By Norm Frauenheim-
Finally, a new calendar with all of the renewed optimism and good humor that goes with it. Twelve predictions, one for every month:
- Opening bell for the New Year begins on Jan. 20 with an appropriate face. Errol Spence Jr. looks a lot like the future and he’ll provide an interesting preview on Showtime against Lamont Peterson at Barclays Center in a welterweight fight. Spence wins, impressively enough to ignite speculation about a bout with Keith Thurman and even Terence Crawford.
- Roy Jones Jr. fights for what he says will be his farewell on Feb. 8 in hometown Pensacola. Six weeks later, he announces that he’ll fight one more time.
- Deontay Wilder gets out-boxed early by Luis Ortiz. Ortiz tires late, drops his hands and gets knocked out by a Wilder right in the 10th. When Ortiz regains consciousness, he realizes he was leading on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
- Anthony Joshua blows away Joseph Parker in front of another UK soccer-like crowd. Talks for a heavyweight showdown between Joshua and Wilder begin, but stall. Wilder wants a 50-50 split. Joshua demands 60-40. Joshua agrees to fight Tyson Fury instead.
- Oscar Valdez Jr., gets knocked down by Scott Quiqq on March 10 at StubHub Center, gets up and scores a late-round TKO in another crowd-pleaser from the Mexican featherweight, who gives fans more drama and trainer Manny Robles another gray hair.
- A Russian tests positive.
- Adrien Broner gets arrested.
- Canelo Alvarez shows he doesn’t forget. He learned a lot from his 2013 loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He proves he’s still a good student, learning from his 2017 draw with Gennady Golovkin. This time, Canelo scores a unanimous decision over GGG.
- After Mikey Garcia wins in a dominant performance over Sergey Lipinets on Feb. 10 in San Antonio for a 140-pound title, he goes back to 135 for a stoppage of skilled Jorge Linares. But a much-talked-about showdown with Vasyl Lomachenko looks to be as far away as ever, mostly because Top Rank is still angry with their former client. Top Rank decides to let the Lomachenko-Garcia possibility marinate for another year.
- A restless Andre Ward decides to attempt a comeback. He is tempted by heavyweight wages. In a test run at cruiser (200 pounds), however, the 6-foot-1 former light-heavyweight champ learns he’s just too small for a division topped by the 6-6 Joshua and 6-7 Wilder. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who dethroned Roman Gonzalez in 2017, agrees to a 118-pound bout with Naoya Inoue, known as The Monster in Japan. In the history of the forgotten little guys, the fight ranks among the best ever. At the end of 2018, it’s also a leading contender for Fight of the Year.
- UFC President Dana White continues to make inroads into boxing. All the while, his relationship with Bob Arum heats up and boils over into an entertaining exchange of one-liners and insults. It’s the best promotional rivalry since Arum-Don King throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s when the business was wildly successful