Set aside multiple blocks of viewing time. Expand the pay-per-view budget. Make sure your TiVo is programmed for specific channels, dates and hours.
If there is a busy month of boxing, November will more than whet the appetite of the serious or casual fan. Each weekend in November will feature title fights involving several of the sport’s top fighters, including a faded yet still popular ex-heavyweight champion yearning for another championship reign.
From the intrigue over the bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Carlos Baldomir to the rematch involving Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales, the month will be a fight fan’s delight.
Mayweather again will seek to reinforce his claim as boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighter when he faces WBC welterweight champion Baldomir on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
However, Baldomir has gained the attention of fans and experts after consecutive impressive victories against Zab Judah and Arturo Gatti. After a 12-year professional career of chasing lucrative bouts, the Argentina native finally can command seven-figure purses.
”The hardest thing was waiting, but I knew it would get here, it would come,” Baldomir said through a translator during a recent conference call. “I would take advantage of it as I did.”
The Baldomir-Mayweather fight on HBO pay-per-view will coincide with the Showtime telecast of the Sergei Liakhovich-Shannon Briggs heavyweight title fight Saturday night in Phoenix. A Pembroke Pines resident, Briggs will have the first chance to break the current stranglehold of the division by fighters from Eastern Europe.
All four of the reigning heavyweight champions have links to the former Soviet Union, including Belarusian Liakhovich — the WBO titleholder.
”Shannon Briggs as heavyweight champion of the world is a beautiful thing; it can definitely bring a lot of people back to the sport,” Briggs said in a recent conference call.
Calvin Brock will also seek to reduce the Eastern European dominance of the division Nov. 11 when he challenges IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko in New York.
Evander Holyfield, who once ruled over the division but now is desperately hanging on to the hope for a bid to win a fifth world title, still has enough name recognition to convince Fox Sports Net to broadcast his fight against Fres Oquendo on Nov. 10.
Perhaps the most highly-anticipated bout of the month will be the second bout between Pacquiao and Morales on Nov. 18 in Las Vegas. Pacquiao, whose popularity in his native Philippines has reached rock star status, also is capturing crossover appeal in the United States.
Morales, one of boxing’s most exciting fighters of the past 10 years, will attempt to avenge a 10th-round TKO loss against Pacquiao in January and end talk that he is a fighter on the decline and should retire.
RESULTS
Kermit Cintron won the IBF welterweight title with a fifth-round technical knockout over Mark Suarez on Saturday night at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach.
After gradually building his lead in the first four rounds with straight rights to the head, Cintron stepped up his attack in the fifth when he combined his right and left hooks.
Suarez (25-3) took a knee for a knockdown but could not avoid Cintron’s repeated attack once Suarez reached his feet. Cintron (27-1, 25 KOs) pressed a defenseless Suarez near the ropes and landed a flurry of unanswered combinations, forcing referee Frank Santore to stop the bout at 2:53 of the round.
Colombia’s Joel Julio survived a 12th round knockdown to win a close split decision over Mexico’s Cosme Rivera (30-10-2) in the main event of Friday night’s card at Miccosukee Indian Gaming.
Julio, who is now 28-1, won on two judges’ scorecards, 115-112 and 114-113, and the third judge scored the bout 115-112 for Rivera.
COMING UP
• Friday (8 p.m., Telefutura-Ch. 69): Giovanni Segura vs. Carlos Tamara, 12, flyweights.
• Friday (11 p.m., Showtime): Sam Soliman vs. Enrique Ornelas, 10, middleweights.
• Saturday (9 p.m., pay-per-view): Carlos Baldomir vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr., 12, for Baldomir’s WBC welterweight title; Robert Guerrero vs. Orlando Salido, 12, for Guerrero’s IBF featherweight title.
• Saturday (9 p.m., Showtime): Sergei Liakhovich vs. Shannon Briggs, 12, for Liakhovich’s WBO heavyweight title; Juan Diaz vs. Fernando Angulo, 12, for Diaz’s WBA lightweight title.
