This Week in Boxing.

No sooner do we get through one explosive week of action that saw Wladimir Klitschko’s successful return, Jameel McCline’s demise to the benefit of a gutsy Calvin Brock and the confirmed dominance of Antonio Margarito over Kermit Cintron, than we have yet another massive week of boxing action to savor.

19-2 light welterweight Jeffrey Resto of New York’s promising career floundered when he lost by stoppage to Carlos Maussa; and it virtually imploded when he lost a ten-round decision to unheralded Michael Warrick. This Thursday, Resto comes by a chance for redemption when he faces Warrick for the second time in ten months. Their first fight was a messy affair, filled with point deductions for fouls and other infractions, but Warrick, coming off a loss, has little to lose in battling Resto once more, and if Resto is to regain some of the momentum that saw him defeat Livingstone Bramble, Emmanuel Clottey and Saul Duran, there is no better place for him to begin than with a revenge mission to overturn one of his losses.

On Friday, we have world title action coming from Marseilles in France where Tehran born WBA super bantamweight champion Mahyar Monshipour makes the latest defense of his title against Shigeru Nakazato. Japan’s Nakazato owns seven career losses, two of which I’m sure he regretfully concedes to current WBC super bantamweight champion Oscar Larios of Mexico. But regardless of Nakazato’s past experience with championship caliber opposition, it is Monshipour who lives under the microscope; having fought everywhere but the United States, Monshipour holds a respectable record in a division barely a stone’s throw from the glamorous talent pool of the featherweight class. The question is: if successful, will the champion make the step forth?

Widely regarded as a serious heavyweight threat throughout the boxing community, Samuel Peter of Nigeria returns to action against Gilbert Martinez over in his hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. Martinez is 0-2-2 in his last four fights; are we overwhelmed yet? Martinez’s career is providing a few rounds for the usual heavyweight suspects, yet I hardly think he will have the chance to do even that against a puncher as raw and dangerous as Peter. On the under-card, San Antonio’s light welterweight prospect Oscar Diaz faces Jesse Feliciano. Mohamad Abdulaev, Mike Arnaoutis and Al Gonzales have all been in the ring with Feliciano, and they’ve all beaten him. If Diaz is to prove anything of a future proposition of any seriousness, he will make short work of Feliciano also.

Colombian light flyweight Beibis Mendoza finally makes his appearance against once-beaten opponent Roberto Vasquez of Panama as previously reported on this site. To reiterate, the vacant WBA light flyweight title is up for grabs in this fight.

Friday would not be complete if we did not make a stop down in Laredo, Texas to the territory of our amigo Sergio Martinez to find out what happens when Daniel Ponce De Leon returns to the ring against Ricardo Barajas. Merely a whisper away from a world title shot, De Leon found his chance snatched away at the last moment by Celestine Caballero. On the Golden Boy Promotions card, De Leon will look to take his frustrations out on Barajas, and our man on the scene Sergio will bring us the up close and personal details on every punch thrown.

Guyanese former world title challenger Raul Frank is on the title hunt again and he makes his latest appearance this week against Fernando Hernandez in Cleveland, Ohio. Fernandez’ last significant fight was a loss to Montreal’s undefeated middleweight prospect Joachim Alcine, and an unfortunate feature of Hernandez’ record is that he tends to lose every time he steps up in class. If Frank still holds any of his former abilities, Hernandez may have a long night on his hands again.

We cross the pond to bring you a few bouts of a British flavor this week as Chas Symonds takes on Ross Minter at the Elephant and Castle in London, England. Minter, son of former world middleweight champion Alan Minter looked to have some promise until his early career stalled at the hands of British light middleweight trial-horse Howard Clarke. If a resurgence is coming, the undefeated Symonds needs to be removed from Minter’s path. The British Southern Arena welterweight title is also on the line. In heavyweight action, former Audley Harrison opponent Mark Krence takes on Scott Gammer and former foes separated by one controversial decision come together on the same card. Lee Meager and Danny Hunt are not the best of friends, but a rematch could be on the cards as Meager faces off against David Burke and Hunt takes on David Stewart.

We arrive at Saturday primed and ready for some world championship boxing. Let’s just hope we receive some when we get in front of the TV to watch the WBA heavyweight championship match between John Ruiz and James Toney. In an interesting under-card Luis Perez squares off against Luis Bolano for the IBF super flyweight championship of the world. Yodsanan Nanthachai fights Vicente Mosquera in the latest defense of his WBA super featherweight title and in heavyweight action, Larry Donald takes on Ray Austin and DaVarryl Williamson faces Derrick Jefferson.

Filipino fighter Ivan “The Eel” Tunacao was not slippery enough to avoid seven defeats throughout his career to date, and he will not likely escape another as he faces current WBO minimumweight champion Ivan Calderon of Puerto Rico. On the same night, another Puerto Rican champion defends his title as WBO light flyweight champion Nelson Dieppa aims to achieve yet another successful defense against Hugo Cazares.

And there we have it for this week. Please join us next time for “This Week in Boxing,” as we take you through the world’s boxing action as nobody else can.

Jim Cawkwell can be reached at jimcawkwell@yahoo.co.uk