The Peppermill in Reno hosts a live professional fight card on Saturday night, featuring Sacramento's Diego "Chico" Corrales in a non-title fight against Mexico City's Ubaldo Hernandez.
Corrales, 31-0 with 25 KOs, is the current IBF junior lightweight (130-pound limit) champion, but his title won't be on the line against the unknown Hernandez, who brings a reported 13-4-2, 7 KO's record into the mismatch.
I call it a mismatch because Hernandez has no chance whatsoever to win the fight. Frankly, I'm surprised the Nevada State Athletic Commission approved this fight because it's been reported Hernandez is 2-3-1 in his last six fights. If that's true, he has no business in the ring with Corrales.
Corrales, who is set to defend his title against Justin Juuko on the undercard of the Oscar De La Hoya fight against "Sugar" Shane Mosley on June 17, is just there for the workout. The outcome of the fight is not in doubt; Corrales is one of the best - if not The Best - fighter in that weight class. Hernandez, a trial horse with little power, is there to be knocked out. Not to say that Hernandez won't try or make a good fight out of it - I believe he won't, in my opinion - but he has no shot to actually win the fight.
"I wouldn't bet on Hernandez if he was a 100-1 underdog," one local boxing expert and sports bettor told me. "He has no chance to win. The only competition for Corrales in that weight class is Floyd Mayweather and I'm not so sure Corrales wouldn't be a slight favorite over him. And you know this guy (Hernandez) is not in the same class as either of them."
The rest of the card looks weak, too. Hector Velasquez defends his unknown IBA continental featherweight (126-limit) title against an opponent to be named, so that could mean anybody, or should I say, any body! The undercard has your usual four and six round fights with names nobody but their mother would recognize.
-- Two ways to see the fights. You can go to the Peppermill and pay anywhere from $39 (general admission) to $150 (ringside) which are way overpriced tickets in my opinion, or you can watch them on Univision (Channel 25 in Carson City) that night.
The live action at the Peppermill begins at 7 p.m. The Univision telecast is listed to begin here at 11:30 p.m. Most of the country will see the top two fights live at 8:30 p.m. You might want to check Univision at that 8:30 time as sometimes the time listings are not adjusted for the west coast and it is possible the card will air then instead of in the 11:30 time slot.
-- The real fight Saturday night takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York when Lennox Lewis defends his heavyweight titles against undefeated Michael Grant on pay-per-view TV.
We covered most of that last week, but I will note that those of you thinking of wagering on the fight wait until after the Thursday weigh-in. If Lewis (35-1-1, 27 KOs) is in top shape, he'll weigh around 242-244 pounds - anything over that makes him a bit slower and sluggish. Grant (31-0, 25 KO's) should weigh right around 250 - anything much higher makes him a slower and easier target for Lewis.
Lewis is listed as a 5-2 favorite by most local sportsbooks with Grant at +2-1, give or take a dime. The over/under is 9-1/2 rounds. Check those weights before you wager and also watch the line. The "smart money" will not bet on this fight until Saturday and if the line moves quite a bit, you know somebody knows something, so take that clue into consideration when making your wager.
Also, the under 9-1/2 looks good to me as these two big punchers both have questionable chins and the more they weigh, the slower and easier to hit they will be so consider that before wagering.
For the record, I think Lewis will win by knockout but I wouldn't bet on him at that price but I will bet the under barring something unforeseen between now and fight time. The card begins at 6 p.m. The heavyweight title fight is expected to start around 8 p.m.
-- Don't be fooled by what happened last Saturday night in China regarding Muhammad Ali's daughter Laila Ali. Ali fought a real stiff in Kristina King. Ali won when they stopped the one-sided fight 37-seconds into round four but they could have stopped it 37-seconds into round one as it was no contest from the opening bell.
Ali, who is 22 years old and now has a 6-0, 6-KO record, had a field day against King, who is 30 years old. King, had only one professional fight before this mismatch, was so bad the ringside commentators on the Showtime telecast called her "a pathetic opponent" who was "overweight and resembled a female Butterbean" among other disparaging comments.
To be fair, there aren't many women fighters who are competing in the 165-pound weight class that Ali is in, so her opponents will mostly be inexperienced foes. But what they're selling is the Ali name and she will remain undefeated and a draw for a long time.
The main event on that card had Andrew Golota take out unknown and untalented Marcus Rhode in round four of another fight that could easily have been stopped a couple of rounds earlier.
Rhode came in fat and out-of-shape at 250-pounds and offered no offense and little defense before he was gone. Golota is now 35-4 with 29 KO's while Rhode is 24-16.
The card came from the Tian He Sport Centre in the city of Guangzhou (The city, China's second largest after Bejing, used to be called Canton), yet less than half of the seats in the 10,000 seat arena were filled
-- A big TV fight weekend coming up. In addition to the PPV Lewis card and the Univision fights, ESPN2 has 2-1/2 hours of live pro boxing Friday starting at 6 p.m., and on Sunday night FOX Sports Network has two hours of pro fights starting at 7 p.m.
Alan Rogers is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.
