The ESPN Friday Night Fights Thread.

:yep Julio Diaz is the type of guy that'll give him a chance to have some highlights.

:think In the aftermath you can hear a dude saying ''he punched before the bell, he only landed after the bell'', not sure about that one. The only reason he landed on the bell is because the dude dinged the thing about 8 times, and Cherry Bomb rang Aiken's bell on like the 6th of them.

I suppose the argument is that they were both throwing with mean intent.

Was that not Uzelkov? I think that was in 2010, this year he fought Joppy in Kazakhstan and Danny Santiago, though that was on Mexican TV(or, at least, I watched it on Mexican TV).

I can't think of many examples off the top of my head, perhaps the aforementioned Miguel Vazquez defended his title on FNF? He was shown a few times prior to winning it anyways.

 

On ESPN America, dude.

 

Can't help you out on this one bro, sorry. Don't have Sky myself, Wallet's probably your man for this.

 

It's officially fight week dudes, prepare for some thunder to be thrown.

ESPN America(Sky 430/431) @ 2am-4am UK/Ireland time, from Key West, Florida.

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• Record: 20(9)-2-1​
• Age: 30​
• Notable Fights: Osumanu Adama(W6 Pts), Aaron Pryor Jr(L8 Pts), Francisco Sierra(D10 MD), Marcus Johnson(W10 Pts), Darnell Boone(W6 Pts)​
• Random Unnecessary Trivia: He's the son of Howard Davis Jr(pictured). Similarly to other Jr's, he has no amateur experience and took up boxing at the age of 23.​

Having gained a modicum of notoriety when rumours surfaced that he was schooling David Lemieux and beating up Lucian Bute in sparring, Dyah Davis has always been one of those kinds of fighters. With the good of having that notoriety comes the bad of what infests certain fighters as a result, similar to that of Ola Afolabi and David Rodela, he's one who has suffered badly from a chronic dose of that dreaded ''sparring partner mentality'', an ailment that looked terminal for Davis towards the end of 2010, only for him to turn 2011 into the beginning of his road to recovery.

Don't start think it's benign quite yet though, as ''Ali'' has always had a massive air of inconsistency about him. This is just his rehabilitation period.

After going 15-1 in his first 16 bouts with not much to write home about(some Brits may be familiar with him as he featured on a Hatton card in 2009 in Bristol, taking a comfortable 6 round UD over Hastings Rasani) he faced off against a fellow prospect at a similarly unconvincing stage(albeit with a loss fewer) in Osumanu Adama, wherein he was the beneficiary of what many believe to be an unjust victory. Wide-stanced and often off balance, the enthusiastic and outright raw aggression of Adama presented Davis with an awkward puzzle to figure out, one he appeared to be piecing together nicely in the first, decking ''Ozzie Adams'' twice. From there on in however his timing was thrown way out of proportion, struggling to keep the bouncing Ghanaian nailed down as he lunged in with leaping left hooks to the dome and body shots around the back of the American. Many felt it was close, but it was unanimously agreed that Davis' saving grace were his two knockdowns, as he certainly failed to put enough offence together to win the majority of the remaining rounds.

A year on and he took part in a contest labelled ''Sons Of Legends'' against the oft-frustrating Aaron Pryor Jr(Davis being the son of Howard Davis Jr, I don't have to explain Pryor). A fight that was the converse of the Adamu one, many felt that Davis was the unfortunate one to be on the losing end of a unanimous verdict. Much like the Adamu fight though, this one was also close, even if the scorecards don't indicate that. Once again faced with an awkard customer - albeit in a much different way - Davis treated us to a fight that was severely unpretty, with two not so aesthetically pleasing outside merchants, there were a capcophany of missed jabs and straight rights, with Davis relying on reflexes and Pryor sheer height to evade them. Two men doing just about nothing of much substance left a fight that was difficult to score, and one that didn't really say an awful lot for whoever you think won.

A frustrating draw with the OK but relatively average Francisco Sierra(a fight which I haven't seen, unfortunately) at the start of 2011 left Davis' days as a meaningful prospect at 168lbs seemingly done, and two months later he was drafted in to face Marcus ''Too Much'' Johnson on ShoBox, an undefeated and much hyped 25 year old(at the time) who's dedication to the noble art was often called into question. Johnson may have had a biased commentary team in his favour, but not much else as Davis upset the applecart by dropping Johnson and reinvigorating his career with a unanimous win. Cohering to a game plan that was based solely around sticking and moving, Dyah outfoxed his touted adversary, routinely circling away from Marcus' dangerous left hooks while keeping his jab moving and - most importantly - slipping off of the ropes. It was a system that those in attendance found unfavourable(booing Davis' perceived ''running'' by the mid-rounds) but the judges found effective. Understandably the strains of constant movement become prominent and Davis was forced to plant his feet more, a turn of events that was surprisingly to the detriment of Johnson, as the favourite began landing counter shots that were his best of the night, sealing it with an exquisite right hand to the body that winded Johnson into taking a knee. He answered back strongly in the final round but it was too little too late as Dyah saw the fight home. He built on this with a close but clear nod over one of the best journeymen in the sport, Darnell Boone, capping off the best year of his seven as a professional.

