The ESPN Friday Night Fights Thread.

Apologies for how much I've been slacking lately, kind of lost interest in boxing a bit. I'm truly hyped for later on though, Burgos-Cruz is a cracking fight. I've been watching FNF's but I haven't been able to post at the same time, so apologies to LHL, who seems to be left on his own a lot of the time. Anyone else excited?

Burgos is riding high right now after his win over the highly regarded (Luis) Cruz. He only became noticed by most fans when he squared off against Hozumi Hasegawa at featherweight in what was one of 2010's contenders for FOTY. Though he was beaten in a close but clear fight he showed enough to gain a significantly greater fanbase than he had entered the ring with, and thus there were calls from people on his side of the planet for him to be showcased on American TV. And that they got on the Pacquiao-Marquez III undercard in November, where he went in as the underdog against the then-undefeated Luis Cruz at 130lbs. He started off on fire, consistently taking advantage of Cruz's stiffness by getting in close and rattling off 4's, 5's, and 6's high and low. He fatigued badly after the halfway mark, being forced and the back foot and pegged back down the stretch by an increasingly aggressive and desperate Cruz who was able to knick rounds based somewhat on his cleaner work, but mostly due to JC now being nowhere near as effective as he was early. After a nervy wait he was announced a deserved majority decision winner, albeit with the cards in his favour being too wide.

Cristobal Cruz is one of my favourite fighters, and pretty much your quintessential Mexican. He tured pro at 14 years old in 1992, and amassed a pretty unappealing record for the most part where he reached journeyman status, losing to quite a few name fighters/fighters who went on to establish themselves at or around the highest level(Jorge Solis, Heriberto Ruiz, Zahir Raheem, and others). Compiling a record of 3-4 spanning 2006-2007 he was drafted in to fight Thomas Mashaba for the IBO title in what was the fight that ignited an unprecedented run of form. After winning an upset majority decision against the South African, he then defeated a man who also wields a very deceiving record in Orlando Salido for the vacant IBF featherweight title, traveled to France in order to dispatch former European champ Cyril Thomas, and then exacted revenge over Jorge Solis in a foul-ridden bout(refereed by none other than Joe ''LETS THROW SOME THUNDER'' Cooper:yep). It was then that his sweet run of form began to turn sour, as his third defense of his title against Ricardo Castillo resulted in a technical draw after three rounds, as an accidental clash of heads in round one left Lacandón with a naaasty gash. It went from bad to worse six months later he came out second best in a return against Salido, being decked twice along the way. After over a year out, he returned to the ring up at super feather on a FNF's undercard against the highly touted Art Hovannisyan. He started off very encouragingly, routinely landing with his lead right hand as he came in from awkward positions, only for more frustration to be heaped upon him as not only did another accidental clashing of craniums force the fight to be halted in the 4th, he looked rather unfortunate to emerge from the short cameo with only a draw to his name. That brief showing was obviously enough for him to be called back by ESPN though, as this bout was announced in the initial schedule of fights for this season.

It should be at the very least a fun fight to watch, and at best a bona fide fight of the year contender. Pending no premature endings from cuts, that is, which is unfortunately always a possibility with Cruz. Burgos likes to let rip with looping punches, usually in combinations in excess of 4 shots where he transitions well from head to body, leaving himself wide open for counters to a heinous degree, and often gassing himself out come late on(if he hasn't taken his man out by then, obviously). Cruz just loves a tear up. He comes in awkwardly from the outside with sheer brute force, more often than not leading with a right hand(accompanied by head and elbows for good measure) before unleashing a cacophony of blows when he gets in there, pounding the body with reckless abandon. He started far more composed than usual against Hovannisyan - more than likely due to his long lay-off - but was coming into his rhythm by the end of it, as he started to throw more and more off of his right hand. Either way their respective styles should mesh for an awesome fight however long it lasts, as two completely offensively-minded, defensively flawed fighters usually leads to.

 

Yeah, Kennedy-Martin aside there hasn't been many main events that were all that exciting. Even Prod was a tad underwhelming by his usual high standards of entertainment.

I believe it's not available to ESPN subscribers until Wednesday or something.:verysad Why? Who knows, they've probably prioritised Baseball or Basketball over it or something.:conf