Boxing schedule for the Month of March

Pretty decent month of fights. Next week should be the best card, JAMES KIRKLAND vs JOEL JULIO, should will be a banger and fight of the year candidate just like marquez/diaz.

Dates, followed by the venue in bold and red text indicates known televised events.



Friday March 6

At Uncasville, Conn. (ESPN2): Delvin Rodriguez vs. Shamone Alvarez, 12 rounds, welterweights; Raymond Serrano vs. Jay Krupp, 8 rounds, welterweights; Demetrius Andrade vs. Tom Joseph, 4 rounds, junior middleweights

At Philadelphia: Mike Jones vs. Larry Mosley, 10 rounds, welterweights; Teon Kennedy vs. Andre Wilson, 8 rounds, junior featherweights

At Grand Ronde, Ore.: Steve Forbes vs. Jason Davis, 10 rounds, welterweights

At Lincoln, R.I.: Jason Pires vs. Louie Leija, 8 rounds, welterweights; Paul Delgado vs. Troy Smith, 6 rounds, welterweights


March 7
At San Jose, Calif. (HBO): Joel "Love Child" Julio vs. James Kirkland, 10 rounds, junior middleweights; Victor Ortiz vs. Mike Arnaoutis, 12 rounds, junior welterweights; Robert Guerrero vs. Daud Yordan, 10 rounds, junior lightweights; Rock Allen vs. Rogelio Castaneda, 10 rounds, junior welterweights; Ashanti Jordan vs. Herman Binek, 6 rounds, heavyweights; Charles Huerta vs. Olvin Mejia, 6 rounds, featherweights; Karim Mayfield vs. Mario Lozano, 6 rounds, welterweights; Eloy Perez vs. TBA, 6 rounds, junior lightweights; Luis Ramos vs. TBA, 6 rounds, lightweights; Mike Perez vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior lightweights

At Commerce City, Colo. (Azteca America): Mike Alvarado vs. Emmanuel Clottey, 10 rounds, junior welterweights; Rob Frankel vs. Ricardo Dominguez, 10 rounds, lightweights


March 12
At Tokyo: Hozumi Hasegawa vs. Vusi Malinga, 12 rounds, for Hasegawa's WBC bantamweight title; Oscar Larios vs. Takahiro Aoh, rematch, 12 rounds, for Larios' WBC featherweight title

March 13
At Montreal (Showtime): Lucian Bute vs. Fulgencio Zuniga, 12 rounds, for Bute's IBF super middleweight title; Renan St-Juste vs. Roberto Hernan Reuque, 12 rounds, middleweights; JoJo Dan vs. Cesar Soriano, 8 rounds, junior welterweights

At Kissimmee, Fla. (Telemundo): Wilfredo Vazquez vs. Jose Beranza, 12 rounds, junior featherweights

March 14
At Torreon, Mexico: Cristian Mijares vs. Nehomar Cermeño, 12 rounds, for vacant WBA interim bantamweight title; David Rodríguez vs. Robert Davis, 12 rounds, heavyweights

At Manchester, England (Integrated Sports PPV): Amir Khan vs. Marco Antonio Barrera, 12 rounds, lightweights; Nicky Cook vs. Roman Martinez, 12 rounds, for Cook's WBO junior lightweight title; Enzo Maccarinelli vs. Ola Afolabi, 12 rounds, for vacant WBO interim cruiserweight title; Bradley Pryce vs. Matthew Hall, 12 rounds, for Pryce's Commonwealth junior middleweight title

At Mexicali, Mexico (Azteca America): Cesar Canchila vs. Giovani Segura, rematch, 12 rounds, for Canchila's WBA interim junior flyweight title

At Kiel, Germany: Arthur Abraham vs. Lajuan Simon, 12 rounds, for Abraham's IBF middleweight title; Franceso Pianeta vs. Michael Sprott, 12 rounds, heavyweights


March 16
At New York: Andy Lee vs. Antwun Echols, 10 rounds, super middleweights; Wayne McCulough vs. TBA, 10 rounds, featherweights; Dean Byrne vs. TBA, 8 rounds, junior welterweights; Jamie Power vs. Reggie LaCrete, 6 rounds, light heavyweights; Danny O'Connor vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior welterweights; Sadam Ali vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior welterweights

Friday March 20
At Laredo, Texas (ESPN2): Fernando Beltran Jr. vs. Aldo Valtierra, 12 rounds, featherweights; Ruslan Provodnikov vs. TBA, 8 rounds, junior welterweights; Demetrius Andrade vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior middleweights

At London: Edison Miranda vs. Joey Vargas, 10 rounds, light heavyweights

March 21
At Stuttgart, Germany (ESPN): Vitali Klitschko vs. Juan Carlos Gomez, 12 rounds, for Klitschko's WBC heavyweight title

