Ronald Hearns continues his sham of an undefeated career tomorrow night against another bowling pin set up to tumble, Jose Luis Gonzalez. Mark my word, one of these pins is going to turn around and knock out the ball any day now, because Hearns is not his father by any means. HIs last fight was against Juan Astorga on the Pavlik/Taylor II undercard in Vegas, and that tomato can gave him all he could handle. I doubt Ronald will even make it to the step-up phase of his career, but if he does, woe to Ronald. (Some late-breaking news on this one – Papa Hearns will work Ronald’s corner).

And then there’s Andre Ward, and let me start on this topic by giving a shoutout to Andre’s gym and also now my local gym, King’s in Oakland, one of California’s greatest boxing traditions. Andre as you may recall was our only gold-medal-winning fighter at the Athens Games, and he’s now an undefeated up-and-comer at 168. Tomorrow night’s fight is at least a mild step-up for Ward, because Ravelo, although not top flight competition himself, has been in there with some elite names, Allen Green most recently, who put a nasty TKO on him back in October of ‘06.

Friday Night Fights
Alonzo Butler v. Friday Ahunanya
Marvelous Marvin Hagler in the studio
ESPN2 – Tonight

Yeah the main event is nothing much – Big Zo Butler is a very soft level of undefeated while Ahunanya has losses to some recognizable pros, Sultan Ibragimov and Alexander Povetkin among them. But the real draw here is the presence of The Marvelous One in the studio with Brian Kenny. Hagler is always insightful and entertaining, and if he’s anywhere near as good as Dwight Qawi was with Kenny last week, we’re in for a good night.

Andre Berto v. Miki Rodriguez
Cristobal Arreola vs. Chazz Witherspoon
HBO – Saturday, June 21

It may seem bombastic to hear Lou DiBella saying of this fight, “we’re going to see if the Andre Berto era is about to begin,” and yet it’s a worthy question. Berto is one of the most exciting young fighters on the scene today, a guy I once referred to as “Tyson at 147″, and a guy who’s earned his stripes to step up to the elite of the welterweight division with his war against David Estrada on the undercard of Pavlik/Taylor I. With Floyd Mayweather’s retirement, the WBC has sanctioned this fight for it’s interim welterweight title, which means that what would have been a title eliminator is now for the belt, so suddenly Berto has true playa status within reach. He’s unsurprisingly the heavy favorite, 7-1, against Rodriguez, who lost to his most notable opponent, Carlos Baldomir, back in ‘05, the fight right before Tata became a star with his surprise victory over Zab.

But think about it for a second, think about the phenomenon that was Baldomir with that block of concrete that he calls a head. How would Berto fare against him? Honestly, I’m not sure he would have either the power or the savvy to handle Tata’s relentless you-can’t-kill-me Freddy Krueger routine. Which is neither here nor there as far as this fight goes, but it’s interesting nevertheless. Berto has definitely seemed vulnerable to me as he’s stepped up over the last year, not quite the unstoppable force that we once thought him to be, but he’s entertaining as all hell and, as we saw in that Estrada donnybrook, he’s got the heart to make it big. He wins here, and no doubt he’s on his way to a big-time fight with someone in the next year. Paul Williams, maybe? Williams says he wants the winner of Cotto/Margo, but I somehow doubt he’s even on Cotto’s radar screen and I’d be surprised if Paul is dying for another go-round at Margo (trust me, Paul, leave well enough alone on that one). If Berto suddenly has the WBC belt around his waist, Williams/Berto looks to me like a natural make, with maybe the winner getting a shot at Cotto next year.

Let’s not overlook the undercard on HBO tomorrow night either – Arreola, that rarest of rare jewels, The Mexican Heavyweight, going up against Terrible Tim Witherspoon’s cousin Chazz “The Gentleman” Witherspoon, another Philly big boy who is floating around in the second rank of heavyweights right now. Both of these guys will be looking to move out of the could-be bracket into a shot at some big money – and the rumor right now is that David Tua is going to fight the Arreola/Witherspoon winner, no doubt part of his and Cedric Kushner’s long-term (and seemingly futile plan) to land Tua a fight with Wlad Klitschko.

