Antonio Escalante-Mike Oliver: Contender or Bust

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Jake Donovan - While far too Telefutura Solo Boxeo Tecate telecasts in recent months have featured mismatched showcase bouts at the top of the bill, several main events among the past few shows have raised the stakes considerably.

Vicente Escobedo's knockout over Dominic Salcido a month or so ago was about as good as it gets in terms of matchmaking beyond the HBO/Showtime level. Ditto for Almazbek Raiymkulov's narrow win over Javier Jauregui a week prior.

Somewhere down the line, both fighters will be in bouts more prominent than the aforementioned entries. Whether they win or lose such fights, they will at least go in knowing that they're capable of overcoming adversity, something that had been an issue in the careers of both fighters.

This weekend's main event comes with similar stakes, as two former standout prospects are now forced to answer tough questions before moving on to the next level. Series regular Antonio Escalante fights for the third time in 2008, as he faces former perennial super bantamweight contender Mike Oliver in a ten-round main event. [details]

[MaYaN_SuN]

Seriously, there's no shame in losing to Pastrana the way he did.

Pastrana was once one of those major guys below 130, another hard hitting Colombian. Plus Antonio was on the verge of putting him down before all that. Then out of ****in no where Pastrana hurt Antonio, and Antonio didn't bother to step back and recover, he just tried to walk the old man down to finish and ended up walkin straight into a ANOTHER major shot.

Antonio made a mistake in not tryin to recover, I'm sure he thought he could finish what he had started which looked like the destruction of Pastrana, instead, he walked into a bomb lol.

Escalante will be alright.

[rizkybizness]

Let's go Oliver!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never seen him fight but I'm supporting him because of our John Scully.

[rizkybizness]

Come on ppl, let's show Team John Scully some support

[Silencers]

Good luck to the Iceman and Oliver, I think Oliver will win a decision, but it's a tough fight back from a loss.

[mellow_mood]

GOOD LUCK ICE MAN!!!!!!!!!! cos ur boy is gonna need it! WARRRRRRRRRR ESCALANTE!!

[MaYaN_SuN]

Didn't even know the Iceman was gonna be involved in this..

lol I was watchin this fight dead close, and I'm not gonna lie, one of the things that stood out was Oliver's corner after those knock downs, just watch the replay. THEY were diggin for real results out of their fighter. lmao Was that Iceman!? That's awesome.

Anyway's cong**** to Escalante, and Oliver was there to fight. Antonio looked sluggish in that first round, but he still managed to shorten up some sharp shots.

Escalante's style is like a knuckle ball, it looks like somthin that it's not.

[Silencers]

They spelled Scully's name wrong. John Sculoy was in the corner for the fight. Anyways, I knew it would be a tough fight back, Oliver got caught in the opening round and didn't seem like he ever recovered. Escalante really found a home for that left uppercut underneath Oliver's right hand, Escalante looked bigger in there as well and Oliver looked weak the whole fight, he kept going down in the clinches, kind of reminded me of Breland-Starling 1 where Breland fell down at least 7 times in clinches. That was a really good left hook to the body from Escalante to end the fight.

[MaYaN_SuN]

They spelled Scully's name wrong. John Sculoy was in the corner for the fight. Anyways, I knew it would be a tough fight back, Oliver got caught in the opening round and didn't seem like he ever recovered. Escalante really found a home for that left uppercut underneath Oliver's right hand, Escalante looked bigger in there as well and Oliver looked weak the whole fight, he kept going down in the clinches, kind of reminded me of Breland-Starling 1 where Breland fell down at least 7 times in clinches. That was a really good left hook to the body from Escalante to end the fight.

Wait...it wasn't Scully in Oliver's corner? Well who ever was in Oliver's corner was tryin to get their guy to fight lol

[Silencers]

Wait...it wasn't Scully in Oliver's corner? Well who ever was in Oliver's corner was tryin to get their guy to fight lol

It was, they just spelled his name wrong.