ATTENTION FNF VIEWERS! Programming change - regular ESPN, not ESPN2 like usual.

He isn't a bad fighter at all.

A 100% deserved victory over slightly overripe Vernon Forrest (even if Forrest was looking past him) and a perfectly fair draw with slightly overripe Shane Mosley are nothing to scoff at. He also has decisions over Brinkley, Sugar Shay Smith, Manfredo Jr. x2 - and the TKO of Shark Attack who was still at the time a solid TV fighter.

Not a bad resume at all considering he squeaks by almost purely on hard-nosed awkwardness despite not having great power, speed, athleticism, or accuracy.

He deserves respect, even if you don't like him.

That said, he lost twice against Vera. Fair & square. :deal

 

:nod

I mean, the end result either way is apt to be another stoppage feather in Golovkin's cap...but at least Vera will pop him a few times so he'll remember what he does for a living the next morning. Ishida has nothing with which to discourage GGG's onslaught but a lot of :fight. Vera hardly exhibits a low work rate himself and unlike Ishida can throw with venom.

 

OH YEAH!

I almost forgot. (my secondary reason for creating a thread for this card, besides alerting everyone about the channel switch)

ESPN will most likely televise as part of the undercard the professional debut of 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Taras Shelestyuk.

The 27 year old Ukrainian boasts an impressive amateur record of 195-15 and has victories over standouts like Andrey Zamkovoy of Russia, John Joe Joyce of Ireland, Vikas Krishan of India, and Kazakh wunderkind Serik Sapiyev who is the 2012 London Olympics Val Barker Trophy recipient (edging out Vasyl Lomachenko!!)

He is signed to Banner Promotions whose roster includes Dmitry Pirog, Ruslan Provodnikov, Sergiy Dzinziruk, Sher Husanov, Jackson Junior, Demetrius Andrade, Ali Rahimov, Ji Hoon Kim, etc

His opponent is Kamal Muhammad, who is according to Boxrec also making his pro debut. (unless they've simple bungled and it's actually this Kamal Mohamed: http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=517853&cat=boxer with them creating a whole new page for the same person under a misspelling: http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=647063&cat=boxer)



The FNF broadcast is 2 hours long, with a pair of 10-rounders leaving plenty of space to squeeze in an important 4-rounder. There's an excellent chance we'll get to watch Shelestyuk.

 

Taras Shelestyuk vs. Alexis Vastine of France, en route to claiming gold at the 2011 AIBA world championships:
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His style has been pro-ready for a while. :bbb

 

BTW, I'd make sweet love to Shelestyuk's mousy flag bearer.

 

Good lookin' out chief-tan :good

Brian Vera is usually aways good for watching, dude comes to fight. Very solid fighter too.

Come on 10 o'clock :guitar

 

9 o'clock!!

You're in the EST timezone like me in West by-god Virginia, right? :huh

 

Oh, or do you mean come on 10 o'clock for the main event?

Don't skip the undercard, man. Shelestyuk is one to watch, and Junior vs. Savigne is a scrum-diddly-umptious appetizer. :good

 

Yep, I'm in the Eastern zone :deal

9 it is!! That's even better..... I can't ever stand the wait , haha

I have no idea how our UK brothers do it, staying up at the hours they have to in order to watch the fights :!:

Respect, is all I can say...:yep

 

I must have mis-read :nut

You know I like all fighters, I'd never intentionally not watch an undercard.


Thanks for straightening me out I'd have been BURNT pissed at myself if I missed an hour of the show

 

Will Vera stop this guy?

 

He should - unless it's an off night, or Bondorovas puts on the fight of his life.

Or, dare we hope, a little from column A and a little from column B like we got with Bradley vs. Provodnikov last week.

 

Might put a bit of money on it its 10/11 so will make it worth staying up for if he can win
Yeah hope its not like the Bradley fight, anyone who had Bradley decision musta been shitting themself and anyone who had Provodnikov ko must be on suicide watch right now

 

ESPN has confirmed on their official Facebook page that FNF is only having a one-night stand on the flagship station and not permanently moving there from ESPN2.




:sad2 Damn it. I was kinda hoping the ol' dog-n-pony showmight actually be moving on up in the world and regularly bringing the sweet science to an even broader mainstream audience.