ESPN+, 2:00 pm ET, Pedraza vs Commey press conference.
FITE PPV, 10:00 pm ET, Fight Club OC. Ernesto “Tito” Mercado, who is a legit prospect, is scheduled for the card against veteran Alfredo Blanco. There’s also an MMA fight on here, but just one, and a bunch of boxing otherwise. $14.99 is a steep price for this show, sure, but if you were interested in paying $5 or $10, the idea is you’d probably pay $15, because frankly “interest in paying for this” is a pretty tiny and specific audience. And this is the only way it’s going to be distributed, I don’t think they could rock up to CBS and sell this bad boy for network TV or even basic cable.
ESPN+, 2:00 pm ET, Pedraza vs Commey weigh-in.
DAZN PPV, 2:00 pm ET, KSI vs Swarmz, KSI vs Luis Alcaraz Pineda. This is called the “MF & DAZN: X Series” and it’s episode 001. That’s right, TWO incredible KSI fights on ONE SHOW! Swarmz is a rapper, apparently, I really wouldn’t know and am not going to pretend I care enough to learn any further than that. Pineda is a 2-5 pro boxer who replaces Ivan Nikolov, a journeyman in his 40s who got scrapped after it was brought to the light that he has a bunch of racist tattoos. (He denies they’re racist, but nobody’s really buying it and everyone is happy to move on from an irrelevant fighter anyway.) This is $9.99 because DAZN probably figure if you care about this at all, you probably care enough to give them another $10. We will have live coverage if you’re remotely interested. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
ESPN+, 6:30 pm ET, Pedraza vs Commey prelims. As usual, some good prospects in action, including Tiger Johnson and Abdullah Mason, two guys Top Rank are high on, plus Dante Benjamin and Kelvin Davis, Keyshawn’s brother who, being honest, isn’t near a Keyshawn-level prospect; the hope is he’ll turn out to be more “middle Russell brother” than “Marsellos Wilder.” Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.
FITE PPV, 9:00 pm ET, “Marvnation Boxfest Round 7.” I doubt many of you are fired up to watch this show (BoxRec event page), but it’s out there, $9.99 to watch. Raquel Miller is on the card; she’s 37 and can seemingly fight anywhere between 154 and 168. She’s undefeated but, you know, it is what it is — competition limited. Doesn’t mean she can’t fight, and will probably get a title shot at some point, in some division, if she wants one.
ESPN and ESPN+, 10:30 pm ET, Jose Pedraza vs Richard Commey. A really solid fight if not exactly a marquee event. One for the hardcores, but even then not one that’s going to get the hardcores riled up. Just a fight to watch with two reliable vets. Pedraza is a former titleholder at 130 and 135 who has cemented himself as a good, second-tier guy at 140, and Commey, a former titlist at 135, is coming up to 140 here and trying to make his own mark in a new division. Jared Anderson is back in a “step up” that isn’t, really, the 24-2 guy he’s scheduled to fight has a super empty record. Richard Torrez Jr is also slated to return. Bad Left Hook will have live coverage.