Sportsfrog.com

(before i had a chance to pen my inaugural front page post, swamp boxing maven tommyboy, eh, beat me to the punch.)

Looking ahead on the calendar, there are a lot of entertaining fights scheduled for the first couple months of 2009. Only two or three of them carry any real significance, but there are some excellent match-ups and star power on the slate at the moment.

Jan. 17 (tomorrow) – Andre Berto v. Luis Collazo (HBO) – let’s call this a threshold match. Assuming Berto beats Collazo (and looks good in doing so), then he becomes a legit candidate for an A-level match in the stacked welterweight division. Of course, it may be awhile before he gets one, as the big dogs are busy taking each other on, but I could easily see a Berto-Mosley matchup later in the summer (assuming Margarito-Cotto 2 comes together).

Jan. 24 – Antonio Margarito v. Shane Mosley (HBO) – a very dangerous match for Margarito with the prospect of a big-money rematch with Cotto looming for the summer.

Feb. 7 – Vic Darchinyan v. Jorge Arce (Showtime) – should be a slugfest… two exciting fighters who probably will go toe-to-toe for the majority of the fight, for as long as it lasts.

Feb. 14 – Alfredo Angulo v. Ricardo Mayorga (HBO) – another slugfest, featuring a young up-and-coming power puncher (Angulo) against the past-his-prime, but still dangerous Mayorga, who is the prototypical all-offense, no-defense fighter. This one cannot possibly go more than 7 or 8 rounds.

Feb. 21 – Kelly Pavlik v. Marco Antonio Rubio and Miguel Cotto v. Michael Jennings (PPV) – the first fights for both of these fighters since their last outings, both of which ended in demoralizing losses. Prior to those losses, both of these guys were considered top-6 or top-7 P4P fighters, so they need to get back on the rails against B-level competition in order to reestablish some confidence before they take another shot at the elite class again.

Feb. 28 – Juan Manuel Marquez v. Juan Diaz – JMM gave Manny P. all he could handle twice, earning a draw and a debatable SD-loss, and is widely considered to be a top-5 P4P fighter right now. And Juan Diaz was perceived as one of the best young fighters in the game and was making his way up the P4P lists before getting derailed by a crafty Nate Campbell, and then looking sloppy against Michael Katsidis. JMM knows that if he loses, a 3rd match with Pacquiao will almost certainly never materialize (and it still might not happen, even with a JMM win, as Pac-Man seems to want to play with the big boys now), and Juan Diaz has a reputation to reestablish, so this should be a terrific high-stakes fight.

Good stuff all around, and best of all, only one of those weekends has its best match(es) on PPV.