Santa Cruz vs Frampton, Stevenson vs Williams, more: Boxing fight times and TV schedule for July 29-30

Friday, July 29

Spike, 9 p.m. ET, Adonis Stevenson vs Thomas Williams Jr, Eleider Alvarez vs Robert Berridge. Stevenson still isn’t fighting Kovalev, which has been the knock on him for a couple years now, but Thomas Williams Jr comes to fight, has no fear, and can bang. This fight does not figure to go the distance, or even reach double digit rounds, because for Williams’ strengths, you also have a sometimes spotty defense, and Stevenson, too, has power, and is a good fighter who picks shots well. So I’m excited for what this could be as an action fight, at least. The co-feature is a stay-busy for Alvarez, who will face the Stevenson-Williams winner next, most likely. BLH will have live coverage.

Saturday, July 30

Sky Sports (UK), 3:30 p.m. ET, Josh Warrington vs Patrick Hyland, Luke Campbell vs Argenis Mendez, Dillian Whyte vs David Allen, Tyrone Nurse vs Tommy Coyle, Gamal Yafai vs Josh Wale. It’s a full card if not a hugely compelling one, with plenty of notable domestic fighters in action. The most interesting fight here might be Whyte-Allen. Campbell is fighting Mendez for the WBC’s silver title at lightweight, which is pretty ridiculous, but when you’ve got money behind your career, anything is possible. BLH will have live coverage.

SHO Extreme / BoxNation (UK), 7 p.m. ET, Paulie Malignaggi vs Gabriel Bracero, Ivan Redkach vs Tevin Farmer. Two fights on SHO Extreme from the Barclays Center before the main card tripleheader. Malignaggi will be defending his Brooklyn title against Tito Bracero, apparently, which is great. Redkach-Farmer is kind of a make or break for both guys. Redkach was blown out last year by Dejan Zlaticanin, and is coming off of a draw against Luis Cruz. Farmer has four losses, all in the first 12 fights of his career, but he’s a good boxer who’s been itching for a shot like this. BLH will have live coverage.

SHO / BoxNation (UK), 9 p.m. ET, Leo Santa Cruz vs Carl Frampton, Mikey Garcia vs Elio Rojas, Tony Harrison vs Sergey Rabchenko. Santa Cruz-Frampton is, like last weekend’s Crawford-Postol fight, a matchup that people actually want to see, or at least should want to see. Santa Cruz is established at featherweight, where he’s won a world title in a third weight class, while Frampton is coming up from 122, where he held two belts. This one is happening at a great time, each man is still unbeaten, both have been on good runs. Nothing to dislike here. Garcia will be fighting for the first time since January 2014, while Rojas, a former WBC featherweight titleholder, hasn’t fought since August 2014, so nobody should have any advantage there. Harrison-Rabchenko is a really interesting matchup at 154, and could go either way. BLH will have live coverage.

HBO Latino, 11:30 p.m. ET, Antonio Orozco vs Abner Lopez, Joseph Diaz Jr vs Victor Proa. Better to stay busy than to not, but neither Orozco nor Diaz are in tough here. Lopez lost his last fight, and Proa has fought once since 2010, and the one time he faced a good opponent, Raul Martinez knocked him out in 68 seconds — and that was eight years and three weight classes ago.