DAZN, 1:00 pm ET, Andrade vs Williams press conference.
DAZN, 1:00 pm ET, Andrade vs Williams weigh-in.
DAZN, 1:30 pm ET, Fabio Turchi vs Dylan Bregeon. Matchroom Italy are BACK! Turchi-Bregeon is for a secondary regional cruiserweight title. Francesco Patera is also in action. It’s a pretty typical Italy show.
ESPN+, 2:00 pm ET, Danny Dignum vs Andrey Sirotkin. This is actually a decent MTK main event, Dignum in against a solid veteran opponent, and Dan Azeez fights Ricky Summers on the undercard, as well as Joe Ham vs Jack Bateson. John Joe Nevin (remember him? NO?) also in action. Some other stuff.
DAZN, 3:00 pm ET, Demetrius Andrade vs Liam Williams. A special afternoon start time from Florida to avoid going head-to-head with the true event everyone wants to see this weekend, Jake Paul boxing. (Also so that DAZN can capitalize on the UK market, where a lot of this fight’s interest lies; this is on DAZN there, not Sky.) A wise move, in all sincerity. The main event is expected around 6 pm ET. Undercard features Carlos Gongora vs Christopher Pearson, which I think could be a pretty damn good fight, plus returns for Mahammadrasul Majidov, Arthur Biyarslanov, Otha Jones III, and Aaron Aponte. BLH will have live coverage.
FOX, 8:00 pm ET, Tony Harrison vs Bryant Perrella. If you’re not on the Paul-Askren wave, then fear not: There is proper normal boxing on Saturday night courtesy PBC on FOX, and we will have coverage so you can participate if you’re watching the fights. Harrison hasn’t fought since Dec. 2019, and he can be vulnerable against a lot of guys, as good a boxer as he is. Perrella hasn’t gotten over the hump in his career and is coming up from 147 to 154, but I like this one, this is good matchmaking for these guys right now, and if you’re a regular you know I’ve trashed pretty much all PBC on FOX main events since they came back from the pandemic, because they have pretty much all been terrible matchmaking on paper. So I’m serious here, I like this matchup. Omar Juarez and Vito Mielnicki Jr are also in action on the show. BLH will have live coverage.
PPV (Order Here!), 9:00 pm ET, Jake Paul vs Ben Askren. THE TIME IS NOW! Almost! Apart from the main event, we’ll also see actual relevant boxer Regis Prograis vs Ivan Redkach, Steve Cunningham vs Frank Mir, and someone called “Joe Fournier” fighting someone called “Reykon,” plus about 37 mini-concerts. These are all fully sanctioned, real fights, for the record, no exhibitions. I’ll be here for the boxing pop culture event of 2021, which will probably be true until the next one. BLH will have live coverage.