The season finale of ESPN Friday Night Fights is going to be a doozy. What was supposed to be a showdown at The Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma between two very promising super middleweight contenders turned into a very enticing co-main event? Instead of stepping in the ring with Adonis Stevenson, Donovan George (22-2-1 19KO’s) will be facing off against Dionisio Miranda (21-7-2 18KO’s) in a 10 round super middleweight bout. In another potential thriller, Carlos Molina (19-5-2 6KO’s) will tangle will Damian Frias(19-4-1 10KO’s) in 10 rounds of Jr. middleweight action.
George is looking to right the ship since losing a unanimous decision to highly touted prospect Edwin Rodriguez in March, and going 2-2 dating back to July 2010. To add more confusion to his recent woes, his original opponent was supposed to be Adonis Stevenson in a world title eliminator on the undercard of Pascal-Cloud, on Aug. 11th. After Pascal suffered a hand injury the whole card was postponed and the George vs. Stevenson matchup was moved to this week’s installment of Friday Night Fights. Then, another hand injury put a hold on their fight again, instead this time it was an injury to Stevenson and Miranda stepped up the plate.
This is a fight that George absolutely can not overlook. Not only is Miranda a formidable opponent but fighting Stevenson later this year in October weighs solely on getting a victory this weekend. George hopes that beating Stevenson will make him the mandatory challenger for Carl Froch’s IBF title. But first he must get through Miranda. The probability that George-Miranda ends in a knockout is very likely. While both fighters each have all but 3 of their wins coming by way of knockout, Miranda has been knocked out 6 out his 7 losses. So we can definitely expect some sparks to fly Friday evening.
Miranda is coming into this fight trying to get his career back on track. He lost 5 of his last 8 fights consisting of being knocked out 4 times and he desperately needs a win. Though he’s solid opposition, Miranda is a hold over fight for George but as we all know, anything can happen and as the amount of KO’s Miranda has can tell you, one punch can resurrect his career.
The second half of the co-feature is headlined by Carlos Molina. Molina, a very tough fighter is coming off a controversial DQ loss to James Kirkland in March of this year. In a fight that Molina was winning on 2 out of the 3 judges’ scorecards, he was dropped at the end of the 10th and then disqualified for his corner entering the ring while the round was still in progress. What a heartbreaking, career halting loss that was. He went from being in a WBC Jr. Middleweight semi-final title eliminator to going back to the drawing board.
Taking a look back at Molina’s 9 year, 26 fight career, he has been in the ring with very notable opponents and has shown traits of a future champion. Since his back to back bouts with Julio Cesar Chavez, fighting to a draw in late 05′ and losing a close decision in early 06′, he suffered consecutive losses then he came into his own. A nine fight win streak from Feb. 2002 to June 2009 included winning the NABO light middleweight title against Danny Perez. After Perez, a year and a half layoff ended in 2011 when he fought one of the most ducked fighters in the game Erislandy Lara to a draw. A month later he scored a 7th round TKO over Allen Conyers. Molina continued to stay busy that year by getting in the ring with Kermit Cintron and he was dominant. All 3 judges scored the fight 98-92 in Molina’s favor. A win against overmatched Frias will put Molina back in the conversation for a big fight.
Damian Frias has a huge opportunity this weekend. He can go from unknown to contender by recording a win over Molina. The southpaw has a solid record and some pretty nice boxing skills to match. Frias has won his last three fights and all by TKO. His most recent victory was against the only decent fighter of the three, Henry Crawford. The other two wins came against mere punching bags with a combined record of 27-66-4. At the age of 35, Frias has to get something going soon or it will be curtains on his boxing career.
Overall I expect some excitement from these 2 fights. Both contests have fighters that are looking to return back to their winning ways. In the Molina-Frias battle I see Molina dominating from the opening bell. In my opinion if Frias wins more than 1 round it will be a shock. Carlos is going to have a chance to look very impressive on a nationally televised event and hopefully set up a fight with a bigger name. My prediction is Molina scoring a lopsided unanimous decision.
However long the George-Miranda fight lasts it’s going to be action packed and hard hitting. Being that George is expected to fight in less than 2 months I think he’ll look to make quick work of Miranda. My magic 8 ball tells me it’s going to be a 6th round TKO victory for Donovan George.
Don’t miss the final ESPN Friday Night Fights of the season; it begins at 10pm on ESPN2.
