Franchise Thoughts: No Summer Blockbusters, But Still Some Good Boxing Coming Up

Here's a list of some pretty talented boxers: Floyd Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez, Kelly Pavlik, David Haye, Fernando Montiel and Amir Khan.

What do all of those gentlemen have in common? All of them were originally scheduled to fight in late June or July. Now, none of them will be in action until this fall at the earliest.

The summer boxing schedule may not have been able to keep up the pace of excellent fights we've seen so far in 2009, but after a tight contest between Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey this past weekend, it at least had a chance. Now injuries have robbed us of a fight between two of the top guys in the sport at any weight (Mayweather and JMM) and the most intriguing heavyweight bout in quite a while (Haye and Wladimir Klitschko).

On the plus side, the fall lineup will probably end up loaded, especially if Mayweather-Marquez is rescheduled for September and Cotto really ends up fighting Manny Pacquiao in November.

In the meantime, it's not all bad. Here are three fights I'm still looking forward to this summer:

Chris John-Rocky Juarez II - June 27, HBO - It's not too often I come away impressed with and feeling like I learned something about both boxers in one fight, but that's the way I felt after John and Juarez battled to a draw in February. I scored the first fight for John, but I didn't think the decision was a ridiculous case of home cooking like some people did.

That shouldn't be a problem this time, since the fight is in L.A. instead of Rocky's hometown of Houston. I expect these guys will battle the same way they did before and provide us with a more definitive winner.

Also on that same card is a trendy pick to be the Next Big Thing, Victor Ortiz, so it's a broadcast that's well worth watching.

Joseph Agbeko vs. Vic Darchinyan - July 11, Showtime - The Raging Bull has been impressive as of late, and he's moving up a few pounds in weight to challenge for the IBF bantamweight title.

We all know Vic can slug, but he's been showing more wrinkles to his game as he goes. He'll need them against Agbeko, who is aggressive, super tough and has never been knocked out.

I expect it to be a bit of a challenge for Darchinyan. And if it's not, that pound-for-pound love he's starting to get is even more appropriate.

Juan Diaz vs. Paulie Malignaggi, August 22, HBO - This one was just confirmed last week and should be a lot of fun. Diaz is entertaining to watch win or lose, and Malignaggi has something to prove after getting smoked by Ricky Hatton last November.

The catch weight between lightweight and junior welter should add to the intrigue as well. Diaz already wasn't a big KO artist at 135 and Paulie could be drained by cutting the extra weight, so it will be interesting to see how that aspect plays out.

Posted by The Franchise