Friday Night Fights is Back ... with a Stinker
"Quite honestly, we're gonna have good fights for you people, in the coming months, for this new season. But tonight, I'm sorry to say, a little coal in the stockings, because I think we should have done a little bit better job of putting together this show. But, you never know, hopefully we will wind up having something to be able to talk about."Wow. Such honesty could land him in hot water with ESPN management.
So what was so bad about the televised fights? Plenty. The first fight saw Louis Sargeant (9-11-2) TKO Darrell Woods (26-12) in four. The action itself was decent but Woods, 40, was coming off a first round KO loss in his most recent bout ... and he was heavily favored against Sargeant who had lost six of his previous ten.
In the next bout, Bryon Tyson (9-0) came back from a 32-month layoff to dominate Claudio Ortiz (6-15), who came into the fight having lost seven straight. Make it eight straight after Ortiz did everything he could to get himself disqualified and eventually succeeded in the fourth when the referee finally decided he had seen enough tripping, head butting, elbows and blows behind the head to call a halt to the mismatch. The performance by Ortiz was an embarrassment to the sport and he deserves a lengthy suspension.
In the "main event", former heavyweight prospect Dominick Guinn (28-6-1) finally hit rock bottom with an astonishingly lethargic and uninspired performance against journeyman Robert Hawkins (23-10), who came in having lost six out of seven. Guinn, who holds wins over Michael Grant and Audley Harrison, made no effort whatsoever and is now 4-6-1 over the past four years. Still only 32, Guinn has apparently lost whatever competitive spirit he may have once possessed and should either take a long break from the sport or simply retire.
The only bright spot, other that Atlas' honesty, was Roy Jones Jr. as the studio guest. Jones predicted he would stop Felix Trinidad in four rounds on January 19 and follow that up with a trip to Wales to fight Joe Calzaghe.
Comments
The first night of the season did have some low rate fights, but at least RJ was in studio. It does look like that ESPN is going to have better fighers this season than last; they will be having Pascal on air again and will be showing Miranda as well as others. Overall the new season looks to be pretty good despite the disappointing debut.
I wish ESPN would do more to promote FNF. I didn’t even know it was on. But I guess I should be glad I missed it? But seeing how Miranda is on one of the cards and his fight with Pavlik made me huge fans of both. I can’t wait!
Wow here we are with Roy..he’s at a low point in his career…ok his ko loss to Tarver was’nt that bad he got caught by a shot he didnt see in a battle and as a fight fanatic i know that those are the ones to do it…it’s his ko loss to Glen-johnson and his 2nd loss to Tarver that had me thinking it is time to take a easy fight and retire but roy decided to take on two top challengers..Prince Badi Ajamu a b+ fighter and Anthony Hanshaw another b+ in the sense they both were undefeated…i guess that’s counts for something…now he’s targeting Trinidad…well that’s a b- fight… Trinidad was ko’d by B-Hops and outboxed by Wright 2 hall of famers but they werent titanic fights trinidad got beat up….with minimal damage to the other 2..now Roy against Calzahge that’s worth calling an A+ fight…+ about it well Roy stepping up against a undefeated boxer with actual credential to match…speed, descent power, great chin, and stamina…. a- because this fight has been talked about and talked about and neither has made effort to actually make it happen.. now that would be(in my opininon) a reason to forgive the glen-johnson and tarver debacles and return him back to top tier status not p4p he’s has to avenge that against Johnson and Tarver….and then ride off into the sunset…
I was very disappointed that they had failed to arrange better matches. With
a little more effort, there could have been a much better array of matches.The first two bouts should have not even
taken place. The main event= ZZZZZZZZ.
Heavyweights and Cruiserweights often
give “snoozers”. The lighter weights like Lightweight, Welterweight, Etc. are usually going to yield much more interesting matches.The Friday Night Fights do need better promotion and better selection of matches.
Teddy Atlas is about as good as any fight guy ever and it has always seemed dumb to me that he has not been picked up by HBO or Showtime for the big bouts. Teddy and Manny should get to be the lead guys, not the turkeys they put up to call fights. ESPN will get better.
I love the honesty of Teddy Atlas and think he is a terrific commentator. He doesntplay favorites and he calls it like it is. hile I like the HBO team, Showtime is doing themselves a dis-service by not picking him up. He’s far superior to their broadcast team.