Mansour Decisions Dawejko in “Friday Night Fights” Main Event

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Amir Mansour vs. Joey Dawejko Amir Mansour took on the hometown favorite Joey Dawejko in a heavyweight bout scheduled for 10 rounds. Mansour-Dawejko was the main event for tonight’s ESPN2 “Friday Night Fights” that came to us live from 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The first round was relatively slow and most of Mansour’s activity was just him posturing. Dawejko was able to move and keep himself out of danger for the most part, he even managed to land a nice counter punch toward the end of the round. In fact, it was the best punch of the round, and since it was the 1st it was also the best punch of the fight. It was a small moment, but it showed Mansour that he’d have to make the fight or risk allowing the smaller guy to out slick him.

A vicious head-butt was the story of the second round. It cut open Mansour under his right eye and things got bloody quick. There were a lot of big misses from both fighters in the 2nd, but a Dawejko pro crowd gave him the benefit of the doubt and possibly influenced the judges.

Dawejko suffered a cut of his own in the 3rd round after catching Mansour with a nice counter shot.

In the fourth, Dawejko caught Mansour coming in with a hard left out of the southpaw stance. It wobbled Mansour and his glove nearly touched the canvas. He was able to stay up and at that point he got aggressive and started throwing off balance shots at Dawejko. Dawejko was able to move and being the quicker fighter was enough to stay out of trouble, while counter shots of his own when he chose to.

Both fighters proved their heart and they never allowed the cuts to affect them very much. The rhythm of the fight tended to favor Dawejko’s boxing ability, although Mansour wasn’t able to find as much success with his bull rush approach. Dawejko was being smart, he wasn’t being overzealous or making things harder on himself by exerting energy for no reason. Mansour wasn’t as tactical, but he had his moments where Joey was open and he failed to take real advantage.

As Mansour calmed down he realized that he was allowing Dawejko’s best game to be on full display and he decided to slow things down a bit and regroup. Mansour started using his jab, although never to its full potential. Mansour began winning rounds by sheer output.

Mansour was able to shut Joey down by keeping him pinned and only allowing him to come out when Mansour was able to keep the distance. Dawejko’s counter punching was never as effective as it was early on and he never got a real offense together.

The fight went the distance and the judges turned in the scores of 96-94, 98-92, and 97-93, giving Mansour the unanimous decision win.