Davis is a pretty slick fighter, with his fight plan's always built upon a solid foundation of fluent movement and decent reflexes, he's difficult to keep contained. His negative points though are his punching arsenal and the fact that even in his best performances he only does just enough to win rounds(the sparring partner syndrome again, most likely). He only really possesses a jab, a right hand, and a right to the body, all of which are inaccurate for the most part, and ineffective when they do due to the fact he's often moving backwards when he throws them. He's always looking to do just a bit more than you do, rather than really taking the initiative and taking the fight into his own hands. At 30 he's getting on for a prospect, and he needs to move quickly to achieve his full potential(which is probably around fringe contender level at best to be blunt about it).

 

Part 2.​

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Yeah, he's Mexican-American, but I wanted two seperate colour schemes dammit!​

• Record: 22(17)-1​
• Age: 29​
• Notable Fights: Ruben Williams(IN NAME VALUE ONLY, W10 Pts), Kelly Pavlik(L10, MD)​
• Random Unnecessary Trivia: He was an all-district football player(whatever that means) before entering the amateurs, where he became a two-time Texas Golden Gloves Champion and won a silver medal at the 2005 U.S. National Championships in the Light Heavyweight division.​

A significantly more under the radar fighter than Davis until May last year, where he was the gauge to see how much a returning Kelly Pavlik had to offer, he's only really displayed real dedication to his craft in the last year and a ½ or so, going from looking visibly fleshy and unconditioned at light heavyweight and cruiser to a bit leaner(though not noticeably chiseled or anything) upon his descent to 168lbs. Fighting the vast majority of his career in his native Texas, he's also fought largely in general obscurity. No real TV backing, no big name promoter, and not being the offspring of a successful pugilist have hindered his progression. In fact, even after fighting against the former undisputed middleweight champion on the Pacquiao-Mosley card in Las Vegas, most of us are still asking: Who is Alfonso Lopez?



In April 2010 was when he apparently ''stepped up'', taking on a man who just a year before had weighed in at almost 220lbs, and only ever won fights that were just about at state-level in former Yori Boy Campas victim Gabriel Holguin. Even Lopez's team subconsciously acknowledged the lacklustre standard by lamenting the sport for his lack of meaningful development when promoting the encounter:

The fight was indicative of this, as El Tigre ran out a comfortable and rather uninspiring winner over the scheduled six.

He headlined a card in his homeland just two months later in his homeland in a fight that represented his first chance to gain some kind of attention outside of his state against the criminally shot Rubin Williams, who - including the Lopez defeat - has lost ALL of his last 14(and drawn the fight before that in a painful fight against the equally past it Antwun Nichols). The fragile former ''world'' title challenger surprisingly went the full twelve with the then-undefeated Lopez, albeit taking a beating throughout every round, to the point where Lopez was able to ditch his usual outside game and batter a stuck-in-quicksand Williams in every round.


In the bout that preceded the Pavlik opportunity he scored a 12th round stoppage in a rough bout with Romaro Johnson, where he hurt his right hand in the fifth and proceeded to look extremely clumsy as his opponent looked to lead with the head and shoe-shine up close. Both men gassed but Johnson to the greater degree, as he was trapped on the ropes and caught flush with numerous shots from a squared-up and technique-less Alfonso. Six months later came the Pavlik clash, a fight where he was considered a guy with a pretty record but minimal talent expected to make Pavlik look good, but what he envisaged as a chance to showcase the ability everybody had been missing. He put up a more than valiant effort, drawing and even winning in some people's estimation, falling short and dropping a unanimous verdict. He offered a rusty Pavlik an arduous nights work moving around on the outside before lunging in with graceless combinations that troubled an opponent who was struggling to rediscover his timing. However, when Pavlik became increasingly aggressive Lopez's deficiencies came to the fore, his movement often brought him directly to the ropes where he would square up and ship considerable punishment, tiring out badly and taking a beating down the stretch that counteracted his good work early and sporadic success in the middle rounds.


Even still, with that lost he gained some recognition and from the looks of things only good has come of it. After stopping Michael Walker in 7 - a fighter who actually rivals Williams for being utterly shopworn - he's gotten himself this fight on national TV. He also likes to stakeout on the outside and makes use of quick(uneducated) movement before tumbling in with clumsy salvo's that leaves him worryingly open for counters. He's prone to gassing himself out and falling inside, where he doesn't work or hold, but squares up and allows his man to work on him far too much. His hands are often carried low as a consequence and his power dwindles drastically.


His flaws may well be the more obvious, but Davis' own self-kryptonite of being so lackadaisical could perhaps prove to be the most fatal shortcoming of all, despite him possessing the more rounded skill-set. It all adds to the intrigue.

Who've ya got, FNF's fans?:good

 

I've also done some nerd work on Steve Martinez and Denis Doughlin, who fight as the chief support, and I've watched Dannie Williams - who we're likely to see - a couple of times as well, so I might do something on them.

But there's no hope of me doing anything constructive at all for a good few hours.