by Chris Milton
A happy new year to you all, welcome back to the weekly weigh inn. Normally around this time of year boxing fans are salivating at the thought of several big fights that are due in the coming months. This year we have barely anything to look forward to. Sure we have Bradley v Alexander and Montiel v Donaire, but what else is there?
The Boxing landscape is suspiciously bare at the moment.
What we do know is Amir Khan will defend his WBA trinket in the UK on April 16th against TBA. Although, in this case, TBA means Lamont Peterson. It is a decent fight but not exactly something to get excited about.
Wladimir Klitschko has rescheduled his bout with Derek Chisora for April 30th. Not exactly mouth watering after the Haye fight seemed so close, is it?
Manny Pacquiao will “fight” Shane Mosley in May. Apart from Pactards who really gives a shit? However with
Vitali Klitschko should end up defending against Odlanier Solis. This is a decent fight, but the negotiations seemed to have stalled, so that’s on the backburner.
Tomasz Adamek is due to fight in Poland on 16th of April, it seems as though the negotiations with Roy Jones have died so expect him to fight another no-hoper.
Miguel Acosta will take on Brandon Rios in late February and while that’s an excellent fight for the Hardcore among us, it doesn’t really have that X-factor were looking for.
Should we count Zab Judah v Kazier Mabuza as a great fight? If we do, we may as well give up all hope now.
The fact is the cupboard is bare when it comes to meaningful fights over the next few months. Boxing as a sport continually shoots its self in the foot and yet again the powers that be have done nothing but push our beloved sport closer to the realms of obscurity.
As a Boxing fan it is hard not to be despondent when you’re coming off the November/December we have just had. Common sense tells us that Boxing had actually gained a small piece of recognition during this period only to lose it again as the big fights don’t get made with basically zero TV coverage until the beginning of March.
Now I understand that during January, the US usually has a break due to the NFL, but what is the excuse for February or March? Last year we had the Winter Olympics, this year this is no excuse.
You may think, but this is just in the USA. No it isn’t, take a look at Mexico, there is nothing scheduled bar JCC jr v Billy Lyell. In the UK, we have nothing until April.
You could look at Germany, they have Sturm v Hearns jr, Cunningham v Licina, Sylvester v Bouadla. But that is not exactly a stunning line-up either, in fact, they look like three gimmies that don’t compel you to watch.
I have not looked at either the Super Six semi finals or the Showtime Bantamweight tournament because neither have been scheduled yet and if the Super Six continues in the same trend as the past two years Andre Ward will be eaten by a Lion while Carl Froch pops a hip while in bed with his girlfriend as Arthur Abraham is decapitated by an angry wildebeest. Showtime will then bring back Jermaine Taylor to fight Glen Johnson only for the Arena to collapse and kill everyone in attendance. Showtime will still celebrate the success of the tournament.
Ok, the above is a pure piss take, but compared to what we have seen so far during the Super Six can you really rule it out?
Lets take a look at this weeks fights:
Following on the theme of this week’s weigh inn, there is not much to talk about.
US Olympian Demetrius Andrade looks to further his career by taking on Alberto Herrera. On the same card, Russian prospect Ruslan Provodnikov headlines against Mauricio Herrera. Both of these fights have been made simply to give both fighters experience and allow them to showcase themselves on US TV.
Other than that, we have Beibut Shumenov taking on late replacement William Joppy.
It is really hard to care isn’t it?
See you all next week
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