By Cliff Rold
Last weekend ended with plenty of buzz. Pound for pound lists, lineages, and legacies were discussed regarding Manny Pacquiao. Legitimacy and future earnings were heavily pondered for Anthony Joshua.
The action was pretty good too.
By the time this weekend passes, there will be plenty bigger picture, big stage discussion going on among fight fans. Errol Spence-Chris Algieri and Krzysztof Glowacki-Steve Cunningham will have national television and significant ramifications at welterweight and cruiserweight. Felix Verdejo will continue his ascent at lightweight on UniMas. Gary Russell resumes his career at featherweight on Showtime.
All of it should be worthy viewing. All of it should be fun for fans.
Sometimes, that can get lost. Watching boxing, especially with abundance available, isn’t really a serious undertaking. For the people in the ring and those who work in the business directly it can be deadly serious. For those who derive income from coverage of the sport, its everyday machinations are of vital import.
For those who tune in purely as fans, it’s a form of entertainment. It’s fun. When it’s not fun, it’s not worth watching. There are books to be read, other items to watch, outdoor activities to be pursued.
The lure of big name fighters facing off for big money and big titles is often the easiest way to generate a sense of pending entertainment. Every fight doesn’t need those things to garner attention. Some fights look like a hell of a night without any bells and whistles at all.
That’s why, for those who seek the best bang for their entertainment investment, the fight of the week might be happening Friday night at 10 PM EST on Spanish language network Estrella.
On one side of the ring will stand Mexican veteran Jesus Soto Karass (28-10-3, 18 KO). The closest Soto Karass has come to a title is facing Keith Thurman for an interim welterweight belt in 2013. He’s faced several top talents around the welterweight and Jr. middleweight limits and mostly come up short. It’s never been for lack of trying and there have been successes.
He nearly upended a then-undefeated Mike Jones in 2010 and gave a good account of himself against Marcos Maidana. In a career best outing, he became the only man to stop former welterweight titlist Andre Berto. Inactive since a June 2014 loss to Devon Alexander, Soto Karass is making his first start in almost two years and it doesn’t matter. Fans know that when he’s back in the ring, he’ll be there to fight.
On the other side of the ring will stand Japan’s Yoshihiro Kamegai (26-3-1, 23 KO). Kamegai was largely unknown in the US before facing Robert Guerrero in the main event over Alexander-Soto Karass. For twelve brutal rounds, Kamegai made a war of it. He took the worst of it but never stopped coming. It didn’t matter that he lost. He left fans happy to see him again.
Kamegai hasn’t been seen much since even so. He’s been in the ring three times, scoring a couple knockouts and losing a wide decision to veteran Alfonso Gomez. So indelible was the memory of the Guerrero war that his scarcity didn’t diminish the natural reaction in hearing that he was to be paired with Soto Karass.
As soon as the fight was announced, this was a fight worth watching. It sounded exciting. It sounded potentially violent.
It sounded like fun.
Soto Karass and Kamegai aren’t going to get rich against each other this week. They probably won’t parlay whatever they produce into a title shot. Neither is ever going to be debated as anything more than an honest, hard nosed professional.
But that professionalism is all that matters here. These are two guys who like to throw punches, accept that they will be hit back, and keep coming. They sacrifice as much of themselves for the prize ring as more gifted men and know that they’ll still have to find another way to make a living when they can’t sacrifice anymore.
This one is meat and potatoes or a popcorn flick. For ten scheduled rounds, it’s junk food for the soul. Grab a beer, snag some pretzels, and kick back those heels. There won’t be any need to ask questions about what’s next because living in the moment of the fight itself is all there really is with this one.
Sometimes it’s okay to tune in just for the sheer joy of possibly seeing a nasty piece of prizefighting. Soto Karass-Kamegai is ripe with all the best kinds of possibilities.
Cliff’s Notes…
Now for the more than just fun stuff…It doesn’t sound like Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley III broke the pay-per-view bank. That’s no surprise. It’s worth noting though that beating Timothy Bradley at age 37, off a year’s layoff, isn’t something just anyone could do. Manny is the sort of fighter who has been great for so long, it’s easy to take for granted just how special he’s been and remains…Steve Cunningham moving back down the scale from heavyweight might sound more intriguing than it turns out to be. Fighters moving down the scale late in a career are often a disaster. It’s easy to forget how much quicker smaller men can be than big, lumbering heavyweights…Errol Spence should win this weekend but he might not look like the heir apparent some think he might be at welterweight. That could be a good thing. Tough rounds now are more important to development than just winning…the new Suicide Squad trailer looks delightful. That movie is either going to be a dumpster fire or wildly entertaining.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
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