By Jake Donovan
As their 2008 season came to a close, the folks responsible for presenting us ESPN2’s Wednesday and Friday Night Fights series had plenty for which to be proud. In a year marred by poorly attended events, declining ratings and pay-per-view sales, The Deuce became the place where you could always count on the unexpected occurring.
There was a stretch where it seemed like an upset was occurring every week during the spring and summer. From undefeated prospects to top-rated alphabet contenders to former champions on the comeback trail, nobody was safe – except for the trial horses who waited their entire careers to advance from steppingstone to spoiler.
In 2008, their dreams came true. One broadcast last March was supposed to be all about Andy Lee; the evening ended with Brian Vera in line for a career-high payday, one that would come later in the year on HBO.
Chris Byrd dropped 40 pounds in efforts to rebuild at a weight class more natural to his body frame; nine rounds later, it was Shaun George who was being discussed in potential future light heavyweight matchups.
Sechew Powell was biding his time waiting for a mandatory alphabet title shot against Verno Phillips, before running into an inspired Deandre Latimore, who will now contend for that very same belt against Cory Spinks this upcoming March.
The thing about most of the memorable upsets that occurred last year were that much of it was accidental greatness. The end result left ‘em talking for days, but all in fights that were originally meant as dunkers going into the evening.
After all, that’s what ESPN2 had become in recent years. Gone were the days when rising prospects and contenders would actually test themselves on the Friday Night Fights circuit. Instead, it became showcase showdown nearly week in and week out. A competitive night of boxing became the exception rather than the rule.
It was going to change in 2009, promised the network. The Wednesday Night Fights series already hit the wood chipper. It didn’t mean a funding increase for the Friday night flagship series; just tougher standards if promoters wanted to remain in business with the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
Their timing was perfect, as the same memo was distributed to HBO and Showtime. A quick glance at their first quarter schedules show an improvement in matchmaking, and clearly far tougher standards than has been the case in recent years.
This weekend is a shining example of what to expect more often than not on ESPN2. The series travels to Montreal, Canada, where a corker of a junior welterweight crossroads bout takes place. Former alphabet titlist Juan Urango travels north of the border to take on former title challenger Herman Ngoudjo (Friday, 9PM ET/6PM PT).
It says something of what the sport remains that a trinket of sorts has to be at stake in order for a fight like this to become a reality. Ngoudjo and Urango are in line to fight for a vacant junior welterweight title, one for which the same five or six fighters seem to contend.
Ngoudjo (17-2, 9KO) went from unheralded to unsung almost overnight. The Cameroon-born, Canada-based boxer became a boxing household name in January 2007, following his spirited effort in a close, controversial split decision loss to Jose Luis Castillo on HBO.
Prior to that evening, he was best known for his close nod over American journeyman Emanuel Augustus. Just two years and12 fights into his pro career, Ngoudjo looked like a world beater for 11 rounds before falling apart in the 12th, suffering a knockdown and sputtering down the stretch before crossing the finish line and taking a decision.
Beginning with the Castillo fight, Ngoudjo’s last four fights have come at the contender level. He is 2-2 over that stretch, with the oddity being that both losses (Castillo, as well as a points loss to Paul Malignaggi a year ago on Showtime) could’ve easily been scored in his favor, while a July 2007 split nod over Randall Bailey was one where several though should’ve went the other way.
He enters the Urango fight riding perhaps the best win of his career, a clear decision win over former alphabet titlist Souleyman M’Baye last June. Sitting on the shelf for seven months heading into a fight of this magnitude probably isn’t the best approach, but he’s in better shape than his opponent as far as ring rust goes.
It’s been nine months since we’ve last seen stout Colombian Juan Urango (20-1-1, 16KO), but man what an impression he left. Granted, the opponent was overmatched Carlos Vilches, but the stocky southpaw made the most of his ESPN2-televised main event in scoring a highlight reel 4th round knockout that registered high among the year’s best endings to a prize fight.
Now based in Florida, Urango brings the action whenever he fights, but what he still lacks heading into this weekend are the credentials. Yes, he’s a former titlist, but that win came in highly controversial fashion when he was awarded an unpopular split decision win over Naoufel Ben Rabah in June 2006, on a bout also televised on ESPN2.
It was a considerable step up in competition for Urango, who prior to that point only claimed a draw with then-unbeaten Mike Arnaoutis on Shobox as his lone fight of note in an otherwise protected career. The training wheels haven’t exactly come off since then; a shutout loss to Ricky Hatton was certainly a step up, but also a fight where the reward far exceeded the risk.
Three wins against marginal opposition have since followed leading up to this weekend. The sad part is, Urango is much better than the resume that accompanies his career. On the flip side, Ngoudjo deserves more respect – and credit – for his recent level of opposition, even if the standings show he’s only batting .500 over that stretch.
But rather than nibble around the edges, taking different paths to notoriety and holding out for a bigger payday in order for a fight like this to materialize, both fighters gladly accept the opportunity presented to them.
Urango travels well outside of his comfort zone, while Ngoudjo, though enjoying home court advantage, takes a major league risk that arguably eclipses the potential reward.
There are several scenarios that can play out in this fight, none of which are limited to the Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson “anything can happen” il-logic. Upsets are nice, but it’s more fun going in when you can expect the unexpected – and for the night to turn out that way.
SO WHAT WILL ACTUALLY BE AT STAKE?
As interesting of a matchup is the evening’s main event, a juicy battle threatens to break out behind the mic.
