Ringside Roundup: Mayweather-Berto nears, no one cares

Ringside Roundup is back to bring you all the news and notes from the world of boxing, perfectly compacted into one convenient post for what is primarily an MMA (and karate magazine) website. I'm going to be completely honest with you, if this piece comes off as whiny, it's because I'm not really bothered with the upcoming offerings. If this is how a typical week of boxing looked, then yes, boxing is dying. Because there are some seriously awful match-ups scattered throughout this weekend that shouldn't be real main events whatsoever. But don't worry, if we make it through this month, October is shaping up to be a fantastic month for the sport.

Last week's results

• Anthony Dirrell (28-1-1, 22 KOs) UD-10 Marco Antonio Rubio (59-8-1, 51 KOs). This was a low-expectations main event for PBC on CBS. It was a low-quality fight which consisted mostly of former super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell making Marco Antonio Rubio an out-of-shape punching bag for 10 tedious rounds. Rubio occasionally found offensive success through Dirrell's willingness to fight off his back foot, but ... yeah, forget this fight. Rubio was blasted by Gennady Golovkin late last year, and looked shot to pieces on Sunday.
• Jamie McDonnell (27-2-1, 12 KOs) UD-12 Tomoki Kameda (31-2, 19 KOs). McDonnell retained his secondary WBA 118 lbs title with a close win over Japan's Tomoki Kameda, in what was an immediate rematch following a good first bout between them in May. A flash knockdown (more knockdown/slip) in the 12th round effectively sealed a win for the Englishman. It was a decent but not overwhelmingly action-packed contest, but PBC's (clearly biased) commentating had Kameda winning in blowout fashion, when this was in fact much closer than they'd called it. Kameda is on the PBC roster, by the way.
• Austin Trout (30-2, 17 KOs) KO-6 Joey Hernandez (24-4-1, 14 KOs). PBC made its debut on Fox Sports 1 on Tuesday, with junior middleweight Austin Trout headlining against the unremarkable Joey "Twinkle Fingers" Hernandez, who loses to anyone good and beats anyone below that. Trout has sort of dropped off the map since his upset win over Miguel Cotto, losing to Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara along the way, but he's steadily stringing the wins together again. Hernandez bodyslammed Trout in the 4th and lost a point, but Trout ripped him to the body throughout the fight and finished him in the 6th.

This week's news

• Can boxing trust USADA? We've discussed Floyd Mayweather's illegal IV use and USADA's okaying of it in separate posts, but Thomas Hauser's overall longform is a must-read at some point. It's more than just Mayweather here, it's everything about the dirty world of boxing and how USADA is in the thick of it.
• Roy Jones Jr. isn't fighting on Saturday. Bad news, Roy Jones Jr. was supposed to fight twice in two weeks, but the first one (vs. Danny Santiago) was called off because of bad weather in Florida, and his 2nd one on 9/12 ... well it looks like he didn't make his flight to England. Jones (62-8, 45 KOs) has won 8 in a row and he wants a cruiserweight title shot. For his own safety, I hope that never happens.
• Zab Judah's comeback fight cancelled. Former titlist Zab Judah (42-9, 29 KOs) was due to make his comeback on Thursday night in Westbury, NY, but that's not happening because he took to the fighting part early. Apparently he socked his opponent Hevinson Herrera so hard that Herrera withdrew due to injury. Oh Zab, always starting trouble.

This week's schedule

• Adonis Stevenson (26-1, 21 KOs) vs. Tommy Karpency (25-4-1, 14 KOs), PBC on Spike, Friday, September 11th at 9 PM ET/PT. "Superman" wants to be considered the best light heavyweight in the world, but that's hard to achieve when you're fighting guys like 65-year-old Sakio Bika and Tommy Karpency. The only good win Karpency has is a split decision against a shot Chad Dawson. Next best thing after that is ... a competitive loss vs. Andrzej Fonfara? I dunno. Stevenson is probably going to KO Karpency in front of a pro-Stevenson crowd in Toronto, Canada, and the only fight of interest for Adonis is Sergey Kovalev, which doesn't seem in the cards any time soon. The co-main event of 2008 US Olympian Errol Spence Jr. (17-0, 14 KOs) and South Africa's Chris van Heerden (23-1-1, 12 KOs) is much more intriguing. Spence is being hailed as a potential future contender, and so far the welterweight has shined in the ring. Van Heerden is no slouch, with wins over Matthew Hatton and Cosme Rivera as his top honors.
• Oscar Valdez (16-0, 14 KOs) vs. Chris Avalos (26-3, 19 KOs), TruTV, Friday, September 11th at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT. Valdez is a super talented Mexican featherweight who overcame an early knockdown to win against Ruben Tamayo back in June, but it was only the 2nd time he'd failed to finish his opponent. Avalos is moving up in weight, two fights removed from getting beaten down by Carl Frampton Jr. for the super bantamweight title. It's a good main event and worth your viewing at some point.
• Peter Quillin (31-0-1, 22 KOs) vs. Michael Zerafa (17-1, 9 KOs), PBC on NBC, Saturday, September 12th at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT. You will not watch this fight. It's a steaming pile of horse shit. Peter Quillin went from turning down a WBO middleweight title defense vs. Matt Korobov to this nonsense. "Kid Chocolate" is lined up to fight Daniel Jacobs for the WBA's secondary world title in December, so he's facing some Australian guy named Michael Zerafa, who has mostly beaten cans and has fought almost entirely in Australia. The co-main event is an IBF junior middleweight title fight between reigning champion Cornelius Bundrage and Jermall Charlo. Again, co-main is interesting, main event is not.
• Floyd Mayweather (48-0, 26 KOs) vs. Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KOs), Showtime PPV, Saturday, September 12th at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT. You already don't like the fight, so I won't bother expanding. The undercard, however, is quite good. New super middleweight champion Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) makes his first WBC title defense against England's George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs), perhaps most famous for his two fights vs. Carl Froch, and definitely famous for getting KTFO'd by Froch in the Wembley Stadium rematch. That's a solid fight. Rocky Martinez (29-2-2, 17 KOs) rematches Orlando Salido (42-13-2, 29 KOs) in what is one of the leading candidates for FOTY. Martinez unseated Salido atop the WBO super featherweight throne in April. Former featherweight world champion Jhonny Gonzalez (58-9, 49 KOs) battles Jonathan Oquendo (25-4, 16 KOs) in the opening PPV bout. Vanes Martirosyan (35-2-1, 21 KOs) faces Ishe Smith (27-7, 12 KOs) in the "free" fight on regular Showtime.

Video of the Week - Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto

Andre Berto won't beat Floyd Mayweather, and he didn't beat Victor Ortiz in 2011, but I'm showing you this video because it was an insane bout with one of the craziest rounds you'll ever watch. So here's Ortiz and Berto duking it out four years ago.

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