After a week of essentially nothing, boxing returns in a big way this weekend. Not only do we have a complete unification fight to produce an ultra rare true champion of a division when Terence Crawford and Julius Indongo meet, but there is also a major fight out of Japan and a Golden Boy on ESPN highlighting an interesting prospect.
Tuesday, August 15th
Shinsuke Yamanaka (27-0-2, 19 KOs) v Luis Nery (23-0, 19 KOs), WBC bantamweight title – Japan – TV Azteca (Mexico)
Fully previewed here. Short version: Yamanaka is the sport’s top bantamweight. A win here would be his thirteenth successful WBC title defense, tying the the record for most title defenses by a Japanese titleholder. He is 34, however, and fading a bit, if ever so slightly. Nery is young, powerful, and aggressive, but also on the road away from his native Mexico for the first time in a big way here. This is an excellent matchup, but away from having access to Japanese or Mexican television, it is one that will have to be found on Youtube after the fact.
Friday, August 18th
Alberto Machado (17-0, 15 KOs) v Carlos Morales (16-1-3, 6 KOs), junior lightweights & Emanuel Rivera (17-1, 11 KOs) v Nate Green (8-0, 2 KOs), bantamweights – Puerto Rico – ESPN2, 11 PM Eastern
Alberto Machado is one of the three main hopes for the future of Puerto Rican boxing alongside Manny Rodriguez and Felix Verdejo. Here he gets his first US exposure by headlining a Golden Boy on ESPN card, though he isn’t directly a Golden Boy fighter. When De La Hoya’s promotional firm signed Miguel Cotto this summer, they agreed to give his Cotto Promotions some of their dates with ESPN to help try to revitalize the sport in Puerto Rico. This is the first card under those terms. All in all, getting Machado is about is good as that arrangement is going to get for us viewers.
Saturday, August 19th
Terence Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) v Julius Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs), unified junior welterweight championship & Oleksandr Gvodzdyk (13-0, 11 KOs) v Craig Baker (17-1, 13 KOs), light heavyweights – Nebraska – ESPN, 10 PM Eastern
The big one. For the first time since Bernard Hopkins in the middleweight division in 2004, we will have a completely unified champion barring a draw or no contest. Terence Crawford is the heavy favorite here, but in truth we have only really gotten to see one Indongo fight. The rise of the Namibian is one of the best stories in the sport and what a capper a win over Crawford would be for his Cinderella story. Gvozdyk is in a squash match, but Arum is making it exceedingly clear that that is what we should mostly expect out of his ESPN series by continually booking fights like this.
There is a hell of a lot of talent buried deep on the undercard too. The WatchESPN.com broadcast begins at 6:30 Eastern, three and a half hours before the main show, and will feature some if not all of the following talent: Nicholas Walters, Bryant Jennings, Dillian Whyte, Mike Alvarado, Mike Reed, and Shakur Stevenson. They are all in soft, but it is still quite the lineup of known fighters to spend a Saturday afternoon watching.
