This Saturday night, while hordes of media whores descend upon Washington to cover the Mike Tyson-Kevin McBride circus, Puerto Rican sensation Miguel Cotto will be making his New York City debut at the legendary Madison Square Garden and no doubt in front of a strong and vociferous Puerto Rican crowd.

Cotto, 23-0 (19), will be facing the man who beat him in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Muhammad Abdullaev of Uzbekistan, who went on to win the gold medal. On the undercard, another Olympic gold medallist, Cuban star Joel Cassamayor, goes up against Kyrgyzstan's Almazbek Raiymkulov.

For true boxing fans, deciding whether to watch the HBO telecast or Showtime's Tyson-McBride fight isn't a difficult one; anyone who's seen Cotto fight knows what they're getting, and the quality of the undercard bout is an added bonus. Those choosing instead to watch "Iron Mike" with the pathetic hopes of having the former "Baddest Man On The Planet" transform into the explosive 1986 version of his former self doesn't deserve to see Cotto-Abdullaev, anyway.

Against Abdullaev, 15-1 (12), Cotto is hoping to avenge his amateur loss the way he did against hard-hitting Brazilian Kelson Pinto last year. Abdullaev, 31, is a boxer-puncher like Cotto whose road to stardom was derailed by a controversial loss to Emmanuel Clottey in 2003. Though Abdullaev beat Cotto in the Olympics, Cotto has fought more professional fights and against better opposition; he's also been more active, which should make him the man to beat. Demarcus Corley demonstrated in Cotto's last fight that the Puerto Rican has trouble with boxers posessing good hand speed, but Abdullaev is not as fast or as agile as Corley. If Cotto uses his trademark high guard and stalks Abdullaev with a constant body attack, he should be able to wear him down and eventually stop him. Cotto will have the crowd on his side (which, as we've recently seen with Hatton-Tszyu, can be a huge factor in a fight), and if he keeps the pressure on his Olympic foe, he will avenge his loss.

Prediction: Cotto KO 8

The Cuban government promised to give Joel Cassamayor a house if he won Olympic gold. When he returned with the medal, they gave him a bicycle. So he defected to Miami.

Cassamayor, 31-3 (19), returns to the ring as a favourite over Las Vegas-based Raiymkulov, 20-0 (12), whose nickname is "Kid Diamond" and whose punching power is being compared to that of Kostya Tszyu. An extremely self-assured fighter, Raiymkulov is an up-and-comer who as of late has been generating a lot of buzz, but Cassamayor is a slick, dirty, boxer-puncher who has been in the ring with Acelino Freitas and Diego Corrales and just recently lost a close decision to Jose Luis Castillo. It remains to be seen what kind of power Raiymkulov posesses, but it may turn out that Cassamayor's experience will expose Raiymkulov as a diamond in the rough.

Prediction: Cassamayor by decision