Boxing: March 20-21

[H2O Man]

TODAY - at Laredo, Texas (ESPN2) - 12 rounds, featherweights: Fernando Beltran Jr. (31-3-1, 18 KOs) vs. Miguel Roman (25-4, 17 KOs).

SATURDAY - at Stuttgart, Germany (ESPN Classic) - 12 rounds, WBC heavyweight title: Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) vs. Juan Carlos Gomez (44-1, 35 KOs); 12 rounds, welterweights: Selcuk Aydin (16-0, 13 KOs) vs. Said Ouali (25-2, 17 KOs).

SATURDAY - at Pensacola, Florida - 12 rounds, light heavyweights: Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs) vs. Omar Sheika (27-8, 18 KOs).


This is not likely to be one of the most exciting weekends for boxing fans, but there are some fights being televised.

The ESPN FNFs card may have a good undercard. The main event features a quality fighter, Beltran, against what should be a relatively easy tune-up. Roman has lost four of his last seven bouts, including the last two. His three victories were against opponents who did not have winning records; they combine for 21-30-2. However, Roman is younger, has a good chin, and is the naturally larger man. Anything can happen.

On Saturday afternoon, ESPN Classic features Vitali Klitschko against his former sparring partner, who fought much of his career at cruiserweight. Klitschko is a few years older, and four inches taller than Gomez. It is unlikely to be competitive after the referee’s instructions. But, Vitali does have the loss to a much smaller Chris Byrd; Klitschko was winning rather easily, when he quit because of a sore shoulder.

Also on Saturday is the PPV match featuring Roy Jones, Jr., against Omar Sheika. I do not believe that this fight rates being a PPV event.

[Wetzelbill]

1. Jones and Sheika

is going to be a boxing/MMA card. It's a good idea but the quality of fights aren't PPV material. Jones-Sheika is an ok fight, for MMA Jeff Monson-Roy Nelson is an ok matchup, the other ones are even less impactful. Nothing you'd want to shell out 30 bucks for. Since I love both sports I do hope this is something that could be built on.

[H2O Man]

2. Mixed cards

are likely to become far more common. Though I do not watch MMA unless my sons are here and turn it on, they tell me that the average MMA card features more "good" matches that could be considered co-main events, than the average televised boxing card. Boxing promoters are going to be pressured to improve the quality of their product. The television industry is all about selling their product, and quality cards with more than one good match are going to sell. Jones had the right idea, in a sense, but not the right fights.

[Wetzelbill]

3. There will be a problem with quality

fights for awhile. I am not so sure any promoters in either sport will be able to get together and and truly put together compelling matchups. The average MMA card in does put together better matches, but those are the top couple organizations and only one of them, the UFC, is thriving economically. And that is because they are well established. The big name talent pool outside of that is fairly slim as well. Now if the UFC got together with say Golden Boy and put together a card that would be worth watching I'm sure. What MMA has going for it is they have lots of quality fights to put out because they have a wider base of athletes getting into the sport. People with boxing backgrounds, Olympic caliber wrestlers and judokas, lots of submission grapplers like Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners, kickboxers, even people who were former college athletes in sports like football and basketball. So a mixed card could work with a few competitive MMA fights with some quality athletes and say maybe one boxing fight with a fairly well known fighter. In terms of quality and name recognition they can rely on each other a little bit and it would help both sports.

Now if there was ever a card put together with a fighter like Manny Pacquaio headlining the boxing main event and then maybe a couple top notch MMA title fights, that would be groundbreaking. We're a long way from something that big happening though. But I wish... :)

[H2O Man]

4. You have no doubt heard

that none other than Don King is looking into promoting MMA. Safe to say that he smells the money. And it's the money that can both move co-promotions forward, or hold them back.

Boxing's biggest stars are unlikely to be open to anything that cuts in on their super-sized purses. But at the same time, the young lions that want to reach that status may recognize that being on mixed cards will broaden their appeal.