At Pensacola, Fla. (Integrated Sports PPV): Roy Jones Jr. vs. Omar Sheika, 12 rounds, light heavyweights; B.J. Flores vs. TBA, 10 rounds, cruiserweights

At Beverly Hills, Calif. (Azteca America): Roman Karmazin vs. Miguel Espino, 10 rounds, middleweights; Orlando Salido vs. Eloy Perez, 10 rounds, junior lightweights

At Rosario, Argentina: Sebastian Lujan vs. Pablo Vasquez, 10 or 12 rounds, welterweights; Lucas Matthysse vs. Luis Ernesto Jose, 10 or 12 rounds, junior welterweights; Alberto Santillan vs. Carlos Rodriguez, 12 rounds, lightweights; Rogelio Rossi vs. Carlos Rodriguez, 6 rounds, cruiserweights; Pablo Barboza vs. Eduardo Monge, 4 rounds, lightweights; Leonardo Almagro vs. Oscar Mutuverria, 4 rounds, lightweights

At Kempton Park, South Africa: Zolani Marali vs. Fahsai Sakkreenin, 12 rounds, junior lightweights; Jake Els vs. Thamsanqa Dube, 12 rounds, heavyweights; Hekkie Budler vs. Charitt Mukondeleli, 12 rounds, junior flyweights; Jarred Lovett vs. Anon Donpradit, 8 rounds, cruiserweights; Sibusiso Khumalo vs. Octavius Mbiri, 4 rounds, junior lightweights; Jackson Chauke vs. Peter Phelane, 4 rounds, flyweights

March 26
At Sacramento, Calif.: Vicente Escobedo vs. Kevin Kelley, 10 rounds, lightweights

March 27
At Los Angeles (ESPN2): Samuel Peter vs. Eddie Chambers, 10 rounds, heavyweights; John Molina vs. TBA, 8 rounds, lightweights


At Chicago: Miguel Hernandez vs. Luciano Perez, 10 rounds, middleweights; Henry Coyle vs. TBA, 8 rounds, junior middleweights; Andrzej Fonfara vs. Kendall Gould, 6 rounds, super middleweights; Rita Figueroa vs. Tammie Johnson, 6 rounds, female junior welterweights; Mike Kurzeja vs. Tony Dewey, 4 rounds, super middleweights

March 28
At Tijuana, Mexico (Top Rank PPV): Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Luciano Cuello, 10 rounds, junior middleweights; Humberto Soto vs. Antonio Davis, 12 rounds, for Soto's WBC junior lightweight title; Fernando Montiel vs. Diego Silva, 12 rounds, for vacant WBO interim bantamweight title; Jose Luis Castillo vs. Antonio Diaz, 10 rounds, welterweights

At TBA (Showtime): Andre Dirrell vs. David Banks, 10 rounds, super middleweights; Ronald Hearns vs. Harry Joe Yorgey, 10 rounds, junior middleweights

At Tamaulipas, Mexico: Edgar Sosa vs. Porsawan Porpramook, 12 rounds, for Sosa's WBC junior flyweight title

At Bayamon, Puerto Rico: Pranuansak Posuwan vs. Jose Lopez, 12 rounds, for vacant WBO interim junior bantamweight title


March 31
At Pittsburgh: Paul Spadafora vs. TBA, 10 rounds, welterweights

Great article on front page of http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing
By Kieran Mulvaney
Special to ESPN.com



In the world of professional pugilism, there are boxers and there are fighters.

James Kirkland is a fighter.

He has always been a fighter, from his earliest days, from the time when, fatherless and dirt poor, he roamed the streets of East Austin.

"When I was growing up, we didn't always have the best of things, so I would always get in trouble," Kirkland said. "We didn't have it, we had to take it, we sure couldn't earn it. I was always fighting … my mom put all my brothers and me into boxing."

She steered him to local trainer Donald "Pops" Billingsley, who took him off the streets and into the gym, paying him $5 to spar other kids. Kirkland was just 6, but he took to Billingsley, and the sport, immediately.

"I just enjoyed being able to put my hands on somebody and not get in trouble about it," Kirkland said.

Billingsley became, in effect, the father Kirkland had never had. And it was in his gym that the young man met someone else who would have a profound effect on his life.

Ann Wolfe was homeless with two young children when she walked up to Billingsley in 1995 and said she wanted to learn to box. Billingsley was reluctant but relented; Wolfe blossomed into a powerful and feared fighter, a four-weight world champion whose 2004 one-punch knockout of Vonda Ward is a YouTube staple.



No longer fighting, Wolfe has segued into training. As Kirkland's chief second, strategist and motivator, she has guided him to a professional record of 24-0 with 21 knockouts, a reputation as one of the most exciting prospects in the game and an HBO date on Saturday night (10 ET/PT) with fellow rising junior middleweight star Joel Julio.

Notwithstanding Wolfe's reputation as a fighter, Kirkland concedes that his being trained by a woman has raised some eyebrows.