Chances are, blow-by-blow man Joe Tessitore and in-studio host Brian Kenny will spend the evening either complimenting each other or staying out of the other’s way. But when it comes to selling the main event, both will have completely different agendas, if past trends hold true.
Kenny has long been an advocate of one champion per division, or at least a supporter of The Ring championship policy. The main point is that he’s not particularly fond of any of the alphabet organizations.
Exactly where Tessitore stands on the issue is anyone’s guess. But what can be said is that he’s never hesitated to wear the company uniform. If ESPN2 is spending considerable time and money advertising Friday night’s main event as a “world” title fight, then expect Joe Tessitore to insist throughout the evening something along the lines of “at stake in this fight, the junior welterweight championship of the world.”
Whether he intends to or not, he’s done so plenty of times, even if leaving out the particular alphabet organization. Before, during and after his upset loss to Deandre Latimore last June, junior middleweight Sechew Powell was repeatedly referred to as “the number one contender in the world.”
Number one… by who, exactly? One of the alphabet organizations, of course.
At no point has he even made his way to any respectable publication’s Top Ten at junior middleweight (perhaps a very brief stay at number 10), and for damn sure has never beaten a perennial contender to ever earn such a ranking. Yet that didn’t stop ESPN2 from selling Powell as “a number one contender” or Tessitore from following the script.
Chances are, Kenny will rant in the studio about how Ricky Hatton is the real junior welterweight champion, and that the belt at stake in the evening’s main event is barely even a paper title at this point. And he’ll be correct in stating so.
Tessitore’s intentions will be to agree with his colleague when asked to speak off the cuff. But at some point, he’ll get lost in the broadcast and go along with the sales pitch that a world title fight is being presented to our living rooms.
Hopefully one will address the other, and ESPN2 can find common ground on the subject, rather than the usual approach of hedging its bets.
TE(RRIB)LEMUNDO
So far, we’ve seen an upgrade in both matchmaking and presentation from HBO.
Shobox is off to its usual strong start, with Showtime Championship Boxing ready to join the fray next weekend.
As noted earlier, ESPN2 has already offered a revamped schedule, with more good shows forthcoming.
Telefutura is no longer in our world, but coming to the rescue is TV Azteca and its American affiliate, Azteca America.
With improvement in boxing content on nearly every network, it’s time for Telemundo to get on board.
In offering one show per month, the expectation of quality should at least be assumed in the glaring absence of quantity. Even if expectations were minimal at best, they still fell way short last Friday night.
It’s to be forgiven that the main event took a hit, when Alejandro Hernandez dropped out of his flyweight bout with rising contender Jesus Jimenez earlier last week. Promoters were forced to scramble for a late replacement before settling on Salvador Montes, a .500 fighter who’d already been knocked out by Jimenez not once, but twice in recent years.
This is the first point in which the networks should’ve stepped in.
But let’s say the circumstances called for a lowering of standards in allowing the fight.
Where’s the rest of the card?
The modified main event lasted all of four rounds – none of which were competitive – with the rest of the telecast littered with mismatches on the newcomer level. None were of the variety where you looked at them on paper and said “Fighter B has an outside chance.” Two fights featured opponents who were 0-1 going in to the evening.
Promoters can sing the song of how no matter who you add to the undercard, the main event is what people are coming to see. But there’s no excuse for not even scheduling a second bout that – at the very least – featured a matchup of two fighters with records better than .500 and more than a couple of hours worth of total ring experience.
When the series airs from the Kissimmee (Florida) Civic Center or Miccosukee Resort and Gaming Casino in Miami, the atmosphere is top notch and you almost always get your money’s worth. For whatever reason, when low budget televised shows drift beyond the US borders (like last weekend’s card in Mexico), the quality travels in the same direction – south.
Let’s hope last weekend was merely an experiment gone awry, and not a sign of things to come on what was once the standard bearer for boxing on Spanish networks.
AT LEAST THEY’RE TRYING, UNLIKE…
Midway through 2008, VERSUS network promised to revamp its boxing schedule. Gone were the days when Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. would provide the lion’s share of the content; his agreement was to help get the network started in the boxing business, which is precisely what he did from mid-2006 through June 2008.
Last September began the open market era, when promoters were free to book dates on the network. Things didn’t go quite as planned, until their December 11 edition, when top contenders Tomasz Adamek and Steve Cunningham threw down in one of the great cruiserweight wars in boxing history.
The bout several hailed as 2008’s Fight of the Year ended with Adamek becoming just the fifth fighter in the division’s history to claim its lineal claim, riding three knockdowns and fending off a late round surge by Cunningham to take a well-deserved split decision.
Sweetening the pot was as great of a primer as you could possibly ask for, when the telecast opened with a terrific bantamweight scrap between Joseph Agbeko and William Gonzalez. Agbeko was a considerable favorite, but wound up going twelve hard rounds with the determined Gonzalez in taking a majority decision.
You’d think on the strength of the best doubleheader of the year on any network, VERSUS would make a better effort to remain in the boxing fold at the start of the New Year.
So how do they respond? Boxing instead gets a schedule that shows black for the entire first quarter, save for the fourth (and we can only hope, last) season of The Contender.
Tomasz Adamek-Johnathon Banks would’ve been a perfect fit. The same winning fighter of the best fight they’ve ever aired, returning to the very same arena for the first defense of the cruiserweight crown. That defense comes against an undefeated young rising contender in Banks, who is trained by the legendary Emanuel Steward.
Yeah, you can see where a network wouldn’t be very interested.
Fortunately for boxing fans, Showtime’s Shobox series picked up the tab.
Now if only VERSUS will pick up the pace…
Jake Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
