Friday Night Fights Open Thread

One of the odder ringside guests I can remember.

Vasquez looks like he came out there to fight. He’s ducking in and flinging wild shots at the body of Lara, but there’s an immediately obvious speed difference. Lara keeps popping out his jab, followed up with a left uppercut, both of which land. Vasquez with a couple of nice shots to the body, but it doesn’t seem like they effect Lara at all, and he’s 100% on the offensive right now. Nice three punch combination to the body by Lara, but Vasquez fires right back with a couple of shots to the body of his own.

Lara comes in with a big left hand over the top that seems to bother Vasquez. Lara lands a few big shots with Vasquez up on the ropes. Lara is able to land his follow-up left over the top before Vasquez can even get his hands in position to defend. Easy round for Lara, as it should be. It would be a shocker if Vasquez really tests Lara, although he is intended to get Lara some rounds.

Lara 10-9

Reporting 33-87 by Lara in round one. It says Vasquez landed only 5 punches in the first, which seems low to me. As usual, I think these things tend to undercount body work.

Vasquez comes in to try working up top, and Lara nails him with a big left handed counter punch following a feint that knocks Vasquez flat on his ass. Vasquez doesn’t seem particularly hurt, and Lara isn’t really pressing the issue. Both fighters dance around the midle of the ring, but Vasquez keeps leaning in to throw punches, which will mean more trouble for him. As a 40 fight veteran, Vasquez isn’t going to lose that habit in one night. Vasquez with a nice flurry to close out the round, but as soon as Lara throws again Vasquez just doesn’t have the speed to stay on the offensive.

Lara 20-17

It’s official that Rigondeaux WILL be fighting later in the show.

Vasquez comes in with a couple of decent body shots, but Lara just gets his body behind another left hand and nails Vasquez straight in the solar plexus, stopping Vasquez in his tracks. Lara now coming forward with 3 and 4 punch combos that push Vasquez around the ring. Vasquez continues to do his best poor man’s David Lopez impression, and isn’t really backing down at all.

Lara with another left-handed combo to close out the round. Vasquez is trying really hard and turning this into a fight, but he just doesn’t have an answer for Lara’s speed.

Lara 30-26

For the first time in the fight, Vasquez seems to be backing off, as if he just doesn’t want to get hit anymore. Vasquez comes in for a couple of hooks to the body, and Lara just storms back, throwing about 10 punches in a row. The ref mercifully stops the fight, although the stoppage was probably a hair early. Vasquez didn’t seem all that hurt, but he was probably falling down with two or three more punches.

ERISLANDY LARA TKO4

“ready for something bigger” in about a year, but he thinks he has problems with falling in without a punch.

But I’ll give thoughts afterwards. Very much a showcase fight.

Rigondeaux vs. Noriega Round 1

And BOOM! Down goes Noriega. And just 19 seconds into Rigondeaux’s career has a knockdown. He’s eating up Noriega. Body shots and left hooks. Noriega has recovered. Man he’s a quick puncher. He stalks Noriega. Another body shot by Rigondeaux.

Rigondeaux has 20 seconds to end this blowout. He staggers Noriega again with seconds left in the round. Welcome to pro boxing!

10-8 Rigondeaux

Rigondeaux is just nasty with that straight left.

Anyone else notice that ESPN’s boxing page has Rigondeaux’s name spelled wrong?

That straight left hand is enough to scare anyone. Rigondeauz is a freak with that punch. Noriega has yet to land a punch. Now he gets popped with a right jab. Another left to the body. His liver is going to explode tonight. A quick left to the side of the head by Rigondeaux. Halfway through round 2. Yep, Noriega is a tomato can.

Punch track shows Noriega finally landed a punch in this round. Rigondeauz drills Noriega with a right hand and hurts him. Come on Rigondeaux, have killer instinct!!! Left-right by Rigondeaux to end round 2.

20-17 Rigondeaux

Rigondeaux better knock this SOB out. Another right hand by Rigondeaux and the ref ends this torture. Noriega was barely trying.

Rigondeaux TKO 3

- When he commits to the left hand, DAMN he’s quick
- Better footwork than the other Cubans who have come over here lately
- Looks a bit bulky at 122 even, and if there was better money down there, he could probably make 115 pretty easily under pro rules
- I’m not sure how well his style will adapt to the pro game. He throws out this pawing jab that he uses to measure his opponent, but I don’t think that will fly well considering he’s on the small size. Also, he doesn’t have immense power. He knocked down Noriega in the first, but it seemed like it was really Noriega’s nerves that knocked him down.
- Probably does a little too much measuring and not enough setting up
- Maybe his defense is just great though. Noriega landed maybe one punch the whole fight. Sweet Pea is working in his corner, and he reminded me a little of Pea.

Thought he was one-handed offensively, but otherwise liked him.

Noriega was so bad that it’s hard to tell how good Guillermo was. His refusal to engage probably made Rigondeaux look worse than he actually is.

