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For the millions of Americans celebrating the holiday, Christmas supper will likely be done. Desserts will be served or on their way. A healthy set of those millions of homes will know or soon know how a clash between the Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns wrapped up.
Then the opening bell will sound.
It won’t be from Santa’s sleigh either.
In prime time, on Christmas night, Fox (8 PM EST) is airing boxing to the nation and putting a spotlight on two young talents with a golden opportunity to catch eyes ready to sit still for a minute and see what’s on.
It could end up being a shrewd play.
In the main event, airing from the Prudential Center in Newark, 19-year old New Jersey welterweight prospect Vito Mielnicki Jr. (9-1, 6 KO) will face Rhode Island’s Nicholas DeLomba (16-3, 5 KO). It will be Mielnicki’s first scheduled ten round contest and second bout since a loss to James Martin. Mielnicki has been a regular on televised undercards in his early career development but this is the biggest spotlight of his career.
DeLomba has only been stopped once and enters off a distance loss to Richardson Hitchins in his last bout.
The spotlight will be just as big for 21-year old Michigan middleweight hopeful Joey Spencer (13-0, 9 KO) and the spotlight may be even brighter for Spencer the man who will get to scratch first on the broadcast. Spencer is scheduled for eight rounds against 30-year old Mexican Limberth Ponce (18-4, 11 KO). Ponce has never been stopped and has a style that should make for action.
Action has to be the goal in the matchmaking here with an eye toward the future.
It remains to be seen whether Mielnicki or Spencer will develop into a real contender one day. If they do, this is a great foundation. Even if they don’t, the visibility can lend itself to being something boxing always needs: reliable television fighters.
Reliable television fighters don’t have to win every time out but they need to be the sort of fighters people want to watch when they’re on. The PBC has been positioning both to be at least that and is giving them a hell of a main line to the nation on Christmas Day.
One of the problems boxing can run into is competition not only from itself but also other sports. There are no bigger sports obstacles than the NFL and piggy backing off of a holiday appearance from one of the game’s living greats, Aaron Rodgers, is a gift that could keep on giving over time.
It won’t stop a vast array of viewers from changing the channel after the Packers-Browns game to see the NBA battle pitting Lebron James and the Los Angeles Lakers against Kevin Durant and the New Jersey Nets. It doesn’t have to. It just needs to keep more viewers than might usually be the case for a boxing card on Fox. Ratings have been good for most shows on the network, including a Fox show featuring super middleweight David Morell last Saturday that did in the neighborhood of a million viewers over the course of the broadcast and more than that in peak for the main event.
Morrell didn’t have the same quality lead in or the benefit of a stationary holiday audience.
If this Saturday’s show can keep a few more eyeballs, it’s then up to Mielnicki and Spencer to give those eyes something to look forward to going forward. If they can, the spotlight can only get brighter in 2022.
Cliff’s Notes…
How is it possible Chris Arreola-Dereck Chisora has never been a thing? It seems like such perfect matchmaking…Best wishes on a speedy recovery for David Diamante…Women’s boxing could have one of its best in-ring years ever in 2022. Will the fans reward them for it? Let’s hope they do…Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios may or may not been seen as value on pay-per-view for fans but the fight looks good on paper…For everyone who takes the time to read this space every week, or any other space here at BoxingScene every day, wishes for the happiest and healthiest of holidays this season.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.