Let's talk about March 08.

In descending order of notability, by nation.

In Mexico:
Maskaev-Peter
Diaz-Campbell
Castillo-Bradley
Ruiz-McCline

That's not exactly a terrible card. :think

UK has the overall slightly less impressive:
Haye-Maccarinelli
Johanneson-Mitchell
Smith-Renda

Japan has Naito-Pong, and Germany Demers-Vanda.

Should be quite a lot to talk about on March 9th. :yep

Now, predictions for Mexico...pretty much all of the guys I'm rooting for, will be expected by smart money to lose and I can't say I disagree. Maskaev, Castillo, Campbell, and McCline each have a chance, but should rightly not be favored.

 

I will have such an intense orgasm if Maskaev puts him through the ropes and all ESB's cocky SOB's have to eat crow like it was a turkey dinner. And I'm not even a Maskaev fan. :yep

 

Believe it or not, I am actually most looking forward to Ruiz-McCline...although if the organizers have any sense they'll leave that fight off the televised portion of the card.

The Peter fight made me a big sympathizer of Jameel's, and with his size and strength it's not inconceivable that he could blast a fading (and never hard as a coffin nail to begin with) Ruiz into retirement once and for all (yay!). A nice trophy win, on paper anyway, legitimized all the more by these claims by many that Ruiz has turned a new leaf the last couple of years - probably setting up a nice happy ending payday for McCline, maybe a WBC shot which could entail a deserved Peter rematch. :good

 

Is Dimitrenko-Krasniqi no longer happening in Germany on this date?

 

That's fair. There have definitely been people on here stating Maskaev has literally zero chance, which I think is giving Peter way too much credit.

 

I think Wlad's victory is more secure than Peter's by a good margin, probably more than 10%. But like you said, anything can happen at HW. :yep We could wind up seeing an Ibragimov-Maskaev unification fight! :shock: