Round by Round – Weekly Boxing Notes

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
Triple Double
There’s not a marquee name in action this weekend, but don’t let that fool you, because there are three fine fights to watch tomorrow night, each with huge consequences for the rest of the year’s schedule.
Down in Cancun, Sam Peter faces Oleg Maskaev for the WBC heavyweight belt (Peter is currently the interim WBC champ). Vegas has Peter, the Nigerian Nightmare, as a prohibitive 5-1 favorite, which may be overstating the case a little, especially after Big Sam’s showing against Jameel McCline last November, when he suffered three knockdowns en route to a shaky UD. Peter’s bout with Maskaev is important because a victory for the Nigerian sets up a second meeting between him and Wlad Klitschko. In their first fight over two years ago, Klitschko and Peter fought a knock-down drag-out war in A.C., one that Wlad won by decision despite tasting the canvas three times on the evening. A Klitschko/Peter rematch is far and away the most exciting fight the heavyweight ranks have to offer us right now. Let’s just hope Sam keeps his guard a little tighter against Maskaev than he did with Big Time McCline.
On the undercard of Peter/Maskaev is WBA and IBF lightweight champion Juan Diaz vs. Nate “The Galaxxy Warrior†Campbell. Diaz, known as “The Baby Bull†(one of the most accurate nicknames in boxing today), is a Mexican-American from Houston, a budding superstar in the boxing world with a fan-friendly all-out style that makes for thrilling, often breathless fights. Campbell should prove a respectable test for Diaz, one that he needs to pass if he’s going to move on to a huge bout later this year with the British phenom Amir Khan.
Both of the above fights are on HBO, while over on Showtime you have no less of a corker, a cruiserweight unification fight in London between WBC and WBA champ David Haye and WBO champ Enzo Maccarinelli. Most of the focus will be on Haye, who has dazzling handspeed and mobility for a big guy along with legitimate knockout power. This promises to be Haye’s last fight as a cruiserweight, and many predict that he will be the next breakout heavyweight star. You can sample some of his work below – his karate-chop KO of Jean-Marc Mormeck from November of last year.

Pavlik’s Problem
It appears that the void left in Kelly Pavlik’s future by John Duddy’s weak performance at the Garden last month is going to be filled by Welshman Gary Lockett (big weekend for Wales – Maccarinelli is also Welsh). I spoke last night with Kurt Emhoff, the co-manager of Dominican middleweight Giovanni Lorenzo, the current #1 WBC and IBF contender who was rumored to be in line for Pavlik’s June 7th date after Duddy was ruled out. According to Emhoff, Lorenzo is definitely out of the Pavlik sweepstakes for June - he thinks the Pavlik/Lockett is 99% done with hot prospect and recent Bob Arum signee Andy Lee featured on the undercard. Emhoff is now in negotiations to have Lorenzo fight IBF middleweight champ Arthur Abraham this summer, the winner of which certainly would seem a natural next opponent for Kelly the Ghost, provided of course that he gets past Lockett.↵