By Rick Reeno
Enough Boxing on TV tonight to keep three VCRs going at the same time. We saw some old faces, some prospects coming into their own, some fighters taking a step up in class, some fighters showing a glimpse of Boxing's future and some undefeated fighters exposed.
In all, one of the biggest night's of Boxing on a Friday in some time and I think it's good for the sport. There should be more Friday nights like this. Plenty of fighters were seen that the two big networks usually don't showcase so it give fans the opportunity to see some good action from fighters who could possibly be the future of the sport.
Let's break down the fights tonight and go into a complete rundown of tonight's events.
ESPN's Friday Night Fights
In the first bout of the evening, we saw undefeated former Olympian Calvin Brock take on veteran Clifford Ettiene. The first round was slow, but the action heated up as the fight went on.
Brock caught Ettiene and dropped him the second round with the first hard shot that connected. As with most of Ettiene's losses, his suspect chin showed up. Ettiene got up and actually came back strong at the end of the round. In the third round, Ettiene was dropped two more times by Brock and was wobbling around for most of the round. Upon the second time he went down. The referee Laurence Cole had seen enough and stopped the fight. Big win for Calvin Brock, Brock said he is now ready for the elite of the heavyweight division.
The next bout saw bantamweight prospect Raul Martinez destroy Len Martinez in under two minutes of the first round. The bout was scheduled for four rounds but might as well been scheduled for one. Not even close, Martinez looking very impressive in a blowout.
The main event saw rising star Juan Diaz put his undefeated record and WBA lightweight title on the line against Canadian journeyman Billy Irwin. Diaz beat Irwin like a dog from the start to the finish of the fight. The workrate of Diaz was unbelievable as he threw 70-100 punches per round, most of them being power shots. The knock on Diaz is that his lack of power was once again exposed, with landing so many clean power shots, he could not knock out Billy Irwin. Irwin was dropped in the second round, his face was a mess but could of taken the punches of Diaz all night.
The ref Earl Morton had seen enough in the ninth round and stopped the action as Irwin was not doing much of anything in any of the rounds other then leaning against the ropes and being pounded to the head and body. Irwin was stopped for the first time in his long career, he announced prior to the bout that this would be his last.
Telefutura
We saw former champion Yori Boy Campas take on rising middleweight prospect Eric Regan. This fight was boring from start to finish, a pure snooze fest. Campas did nothing for twelve long rounds and Regan just jabbed him to death until the final bell. The entire arena was upset and justifiably so. When the decision was announced, the entire arena booed. Scores were 120-108, 120-108 an 118-110, all for Regan.
ShoBox
Undefeated Sechew Powell kept his winning streak alive with an eight round decision over the very game Patrick Thompson. Powell leaves himself open way too much and was very lucky that Thompson has very little power. Another problem I have with Powell is he tends to be very sloppy with his punches at times, they go way off the mark and any skilled fighter could easily counter the shots. Powell battered Thompson in the fight but Thompson never stopped fighting and always kept trying to come forward and punch. Powell's boxing skills are getting better but he is a long way from being a "threat" in the junior middleweight division.
Thompson was briefly dropped in round 5, but came back up to keep trying to fight. The scores were 79-73, 80-71, 80-72, all for Powell.
The main event saw a great fight. It was a slugfest for most of the bout as David Estrada exposed undefeated Chris Smith and stopped him in the eleventh round. Estrada with the legendary Angelo Dundee in his corner took it to Smith from the start and never s topped imposing his will.
Smith did not have any answers for Estrada's harder punches and busy work rate. Estrada dropped Smith hard in the seventh round, Smith beat the count and was actually starting to do good in the next few rounds. Estrada sensing that Smith was trying to come on, began throwing more power punches in high volumes to the head and body. Ref Steve Smoger had seen enough after Smith was taking too many punches in the eleventh round and stopped the fight. Smith gets his first taste of defeat and Estrada takes out another undefeated opponent, the second in a row. Estrada also became the number two ranked fighter to the IBF welterweight title.
I was never high on Chris Smith and felt very sure that Estrada who is very tough, would get the upset win. I have to give props to Chris Smith for taking this fight, he didn't have to and could of faced much easier opposition. If Estrada keeps winning like this, he could see a title shot in the very near future.
