An exhilarating season of ESPN Friday Night Fights came to an end last night. We saw unbelievable knockouts and prospects take leaps towards being a house hold name. There were also veterans who showed that they still had what it takes to be in the spotlight. Kelly Pavlik began his comeback campaign in impressive fashion and we saw a fan favorite in Glen Johnson step away from the game. It seemed as if it was great fights and history made every week.
This week’s action was up to par with the rest of the season. ESPN2 viewers and The Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma crowd saw two well known fighters return back to the winning side of things and we caught a glimpse of an up and coming prospect. The first fight of the night was a scheduled 10 round Super Middleweight duel between Donovan George and Dinisio Miranda. Coming in to the contest it was thought that Miranda, who took the fight on one weeks’ notice, would be a push over for George. At first it seemed as if Miranda would stay around for a while but in the end he proved to be just that.
It was an entertaining fight from start to finish. George applied pressure like expected walking Miranda down. But in the early rounds Miranda held his own; he stayed on his bicycle and kept his jab busy to try to ward off the attack. I had them splitting the first 4 rounds, George winning the 1st and 4th and Miranda the 2nd and 3rd.
It appeared that the constant pressure took its toll on Miranda in the 5th and some stamina issues always came into play. George was able to land some nice right straights behind a doubled up jab, along with some decent body shots, and Miranda really slowed down this round. The 6th was even clearer cut for George. He put together some solid blows both upstairs and downstairs and Miranda’s legs turned into rubber. It was one power shot after another from the beginning to the end of the stanza. After the round ended and each fighter was in their corner, referee Gary Ritter paid a visit to Miranda’s corner and with influence from Miranda’s corner men, he stopped the fight. The official timing of the stoppage was a 6th round TKO for George, if you read my preview of the fight you saw that my prediction was dead on.
Sandwiched between the two co-feature bouts was Cuban prospect Vilier Quinonez vs. Eddie Tigs in a 4 round Light Heavyweight fight. Tigs, who is actually a super middleweight was out classed for all 4 rounds. He was the smaller man and it showed. Quinonez bullied him around the ring the entire fight landing thudding punches and pushing Tigs around. Quinonez applied steady pressure in every round and wasn’t in danger once throughout the fight. The only time Tigs turned it up was in the 4th and final round and even that was only in spurts. It was an easy fight to score with all 3 judges, Teddy Atlas and myself all scoring the fight 40-36 in favor of Quinonez.
The final fight of the night pinned Carlos Molina against Damian Frias in 10 rounds of Jr. Middleweight action. Molina entered the fight coming off his very controversial DQ loss to James Kirkland earlier this year. Molina looked like Molina all night. He gave Frias a steady dose of heavy body shots all fight. Molina would come in land at will the move back out and to avoid what Frias had to offer him. Molina fought the left handed Frias with intelligence as well as skill. He kept his lead foot outside Frias’ the entire bout. Doing that keeps you away from the power hand of your opponent and puts him in line for your power shots.
Every round looked pretty much exactly the same. Frias never had Molina in deep waters once, well to be honest Molina barely got wet. Molina dominated the fight with smart defense, good footwork, not wasting his punches and the body work I spoke about earlier. In my preview I wrote that I would be shocked if Frias won more than 1 round. I should have written that I would be shocked if Frias won 1 round. It was an easy to score 100-90 blowout unanimous decision victory; all 3 judges were in agreement with that score and it was also my score.
It was another good night of boxing to finish off a very successful season for ESPN. I won’t lie, I’m going to miss coming home and watching the fights every Friday. Teddy and Joe Tessitore will have every week off until January of next year. Even though last night was technically the final ESPN Friday Night Fights of the year, they will back on the air Thursday September 13th when Jesse Vargas (19-0 9KO’s) and Aaron Martinez (18-1-1 4KO’s) go to battle in a 10 round Welterweight bout.
