In a more exciting than was expected evening, HBO and SHOWTIME put on four quality fights Saturday night. Not that they were expected to be boring, but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall amount of action.

Watching the fights in the order that they happened, Glen Johnson was as game as he could be, but fell just a bit short against Chad Dawson. While Johnson appeared to throw harder punches and hurt Dawson a few times, Dawson controlled the middle rounds with quality ring generalship and counter punching. While I scored the fight about even, I can’t argue with Dawson taking a decision.

Then, it was on to HBO, where Antonio Margarito impressed the shit out of me, completely beating down Kermit Cintron for the second time. I expected Cintron to be much better than he was the first time they met, but the fight played out very nearly the same way as the first fight.

The fight that Margarito fought in this fight was about as impressive of a performance as I’ve seen this year. The Margarito that was in the ring in this fight would be a nightmare for any welterweight in the world, including Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto. Anybody who can throw 130 punches a round and do it with a granite chin is tough to beat. A-plus for Margarito for this fight.

Then it was time for the main events, which overlapped, so I had to make a choice. I went with Miguel Cotto and Alfonso Gomez because I had a hunch it would be quicker and more exciting, and sure enough, it was. Quicker, at least. This fight was completely one-sided, with Cotto appearing to be in a glorified sparring session, not a welterweight title fight. Gomez was game and had heart, but he was sorely overmatched. The doctor thankfully put an end to his misery after the sixth round, and Cotto escaped practically unmarked.

This sets up a fantastic bout between Cotto and Margarito, with contracts already in place for it to happen later this year. Cotto looks unstoppable right now at welterweight, and Margarito just showed that he has it in him to fight like a man possessed. I went from being indifferent towards this matchup to being very excited at the prospect of watching it.

Then I finally got around to watching the Antonio Tarver – Clinton Woods fight back on SHOWTIME. I honestly didn’t think Tarver had this fight in him, but he sure proved me wrong. Tarver has an amazing ability to fight to his opponents level. Against great fighters, he fights great. Against lesser opponents, Tarver brings his C-game more often than not. Having said that, this is the most dominating performance I’ve seen out of Tarver in quite some time.

I don’t know what’s next for these light-heavyweights, whether Tarver will actually fight Dawson now, but there are some interesting fights to be made. Next week’s winner of the Hopkins-Calzaghe fight is in the mix, as are Dawson and Tarver, as well as Roy Jones, Jr. and linear champion Zsolt Erdei.

Overall, some quality boxing from both networks. I was thoroughly entertained by both undercard matches, and am now actually looking forward to Cotto-Margarito.

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