This one is pretty straight forward. We don’t have fights or anything particularly exciting, but we do have the list of dates that the Golden Boy on ESPN series will air on in 2018. In my view, there are two particularly interesting days to note on your calendar.
2017 was a really good year overall for the sport. While the Golden Boy on ESPN series failed to really deliver on the high end and ended particularly poorly, it nonetheless did help contribute to the rapid pace of televised cards that aided the year. Golden Boy has proved that they do not intend to use this series as a platform for high profile fights, but at least they are giving us something to watch and as they flesh out their roster.
Without further ado, the dates: February 22nd, March 9th, March 22nd, March 24th, March 31st, April 13th, April 19th, May 4th, May 17th, and June 8th.
The two that jump off the press release are easily March 24th and May 4th. Unlike last year’s edition in which a few of the cards got relegated to streaming on WatchESPN.com or ESPN Deportes only, all these are slated to air on ESPN2. The one exception is the March 24th card. That one is set to land on ESPN itself. Perhaps they have a bigger fight in mind to test the waters on the main network.
Second, the May 4th date will likely hold something interesting. This will almost assuredly be the day before the big rematch between Golden Boy’s biggest star Canelo Alvarez and middleweight king Gennady Golovkin. Even if that fight somehow falls through, and I don’t think it will, Canelo is all but guaranteed to hold the date. Last year they gave us a pretty good fight in Yuriorkis Gamboa’s upset stoppage loss to Robinson Castellanos, so I expect something similar for this year’s Canelo-Eve.
