By Joe Harrison
This past Friday, Chicago fan-favorite Miguel Hernandez (20-8, 10 KOs), formerly from “The Contender”, was punished for eight rounds before losing by a unanimous decision to Derrick Findley (11-2, 7 KOs) of Gary, Indiana at Cicero Stadium located just outside Chicago, Illinois. It was a bloody affair as Finley continuously battered the face of Hernandez, causing blood to pour from each of his nostrils and splatter everywhere from each connection.
Before the bout began, the pro-Hernandez crowd openly expressed their relentless booing toward Findley as Hernandez smiled and waived to his fans. Findley only glared and pounded his gloves together, like a hungry animal waiting to break out of his cage. His bulging muscles alone were enough to intimidate any spectator.
From the start of the opening bell, Findley viciously attacked the body of Hernandez. Once the pace calmed down, Hernandez began to force the action utilizing his jab. Finley was able to block most of the punches coming from Hernandez and seemed exceptionally accurate with his own fists. Hernandez stayed busy, imposing his will upon Findley, but to no avail as Findley was clearly landing the more effective punches.
As the rounds continued, it was more of the same as Finley continued to use his excellent defense and punching accuracy to pummel the face and body of Hernandez. At moments, Hernandez gained momentum and went on the attack, but failed to land any damaging blows. By the end of the third round, Hernandez was breathing heavily and appeared to be fatigued.
It was the fourth round when the blood appeared on the face of Hernandez, spilling out of his nostrils. Still, he sustained his motivation and tried to force the action on Findley. He may have even won this round as he backed Findley against the ropes and attacked him. The two exchanged until the final bell.
For the remainder of the contest, Hernandez continued to attack, missing his punches, while Finley pummeled Hernandez seemingly with ease. The face of Findley even appeared to show remorse as he constantly made comments to both Hernandez and Referee Pete Podgorski about ending the bout, but it never happened. Hernandez continued to be the busier boxer, but he was also the less effective boxer. In the end, Judge Mauro DiFiore had the score of 73-79 while Judges Emily Cain and Gary Kruse each scored it 72-80, all in favor of Findley.
Earlier in the evening, Irish jr. middleweight prospect, Henry Coyle (7-1, 7 KOs), used his spectacular punching power to defeat Ben Aragon (7-10-2, 5 KO) by a 3rd-round TKO in a scheduled eight-round contest. Coye had a rocky start as he came out during the opening bell and was greeted with a barrage of punches to the face. Almost immediately after this, Coyle landed his own punches, backing off his surprised opponent. Coyle sustained his attack of punches to the head and body of Aragon, breaking him down to a point where he just covered up for long periods of time.
At the start of the second round, a right hand from Coyle instantly sent Aragon to the canvas. Once the bout resumed, as if he had finally woken up, Aragon began to land counter punches and revealed that he was still in the fight. In the third round, the two boxers began to exchange, but Coyle was landing the harder punches. Aragon was backed into the corner as Coyle unloaded an arsenal of hooks and uppercuts just as the Referee Pete Podgorski stepped in and waived the bout off. The official time was 1:18 of the third round.
Also on the card, bantamweight Francisco Rodriguez (12-2, 8 KOs) stopped Angel Priolo (30-7, 20 KOs) in the third round of their scheduled eight-round bout. The match started with both fighters establishing their jabs; however, it was the jab of Rodriguez that was landing more frequently. He proceeded to back Priolo against the ropes and attacked his body. Priolo went down at the sound of the bell ending the round.
In the second round, Priolo tried to use his experience to dictate the bout, landing left-right combos, but was eventually warned for low blows at one point. Rodriguez started to back Priolo up again, and a left hook sent him to the canvas. When the bout resumed, the boxers began to exchange punches. Priolo barely survived the round.
At the start of the third round, the boxers began to exchange again. Rodriguez seemed to be back in control, landing punches to the body and face of Priolo. Suddenly, Priolo was down again, and Referee Gerald Scott waived off the bout. The official time was 2:23 of the third round.
