This Week in Boxing.

Well fight fans, welcome back and I hope you had a great weekend. For those of you who were fortunate enough to see Jesus “El Matador” Chavez vs. Carlos “El Famoso” Hernandez, we can only hope that they decide to fight each other again, and soon. It was a classic and could have gone either way. Also, “J.C. Superstar Jr.,” is a big kid that oozes with talent, natural athletic ability, and seems to be headed in the right direction. The problem is how can he ever live up to his namesake? He seems like a nice kid, but good luck with that task. Enough of this my fellow fanatics, time to get onboard and fasten your seatbelts, as we take off on our journey through this week in boxing.

Our first stop is on this Tuesday, as ESPN 2’s Tuesday Night Fights boxing series brings us an IBF junior featherweight title tilt between the champion, Israel Vasquez, and his challenger, Armando Guerrero. Vasquez is a grizzled, seasoned veteran fighter that holds wins over Edel Ruiz, Oscar Larios, Jorge Julio, Jose Luis Valbuena, and Artyom Simonyan. Guerrero is also very experienced and comes off a draw against Jorge Lacierva, which is a fight that most feel Armando won. This should be an entertaining contest as both of the fighters love to mix it up. The televised portion of the under-card features undefeated super featherweight prospect Frankie “Panchito” Zepeda, who will be taking on Mexican National, Aldo Valtierra. This contest represents a major step up in class for Zepeda as Valtierra has been in with the likes of Julio Pablo Chacon, Antonio Diaz, Daniel Attah, and Steven Luevano. We will see how the untested prospect responds to his first major assignment.

Moving on to Friday, as Showtime’s ShoBox series brings us an interesting all British scrap at 122-pounds, from the MEN Arena in Manchester, England. WBO featherweight champion Scott “The Real McCoy” Harrison is putting his hardware on the line against tough perennial contender Michael Brodie. I really do not understand how Brodie earned this shot at a title, considering he was stopped by In Jin Chi a little over a year ago and has not fought since, but stranger things have happened in our sport (Andrew Golota got three straight shots at titles, and this is also Brodie’s third straight time around). I do not think Michael stands too much of a chance as he is a game kid with a lot of heart, but his chin has failed him in the past. Harrison seems to be too much of a puncher for Brodie to survive. On the under-card, “The Hitman’s” brother, Matthew Hatton will be taking on Adnan Hadoui. I have never seen Matthew fight, but Hadoui has more losses than wins so it should be an easy night for this Hatton.

On Telefutura’s “Solo Boxeo” boxing series, rising young super featherweight prospect “Sweet” Jose Aguiniaga, from Oxnard, California, is vying for his first belt of any kind as he takes on Hugo “Rambo” Ramirez for the NABA super featherweight title. This should be an easy fight for Aguiniaga as Ramirez is a natural bantamweight and does not carry much in the way of power. In Juarez, Mexico, “Cool” Vince Philips tries to derail the streaking Mauro Lucero who is undefeated in his last six contests.

Moving on to the night that all British boxing fans are waiting for as this Saturday live on Showtime, from the MEN Arena in Manchester, England’s favorite son Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton puts his career on the line as he challenges junior welterweight Kingpin, and pound-for-pound one of boxing’s true killers, Kostya “The Thunder from Down Under” Tsyzu. It is do or die for Hatton as he tries to prove that he is for real. Tsyzu, although getting up there in age, is still the king of the division and has devastating power in his right hand. This fight should be a good one and King Kostya is ready.

Well fight fans there you have it. It is not a terribly busy week for boxing, but an important one as we have some interesting match-ups. Many English fans believe there will be a changing of the guard at 140-pounds, but that remains to be seen. Until next week, toodle pip!

Sergio Martinez can be reached at srg_mrtnz@yahoo.com