The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of March 20
It's finally a fight week!
We've had far too few of those this year, but the forthcoming weekend promises some decent action.
In this week's edition, we'll take a look at Andre Ward's (full) light heavyweight debut Saturday night on HBO against Sullivan Barrera.
We also tackle Terence Crawford's next fight, which is reportedly heading to pay-per-view, the bizarre (and pointless?) rematch between Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto, Kell Brook's welterweight title defense against Kevin Bizier and the rescheduled bout between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week!
How Will Andre Ward Adapt to Light Heavyweight?
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Ward will take the full plunge into the light heavyweight division Saturday night when he battles undefeated Cuban contender Barrera in just his second fight in the last three years.
The former undisputed super middleweight champion (who won the Super Six tournament in 2009, beating every solid fighter in his neighborhood, to establish his preponderance) will be fighting for the first time at the full 175-pound limit after weighing in at just under 172 pounds for a win over Paul Smith last June.
Barrera is a fighter who seems to be more than the sum of his parts.
He's talked a big game before and during the promotion for his contest with Ward, and he'll be anything but a rollover opponent. He's looking to make a statement and steal a bid (to use a bit of NCAA tournament lingo) for a fight with unified light heavyweight champ Sergey Kovalev later in the year.
Why anyone would want to do that is a whole different question.
Per ESPN.com, Ward's recently signed HBO deal calls for a fall showdown with the Russian Krusher, who holds three-fourths of the alphabet titles in his division, a fight that would represent one of the most significant in the sport.
Kovalev has cut a swath of destruction through the light heavyweight division since bursting onto the scene in 2013. But Ward, easily a top pound-for-pound fighter when he's active, would represent his toughest challenge to date.
The Krusher took care of his end of the bargain with a brutal stoppage of former lineal light heavyweight champ Jean Pascal in a January rematch—he'll also take something of a soft defense this summer in Russia against an opponent yet to be determined—and it's up to Ward to finish the deal.
Will Terence Crawford Make the Jump to PPV?
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Crawford seemed on track to defend his junior welterweight title against iron-willed Russian Ruslan Provodnikov this summer, but once that fight fell apart—the Siberian Rocky signed a multi-fight deal with rival network Showtime—things began to get a little dicey for the undefeated Nebraskan.
Per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, HBO's boxing budget has been significantly reduced this year, which means promoters who want to keep their fighters active (Bob Arum said he wants three fights for Crawford this year, per Rafael) have to explore different methods of making the dollars and cents work.
That mean an early entry into the pay-per-view market for Crawford and possibly others.
Crawford, who does not have an opponent yet—though a unification bout with Viktor Postol has been mentioned quite a bit—will return to the ring July 23 on HBO PPV.
Arum said this decision is "to do with budgets and so forth."
And he also stated "HBO is going to do a lot of its fights on pay-per-view," per Rafael.
That's an interesting development, to say the least. But before you blame Arum, it could well be a necessary evil. If the network isn't willing to pay out of its budget for fights, you have two options: set out a course on PPV or don't fight at all.
The latter is obviously unsustainable, so you might need to get used to this, however unfortunate, trend.
What's the Point of Ortiz-Berto II?
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Ortiz and Berto are set to renew acquaintances in a rematch (nearly five years to the day) of their scintillating 2011 welterweight title fight, per Mike Coppinger of USA Today.
The bout will be televised as part of a Premier Boxing Champions card April 30 on Fox.
Why?
Who knows?
Maybe it's because neither fighter has much of anything else going on and it made some sense to try and recapture the magic of an exciting fight from a time long past.
Ortiz pounded out a unanimous decision over Berto five years ago in a fight that saw both men touch the canvas multiple times in an all-action war that, in retrospect, was the high-water mark for each man's career.
Berto is just 3-3 since that fight, including a shutout loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. (in a fight that made no sense to anyone outside Floyd's camp) and physical defeats to Robert Guerrero and Jesus Soto Karass.
Ortiz hasn't fared much better, winning just two of his last five fights (against nobodies—and Mayweather) and suffering a stunning second-round knockout to the usually light-hitting Luis Collazo in his last significant fight.
We'd like to call this a crossroads fight, but it just isn't.
Both guys are well past their best days. Neither has won a meaningful fight in ages. And though the winner here might end up in another decent fight, that doesn't prove much of anything.
So our advice is to just enjoy it for what it is.
Whatever it is.
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Can Kell Brook Avoid a Massive Letdown?
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Brook will make the third defense of his IBF Welterweight Championship Saturday night in what has to be considered a letdown fight against Bizier in Sheffield, England.
Bizier isn't a bad fighter, but he's nothing spectacular and was twice beaten by Jo Jo Dan, whom Brook savaged with four knockdowns and an early stoppage last year. This fight is underwhelming, to say the least. The very least.
It's not where the Special One should be at this stage of his career.
Brook has yet to cash in on his big title-winning effort over Shawn Porter in 2014. Granted, much of that isn't his fault—he's practically chased Amir Khan to the gates of hell and lost time to a bad injury—but we're rapidly approaching the time when the Brit needs to make some decisions.
Does he want to be a domestic champion across the pond?
Or does he want to be an international boxing star?
We'd sense that the latter is true, but with a bunch of potentially lucrative options (including a rematch with whomever wins the June bout between Porter and Keith Thurman) on the table, he'd better not slip against Bizier, an opponent he's expected to beat handily.
Does Thurman-Porter Wind Up in Brooklyn?
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The rescheduled welterweight title bout between Thurman and Porter is likely headed to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, per Rafael. The bout was originally scheduled to take place at Mohegan Sun Resort Casino in Connecticut but was postponed when Thurman suffered injuries in a car accident.
The new date, June 25 as part of a Showtime telecast on CBS, apparently won't work out for that venue and will force the fight to take place at the site where it probably should've landed all along.
Both men have fought at the venue in the past, with Thurman beating Jan Zaveck and Porter capturing the IBF Welterweight Championship from Devon Alexander in Brooklyn, both in 2013.
Barclays has become something of a boxing hotbed in recent years, and solid fights always produce good crowds and atmospheres for the fans and fighters alike.
This one should be no different.
On the undercard, Jesus Cuellar will defend his secondary featherweight title (don't worry, the WBA is trying to clean up that mess) against three-division champion Abner Mares in what promises to be an exciting bout.
That could be its own main event but instead promises to give the fans more bang for their buck and time as part of a card headlined by two of the top young welterweights in the game today.
Solid effort, this.
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