Arthur Abraham v. Edison Miranda
Giovanni Lorenzo v. Raul Marquez
Showtime – Saturday, June 21

And that brings us to the big daddy of the weekend’s festivities. If you’ve never seen the first Abraham/Miranda fight, well, you missed an absolutely insane experience all around – a broken jaw, a clueless referee, five points deducted from Miranda (including a highly suspect TWO-POINT deduction for a headbutt), and on the whole one of the gutsiest performances you’ll ever see in anything anywhere from Abraham. The dude’s jaw was mangled, blood pouring from his mouth from about the fifth round on like it was just a running fountain of blood in there, and yet he manned up like the most manliest of men and made a go of it anyway. Should he have won the fight? Probably not. If his corner had any mercy in their souls, or if the ref (Randy Neuman – “I LOVE L.A!”) had any control of the proceedings, or if it simply was somewhere other than Germany, the thing probably would have been stopped in the highly bizarre and interminable fifth round, when the doctor in fact deemed Abraham unable to continue but couldn’t make that stick for some reason. Also, Miranda was fighting his standard style of dirtier than dirty fight, but nevertheless, he didn’t deserve to lose five points, a total deduction that made it all but impossible for him to win.

Even with all the controversy, though, it was an incredible fight, and they’re doing it again tomorrow night down in Florida, where the forecast is for… painnnnnnnnnnnn. Seriously, man, there’s just no freaking way this fight won’t be a ridiculous face-wrecking slaughterhouse unless there’s like an early cut from a headbutt or something. And in that this is the only bout up here that I really feel warrants a prognostification, let me offer you one – I got Miranda. I’m feeling it. I even laid down a little sumpin sumpin on the man because, get this, I got +175 at Bodog. What’s with that? Did those cats not see that first fight? Miranda should have won that thing by TKO, and then he should have won it again on points. And this here fight, yo, in case you haven’t heard – it AIN’T in Germany, feel me? I think Miranda’s a little better banger too than he was in that first fight, think his shots have even more pop now, which is a frightening thought all things considered. Big respect to King Arthur, cause I think he’s all man and then some, but I see La Pantera being just a little too much panther for him to take.

Be sure to check out the undercard as well and look for our man Kurt Emhoff in the ring as the manager of Giovanni Lorenzo. I know this is a big fight for Giovanni, his first big television audience and his most notable opponent to boot. Last I talked to Kurt I think he told me that a win here probably would nab Lorenzo a shot at Arthur Abraham’s belt. I wonder if the situation now is that a victory would put him in line for the winner of Abraham/Miranda. Kurt, you out there to clarify that for us?

Amir Khan v. MIchael Gomez
Mikkel Kessler v. Dimitri Sartison
Non-televised in the U.S.

Two fighters here in Khan and Kessler who are fighting time-passing type of bouts tomorrow night while they continue to position themselves to fry some bigger fish. Khan is England’s big rising star, and he’s on record as saying that he can beat every lightweight out there, including David Diaz and Manny Pacquiao. Talk is cheap, of course, but couldn’t you just see a Khan/Pacquiao matchup in England? The odds right now, of course, are that if Pac Man fights a Briton this fall, it will be The Fat Man, but a brother can dream, innit? Meanwhile, Kessler, who has been like the lost boy since his schooling at the hands of the matador Calzaghe, is saying that if The Pride of Wales doesn’t want any part of Pavlik, he’ll gladly take the whole Ghost anytime anywhere. To which I say, make it happen, please. It seems unlikely (why would Kelly take such a risk for such short money?) but what a fight that would be, almost (but not quite) the equal of a potential Calzaghe/Pavlik bout. The Viking Warrior Versus The Ghost. It’s so Marvel Comics it makes my pee-pee hard.

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