Thomas Oosthuizen vs. Francisco Sierra - 11/23

This is in South Africa on Wednesday. It's really the only significant action of the week other than the HBO BAD card on Saturday. (and Crolla vs. Limond on Friday, for those that follow the British scene)

It's one of two "IBO" title bouts on the card, the other being an interesting match-up between Kaizer Mabuza and undefeated Steven Wills.

Based on the Botha vs. Grant card, we can expect things to get rolling at about 2pm EST with the main event on about 4:30pm EST or so.

AFAIK, there is no international broadcast coverage for this (as TYC Sports in Argentina originally had scheduled for Botha vs. Grant, before they preempted it for soccer)

Who takes it and how? :bbb

 

:good

BTW, I saw and didn't mean to slight your other thread. It was actually my intention last night to make the thread this morning after getting to work (due to the way polls are set up on ESB, you can only set them in 24-hour increments: ie have them close exactly 24 hours from the time you create them, or exactly 48 hours, or exactly 72 hours etc - so I figured waiting until about this time of day on Monday would give people the most chance to vote right up until near fight time on Wednesday with a 48 hour limit, instead of making the poll Sunday night and having it cut off Tuesday night).

Then I saw your thread, and thought "Oh, cool. Nevermind..."

But then, yours didn't have a poll...and the clock was ticking...:yep

 

Can anyone confirm?

It seems a little strange that this wouldn't get some coverage on the other continents. Oosthuizen vs. Sierra would be a surefire ESPN2 main event were the season not over (hailed as one of the best of the year) and would even make for a decent ShoBox headliner.

Pretty much any American network would snatch this up if it was over here.

Of course, it isn't often that they're willing to send camera crews & commentators down to South Africa. I'm a little surprised TYC did so for Grant vs. Botha (especially since...there weren't any Argies on the card to my knowledge...:?)

 

They also know he got raped by Pantera, schooled by Gonzales, given a very lucky gift draw against Davis, and beaten twice by the very pedestrian "Hermano de Canelo".

The only effective spoiling he's done was against Donovan George, who's one of the worst boxers ever to appear on television and relies solely on his power.

Despite Sierra having the higher KO ratio, Oosthuizen is the puncher here. He's also the better boxer.

This was really shrewd matchmaking. It's basically just a way for Oosthuizen to pound on a "name" fighter (of a sort) and improve his world rankings, while giving his home fans one last show before he moves on to probable better things on a semi-permanent basis.

Kind of like Darchinyan vs. Mbamba in Armenia (except that Darch is floundering toward the end of his career and that was more like a "this is your one and only chance to catch me in person, homies!" whereas this is more of a hungry young lion getting right to strike out on his own and saying farewell to the pride).

 

:good Probably a war, too.

What if Sierra does win? :think Should he target the winner of Andrade vs. George (which is an IBF super middleweight eliminator, but of course we know how mandatory status is fluid and never a guarantee of an immediate shot...)

It's either a guy he's already sonned, or a really good name who's badly sliding (and that's based on the Bute rematch, the Pryor loss, and the life and death Lucas win...dominating Matt freaking O'Brien doesn't convince me he's got much left). Good risk/reward.