"Believe it or not, man, there's a lot of people who go, 'How's a female going to be able to train a man to win a world title, or how she's gonna be able to teach him to do anything?'" Kirkland asked. "All I can say is, [it's easy] if a woman says for you to run five miles, and you look around and she's right behind you and she's running five miles, or she says to hit the bag for 10 rounds or get on the treadmill and she's right alongside doing the same thing with me. She's in there doing the same thing that I do."

Junior middleweight contender Ishe Smith, who sparred with Kirkland for a week in February, testifies that Wolfe and Kirkland have a training regime unlike that of most other fighters.

"They do all types of things, training I've never seen before, like dragging tires, all this military-type training," Smith said. "He trains real hard, and she trains him really hard."

Kirkland acknowledges the intensity and revels in it.

"Every time you get up and you're coming to the gym, you know you're coming to battle," he said. "Not as far as a fight in the ring but a fight as far as endurance, for your heart and your soul, how much effort you're going to put into it, because every part of your mind, body and soul, she's going to make you put it into a workout."

The way they train is reflected in the way Kirkland fights, according to Smith.

"If he learns to settle down, if he works on his craft a little bit, he's going to be very hard to beat for a lot of people," said the alum from Season 1 of "The Contender." "But he's very, very intense. If you hit him, he wants to hit you back."

There is perhaps no better example of Kirkland's "hit and be hit" style than his war with Allen Conyers in November 2007. Kirkland tore out of his corner and laid into his opponent with both fists -- only to walk into a pair of right hands that dropped him onto the seat of his pants.

As if enraged at Conyers' audacity, Kirkland bounced back up and resumed his assault, flooring Conyers twice and punishing him so badly that the contest was waved off before the first round was over.

His ferocious approach in the ring belies a polite and gentle demeanor outside the ropes, a contrast to the angry young boy Billingsley rescued from a life of street fighting and crime.

As Billingsley expressed it in HBO's "Real Lives" mini-documentary about Kirkland, "I've seen him change from a kind of thug into something better."

"Yeah, I'm a people person," Kirkland said.

That all changes when the bell sounds and the fight is on, when Kirkland becomes, as Wolfe has put it, "like a shark in blood-infested water."

It's a ferocity and intensity Kirkland believes will allow him to overwhelm whomever he fights, no matter their skill level or his own perceived weaknesses.

"People always say I don't have enough defense or I get hit with too many right hands or they say this or say that," he said. "But every time, eventually, in the later rounds or whenever it may be, they all get caught. They all get hurt."

He expects nothing different Saturday.

"When I see Julio fight, I think he's a pretty good cat, he does his thing real well," Kirkland said. "But y'all are going to see March 7 what goes down, and I don't see it going past six rounds. He's a good fighter, and I hope he's coming prepared. Because I know I'm coming prepared."

That much is certain. Kirkland has been prepared since he was 6 years old.

He was a fighter then, and he's a fighter still.

^^I think it's free in England/Europe but I guess they think americans will pay for it? haha yeah right. Khan is going to get knocked out. I'll watch the KO on youtube.

Do NOT sleep tonights fights! Starts at 7pm HBO. Best card of the year so far, all big steps up for each possible future star

March 7
At San Jose, Calif. (HBO): Joel "Love Child" Julio vs. James Kirkland, 10 rounds, junior middleweights; Victor Ortiz vs. Mike Arnaoutis, 12 rounds, junior welterweights; Robert Guerrero vs. Daud Yordan

Kirkland showed a good chin tonight. Too take bombs from Julio and not even get phased shows a lot. He walked through julio and chopped him down. Great win. Julio should have continued though.

The ghost was disapointing. Even though it was a semi-bad cut I thought he should have tried at least one more round. Oh well.

Ortiz did what he was supposed to.

Overall it wasn't the exciting card I expected, but very surprised how easily kirkland beat julio. I'm not saying kirkland is the next sugar ray robinson or anything, but he is a beast. He'll have problems with slick boxers, but at 154, I can see him winning some titles.

^^whats your thoughts on Kirkland? I was surprised how easily he took care of Julio....and showed a good chin.

^^I agree. I think he needs to learn to move his head a bit more....occasionally it's like he's just standing there taking shots to the face and not even trying to move out of the way.

I think he's more impressive than Angulo. I don't know where he goes from here, but I definitely think he should get a title shot very soon.

Barrera & Khan both make weight.

^^yeah that's what I read. I also read yesterday that he said in an interview he only trained for 15 days. If so, WTF??? Talk about overconfident. But, maybe he said it wrong or was just tying to give Khan too much confidence, idk what to think now. At first I picked Khan getting KO'd within 3 rounds, but now I'm not too confident since Barrera is old and his training and conditioning have major doubts....

Khan has a ton of speed and good skills and freddie roach improving his game, but he has a glass jaw. If Barrera can't hurt in early, he wont stand a chance, not if he's not in tremendous shape which idk if he is...