Contents
Friday, Feb. 26
DAZN, 1:00 pm ET, Canelo Alvarez vs Avni Yildirim weigh-in. These fellows are going to stand on scales and someone will tell us what they weigh. BLH will have live coverage.
DAZN, 1:30 pm ET, Daniele Scardina vs Cesar Nunez. A pretty standard Matchroom Italy show, which, y’know. It is what it is. They’re well-produced events and all, but there is little to no legitimate interest, and Canelo standing on a scale really takes precedence, plus the fact I’m going to be on a crazy Saturday fight schedule, I’m passing here and not burning out. But it’s available! And I’m glad it’s available!
Saturday, Feb. 27
DAZN, 1:30 am ET, Joseph Parker vs Junior Fa. A very late night treat for those of us in the US, very early morning if you’re in the UK, pretty normal if you’re in New Zealand or Australia or whatever. This is a good main event from Auckland, should be heated, there’s a lot of beef in this one. I say that and now they’re going to cautiously poke at one another for half an hour, huh? But I’m actually excited for this. It’s Parker’s best opponent in three years and a huge step up for Fa, and what can I say? I’m a sucker for a wonky start time. BLH will have live coverage.
ESPN+, 9:00 am ET, Steven Ward vs Kamshybek Kunkabayev. This MTK show from Kazakhstan ALSO has a wonky start time (for me, that is), but I think I’ll be trying to catch some sleep at this point. Not a bad card for what it is, though, and expanding widely-televised boxing to more areas around the world is good.
BT Sport (UK), 3:00 pm ET, Anthony Cacace vs Lyon Woodstock. This was supposed to be the Herring-Frampton card, but nope. Cacace-Woodstock is a solid fight, mind you, could be a good one for Cacace’s British junior lightweight title. Tommy Fury is also on the card, plus some other fights.
DAZN, 7:00 pm ET, Canelo Alvarez vs Avni Yildirim, Julio Cesar Martinez vs McWilliams Arroyo, Zhilei Zhang vs Jerry Forrest. There will be others on the show, too — prospects Diego Pacheco, Alexis Espino, Marc Castro, Aaron Aponte, and the debuting Keyshawn Davis — but that’s the main three. The draw is Canelo, of course, even when he’s expected to handle things without much trouble. If you want to see top names fight regularly like The Olden Times, they are going to be taking fights like this, mandatory or not (this one is a mandatory challenger, of course), because you can’t fight top guys every two-to-three months and expect to last long. Martinez-Arroyo should be a good one for action, as Martinez is must-see, and Zhang-Forrest isn’t a bad fight, really. BLH will have live coverage.
FOX, 8:00 pm ET, Anthony Dirrell vs Kyrone Davis. FOX’s monthly PBC show is even more of a waste than normal for the biggest natural audience boxing has available, as not only is it another ho-hum card with zero buzz or interest beyond genuine diehards, but it’s going head-to-head with arguably the biggest star in the sport. Jesus Ramos and Vito Mielnicki Jr are also in action.
