ESPN2 FNF: Ismayl Sillakh vs. Yordanis Despaigne & Ray Narh vs. Freddie Norwood RBR

It was a David Bowie in the 70's fight.

 

Round 3

Norwood is dodging jabs on the outside and leaping inside to wrap his arms around Narh's back. Norwood starts pumping his left hand as he comes forward blind, still leading with the point of his skull. Norwood walks Narh up by the ropes before they're forced to break by the ref. Narh starts lining up some 1-2's that back Norwood up. Norwood is really not doing anything on the outside, just waiting for Narh to stop jabbing. Narh keeps obliging, and Norwood takes advantage by jumping in to hug and hit. Narh keeps landing some jabs between the breaks and the clinches, enough this round to actually win it.

29-28 Norwood

 

Yordanis Despaigne = very athletically gifted Cuban defector, built like a brick house, star amateur, throws almost exclusively fast looping power punches and likes to go to the body. He has at times fought down to the level of his competition as a pro, and he made the mistake of doing this on National TV making some people think he's overmatched here.

Ismayl Sillakh = Ukrainian discovered and promoted by Roy Jones Jr., very tall and lanky with nice fundamentals and likes to go to the body. Knocked out a past-it Daniel Judah in his best win to date. James Toney referred to him as "the truth".

 

Round 4

Narh is keeping his distance a bit better now and Norwood is forced to lunge. Narh is clipped with the very tip end of a couple of these shots and knocked slightly off balance as he backs up but he is landing plenty of fully extended jabs and using his younger and fresher legs to keep Norwood taking extra steps to get to him.

38-38