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From this week forward, I’ll be doing my best to try and run down all the major events of the weekend ahead here in this section in the world of combat sport. Whether its boxing, K-1 kickboxing, or MMA, this will hopefully become the one stop shop for where and when you can see the best (and occasionally far from best) action for the weekend.

Boxing’s #1 fighter, Strikeforce’s world class lightweight champ, and the most dominant K-1 heavyweight ever all take to the ring and/or cage this weekend.

FRIDAY:

MMA:

First and foremost, Strikeforce is TONIGHT on HDNet. We briefly ran down the major fights on the card earlier this week in our daily round table, but in case you missed that or haven’t been paying attention, here’s a quick rundown of the card:

The main event features Gilbert Melendez fighting Josh Thomson. “The Punk” is in a Strikeforce title fight against universal top ten lightweight Gilbert Melendez, offering the possibility of a grueling 5 round bout that has a lot of the hardcores excited. The damaged undercard features a second title bout as Bobby Southworth and Anthony Ruiz fight for the second time. Southworth won round one against Ruiz in their first encounter but suffered some brutal cuts and was badly hurt in the second round of their initial nontitle bout. He was stopped, but Ruiz didn’t come home with the title. Now Ruiz has a chance to take the belt, and you can expect him to go all out to do it.

Exciting gatekeeper Nam Pham will also face undefeated lightweight prospect Billy Evangelista, female fighters Elisha Tate and Elaina Maxwell will do battle, and Raymond Daniels faces Jeremiah Metcalf on the under card. (HDNet or your local internet streamer, 10:30PM EST)

BOXING:

Friday nights are generally a big night in the boxing world stateside, as you can bet on anywhere from 2-4 cards being televised on any given Friday night.

-Best boxing card of the night belongs to Telefutura. Abner Mares is headlining the show, and he’s a prized prospect of Golden Boy Productions. As a bantamweight, he’s already appeared on the Marquez/Pacquiao II undercard and on HBO last year in support of Humberto Soto/Joan Guzman. Mares blew out the generally solid Diosdado Gabi on the PPV card, but looked anything but a power puncher against Damian David Marchiano when on HBO last year. His workrate is through the roof however, making him occasionally exciting to watch. Opponent Jonathan Arias is not a particularly big name and apart from a win over Jorge Arce’s brother Francisco, has no one of note under his belt and a recent loss. (Telefutura, 8PM EST)

-ESPN’s card looks like a dud in comparison. They love their undefeated Colombians in Florida, and Breidis Prescott hopes to do better than frauds such as Sam Miller or near misses like Edison Miranda. 10-0-1 Richard Abril gets the call for opposition. Colombian prospect #2 on the show is the 17-1 Juan Camilo Novoa who is matched with the 11-1 Antwone Smith in a fight that sees neither man being well touted or having generated much interest. (ESPN2, 10PM EST)

-Also worth a look on torrents is a bout that was streamed a bunch of places today: Matthew Marsh/Esham Pickering for the Commonwealth Super Bantamweight title is a potential British FOTY candidate in boxing.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY:

MMA:

Two cards, but nothing to be on live TV. Pancrase and DEEP are both running what are even for them essentially B-shows. Hopefully your friendly neighborhood bootlegger will have them for sale in a couple weeks, or they’ll hit torrents.

K-1:

The World Grand Prix marches on, and surprise surprise, they’re stacking the Japanese wing of it to get Musashi in. Who’da thunk? If there’s a spoiler, its Misugu Noda, who has beaten most of his limited competition in K-1. Ewerton Texeira, a kyokushin karate based fighter from Brazil, is also likely to create the some modicum of difficulty in preventing what everyone involved with K-1 wants.

K-1 these days wouldn’t be K-1 without title fights and super fights either. Ageless Peter Aerts will beat the shit out of Jan Nortje. Jerome LeBanner has been given yet another opportunity to be beaten to death by Semmy Schilt for the Super-Duper Heavyweight Title, and Badr Hari will defend the Musashi Memorial Weight Class Heavy-but-not-too-Heavyweight title against Glaube Feitosa, in what will likely prove the best bout of the night. I’m not sure if its running live on TV, but if so, hope someone finds a feed (or look around TVAnts for awhile) and consider waking up at 4AM EST. Well, just consider it. I wouldn’t necessarily do that. (FujiTV? Skyperfect PPV?, 4AM EST Sunday)

BOXING:

If being up at ungodly hours isn’t for you, there’s always boxing, I suppose. Of course, unlike K-1, the boxing will burn a $50 hole in your pocket and its only slightly more competitve. Proving again that use of lousy matchmaking as a conduit to drain fans money is a business model that will never die, Bob Arum offers Manny Pacquiao against someone you’ve probably not heard of. Rather than fight, well, any of many known quantities at the weight, the #1 P4P in his sport will be fighting David Diaz. Having won the vacant title and destroying all sorts of plans by beating Erik Morales in an all out war last year, the former Olympian (Diaz) plans on spoiling Pacquiao’s attempt at winning world titles in 5 weight classes. Diaz is the appreciably larger fighter and technically solid, but against Jose Armando Santa Cruz, displayed the ability to be outworked.

The under card is a god awful train wreck, featuring plenty of ESPN2 opener type fights. Humberto Soto/Francisco Lorenzo is desperate matchmaking to try and right the career of the once surging Soto. The outstandingly mediocre Mario Santiago is matched with the oft boring Steven Luevano in a fight that seems certain to go 12 lopsided rounds in Luevano’s favor. Perhaps the most protected serious prospect in modern history, Tye Fields is set to take on the washed up shell of Monte Barrett, a heavyweight who never seriously approached elite levels when in his prime. (HBO PPV, 9:30PM EST Saturday)