fighting a typical B.J. Flores opponent in the form of Hugo Pineda (39-5-1), who last fought in 2008… Cruiserweight brawler turned small heavyweight brawler Brian Minto (35-4) faces Tony Grano (35-4) on Saturday night. It could be a nice little scrap and can be caught on gofightlive.tv… Erik Morales protege Jackie Nava (25-4-3) fights Chanttall Martinez (15-4) in Tijuana on Saturday… Possibly less of a female role model, Snooki of “Jersey Shore” fame is involved with a boxing promotion firm, Team Snooki Boxing, which is doing its first ever show at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City on Saturday. The pay-per-view is only ten bucks, and you can watch it at behindthering.com. So there’s that… The second episode of HBO’s “On Freddie Roach” documentary series debuts on Friday night.
