TWIB

The headliner on the first of the two competing cards this weekend is Carl Froch versus Jermain Taylor. I've not seen Froch a whole lot, but his style --lots of offense, lots of carelessness-- should make it an entertaining fight. Taylor's reluctance to let his hands go could make this a much closer fight than it has to be, and I can imagine Froch taking this on pure work rate. However, I think Taylor, once forced to fight, will find plenty of openings in Froch's defense, and will batter him over the second half on his way to a unanimous decision. On the undercard, I like Allan Green by knockout over Carlos De Leon.

On the HBO card, Juan Manuel López faces the cagiest boxer of his career in Gerry Penalosa. I love López's skills, but it worries me that I've not seen him get hit a whole lot, and that he's won so many recent fights without a whole lot of effort. I don't think Penalosa, a 36-year-old with 60 fights who's moving up in weight, is going to be the guy to touch him for the first time, but if Penalosa can get the fight into the middle rounds, I think this could be more of a challenge than most López fans expect. Ultimately, however, I see the Puerto Rican winning by a late stoppage. In the opening bout, I'll take Lamont Peterson over Willy Blaine in a snoozer.

In tonight's fights, Deandre Latimore looks to make his mark as a 154-pound force (as if there weren't enough of them already) in a hometown bout with Cory Spinks. Latimore looked great in blasting out Sechew Powell last year, but he has no other name of note on his ledger. In his twenty bouts, Latimore has faced all of four men with winning records, and one of them was just 5-3, while another knocked him out in the third. I acknowledge that Spinks is a soft-punching part-time fighter who is on the down side of his career, and his legs might not be there for him, but Latimore has nothing approaching Spinks' experience. I think the veteran takes a decision.

In the other fights of note this weekend, I like Antonio Escalante over Gary Stark, Devon Alexander over Chuy Rodriguez, and Daniel Jacobs over José Varela, all by knockout.