There’s a cheeky weekend of boxing coming up. Not only is Victor “Facelube” Ortiz (pictured, weird) taking on Andre Berto in an extremely washed rematch, the Dirrell brothers are in action and Badou Jack is taking on Lucian Bute. Let’s get to the preview.
- Anthony Dirrell vs Caleb Truax, Friday, Spike, Atlantic City. It’s a super middleweight festival, with Anthony Dirrell taking on fringe contender and Twitter superstar Caleb Truax, while his brother Andre fights Australia’s Blake Caparello. Neither opponent figures to be overly challenging. Anthony’s fight might be the more interesting, since he’s less of a boxer and Truax is likely to oblige him if he chooses to stand and trade. That scenario won’t work out well for Truax, though, given that Anthony is more technical, faster and harder hitting. For his part Caparello, who was severely overmatched against Sergey Kovalev, is an awkward southpaw, which mightn’t be the greatest combination with Andre, a pure boxer. In fact, it’ll probably be ugly.
- Badou Jack vs Lucian Bute, Saturday, Showtime, Washington D.C. James DeGale vs. Rogelio “Porky” Medina. The super middleweight merry-go-round continues on Saturday, with Bute, who lost to James DeGale last time out, facing Jack, who beat Anthony Dirrell, while DeGale fights Rogelio Medina, who lost to Jack a few fights back. Jack, riding high after beating George Groves and Dirrell, has really matured as a fighter. He’s not overly complicated, but his decent power, straight punches and stick-to-itiveness should be enough to beat Bute, who’s both slightly faded and not the monster many thought he was when he was destroying fringe contenders in Montreal. Good on him for taking this fight, though. The DeGale/Medina fight is also a somewhat interesting one. DeGale has pedigree, but Medina has come up the hard way. He’s a hard-nosed pug who won’t take no for an answer. I doubt he has much of a chance against DeGale, but he’ll be all over him for as long as it lasts.
- Victor Ortiz vs Andre Berto, Saturday, Fox, Carson Calif. What can you say about this one? It’s a washed blockbuster. Ortiz and Berto, welterweights, fought in 2011 and it was wild. Since then they’ve both taken a series of savage Ls and are generally considered to be finished as serious contenders. Can they find the magic that made their first fight so good? I want to believe, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Ortiz has been concentrating on other pursuits (Facelube, acting) and his heart hasn’t been in boxing at the best of times. I’m tipping another meltdown.
- Pedro Campa vs Jose Alfaro, Saturday, beIN Sports Español, Guaymas Mexico. Prospect Campa fights journeyman Alfaro in a clubby sorta fight that probably wouldn’t be on TV if it weren’t for beIN Sports (bless ’em).
