Diaz, Jantuah Triumph on Friday Night Fights
Dateline: 05/08/99Last night's edition of ESPN2's Friday Night Fights was instantly forgettable, but with the dearth of fights on free (or at least basic cable) television these days, boxing fans are basically left with a weekly choice of FNF or nothing. If it weren't for the consistent strength of HBO's offerings, the sport would be in far worse shape than it already is.
Enough griping, on to the action from the All-American Sports Park in Las Vegas. In the main event, Antonio Diaz (27-2, 19 KOs) earned a 12-round unanimous decision over Marlon Thomas (18-4-1, 12 KOs) to retain his IBA junior welterweight title -- that's right, the IBA title. The fight's only knockdown came in the fifth when, shortly after being hit with a low blow, Diaz opened up a bit and put Thomas down with a hard right hand. Diaz was slightly busier than Thomas, but neither fighter was particularly accurate with his punches -- Diaz landed 129 of 592 punches (22%); Thomas landed 135 of 561 (24%). The final scores - 114-113, 114-113 and 116-111 - all favored Diaz, but given the surprisingly narrow margin on two judges' cards, only the knockdown prevented Diaz from having to settle for a majority decision draw. At 22, Diaz is a good fighter, but appears to need some work before challenging the likes of Zab Judah, Kostya Tszyu or Miguel Angel Gonzalez.
On the undercard, Kofi Jantuah (12-0, 6 KOs) upset favored Daniel Santos (20-1-1, 15 KOs) in a junior middleweight bout scheduled for ten. Jantuah, a strong but raw fighter, took the fight to Santos in the early rounds and landed his right with some effectiveness. Santos seemed to be settling down and utilizing his superior boxing skills when - late in the fifth round - he caught a Jantuah right hand high on the head and hit the canvas. Santos beat the count but was clearly disoriented and the ref stopped the fight with ten seconds to go in the round. Jantuah is far from a finished product, but with his tools and this upset victory under his belt has to be considered a legitimate prospect.
Finally, Rudy Martinez (8-0, 6 KO) knocked out Eddie Utorov (4-2, 3 KO) in the second round of their scheduled four round super bantamweight bout. Utorov was knocked down with a glancing right in the first and finished off with an equally unimpressive right in the second. Either Martinez, 19, has deceptive power or Utorov just can't take a punch -- probably a bit of both.
Next week on Friday Night Fights, it's super middleweights Omar Sheika (15-1) and Demetrius Jenkins (13-3, 11 KOs).
