FanHouse DanielPonceDeLeon

During last night's boxing live blog I hardly even mentioned the Juan Manuel Lopez-Daniel Ponce de Leon fight, mostly because it was basically over before it began: Lopez knocked Ponce de Leon down twice in the first round, and after the second, it was over.

HBO's Max Kellerman responded to the performance by saying, "A star is born," and he's absolutely right. Lopez is a destructive fighter, with punching power that guys who weigh 121 pounds just aren't supposed to possess: He's 22-0 with 20 knockouts, and in his two fights that went the distance, he dominated so thoroughly that four of the six judges awarded him every round.

The super bantamweight division has been dominated of late by Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, who fought twice last year and had a rubber match this year. But now there's another super bantamweight force to be reckoned with: Lopez is the real deal.

There are four title fights on cable TV Saturday night, a bonanza for fight fans who won't have to pony up for pay-per-view to catch some good boxing. Since it's boxing in 2008, there's gotta be a drawback and in this case it is that two fights are on HBO and the other two are on Showtime. Still, some judicious flipping and/or the use of a DVR should make it a full night of pugilistic enjoyment.

We'll start by looking at the two HBO fights, live from Atlantic City at 10PM Eastern.

Kelly Pavlik (33-0) vs. Gary Lockett (30-1) for the WBC, WBO and Ring Magazine Middleweight Titles
We start with Pavlik because he's the biggest name, not because this is going to be the best fight of the night. Lockett is a mandatory challenger for Pavlik and he's going to have to come up with a pretty magical effort to hang with Pavlik. He's never fought in the United States before, never fought anyone close to Pavlik's ability and doesn't have the skills of Jermain Taylor or Edison Miranda, each of whom couldn't solve Pavlik's mix of punching power and boxing skills. Unless Pavlik is looking past Lockett, he should end this one fairly early.