Not really sure who the favorie should be in this one.

The fighters meet in the middle of the ring and almost immediately lean up on each other, like both guys are intent on fighting inside. Gutierrez is the naturally bigger guy, but Smith has shorter arms, so that could go either way. Smith steps back and pops out a couple of punches. Gutierrez keeps pushing Smith out with his left elbow. Richard with a few nice shots to the body, while Smith is looking to throw littel combos.

Fighters still going at it on the inside, but Gutierrez seems to be getting the best of it, throwing some nice uppercuts down the pipe, while Smith is coming with little combinations that don’t seem to do much damage.

Gutierrez 10-9

We miss the first 5 or so seconds of the round, and the two are already up on each other in the middle of the ring. Gutierrez throwing some big hooks that aren’t really landing, while Smith is popping in and out, landing a few shots when he steps back. Gutierrez just seems to be consistently busier on the inside, though he’s mostly throwing one big punch at a time. Smith will go 10, 15 seconds without throwing a punch, but when he does, there’s another one following it. Both guys having more effect to the body than to the head, but Gutierrez is just throwing a lot more down there overall.

Gutierrez leans on Smith, and pulls back to land a couple of nice little uppercuts. Smith comes back with a decent flurry at the end of the round. When Smith throws, he lands, but he’s just not doing enough to pull it off overall.

Gutierrez round

20-18 Gutierrez

Gutierrez stalks inside and lands a few nice shots. Smith pops out another little combo, hitting Gutierrez, but not all that hard and not with Gutierrez’s quantity. Smith with a three pucnh combo to the head that’s a little showier than what he’d done previously. Smith now back Gutierrez into the corner and gets about 5 or 6 good shots in to the head.

Gutierrez now up against the ropes, and Smith seems to have found the way to keep Gutierrez from throwing too much, just backing him against the ropes and throwing combos. Gutierrez finally gets himself back to the middle of the ring, but to little too late for him this time. Momentum shifted big time that round, and we’ll see if Smith can follow through as the fight goes on. He found something that worked.

Smith round

29-28 Gutierrez

When Gutierrez comes in, he looks at least two weight classes bigger than Smith. Smith is a small welterweight, and Gutierrez is moving down from 154. Gutierrez gets back on the inside and executes what he’d been doing in the early rounds. Smith finally pulls out, and despite having the reach disadvantage, is doing a better job of landing shots at a bit of a distance.

Gutierrez leans on Smith and pops up a couple of uppercuts and hooks to the body. Smith flurries to the head, and seems to have forgotten about the body or what worked so well for him in round 3. Gutierrez pulls out a bit this time, and Smith lands cleanly with a couple of jabs. Smith with a very nice combination from a distance, and in the last 10 seconds, he’s pouring it on, dedicating his attack to the body while pushing Gutierrez up against the ropes. The round was a toss-up until the end, but Smith clearly took it then.

Smith round

38-38

The dirty Casamayor is in the house… as well as Gamboa.

For the first time all fight, they start the round boxing from the outside instead of leaning up against each other. Smith throws a nice left right left right combo to the head, but he galls back in to leaning again and Guiterrez goes back to working the body. Generally, Smith’s been a lot more active than Gutierrez this round, possibly for the first time all fight.

Smith and Gutierrez staying together on the inside. Both of their faces are getting a bit scraped up from all the headbutting going on in there. Smith unloads a big 10 punch combo, not with a whole lot behind any of the punches, but the punches are landing. Gutierrez breaks it up with a counter uppercut. Gutierrez tries to pop in with some more uppercuts, but Smith is finding his groove, and he’s so much more accurate than Gutierrez that Gutierrez needs to keep his workrate higher to take rounds, unless he can hurt Smith.

Smith round

48-47 Smith

Teddy has it a shutout for Smith. Then again, Teddy isn’t much for scoring.

Gutierrez comes out showboating a bit, shimmying around the ring. Smith says “shimmy this” and unloads with a combo to the head. Gutierrez comes back with a couple big shots to the body, but he’s unable to keep inside on Smith except when Smith chooses to let him lean. Now, Smith is stepping back, and being very effective at fighting this way. Gutierrez looks frustrated that he can’t just lean inside.

Smith pops out and nails Gutierrez with a cross that was probably the first punch all night I’ve seen snap someone’s head back. Smith gets Gutierrez cornered, but not much happens. Gutierrez is bouncing around, like he’s trwing to find his wind a bit, but he’s not really throwing punches anymore, just trying to deefend against Smith. Not much of a round for either fighter, but Smith certainly had the bigger moments.

Smith round

58-56 Smith

Smith has a nice run going on FNF. If he wins this fight, it will be the fourth time he’s won as the B-side fighter on FNF. He’s been the showcase opponent several times, but he ends up winning.

Smith seems to have found his groove. While his arms are a lot shorter than Gutierrrez’s, he’s throwing out a good stiff jab that is frustrating Gutierrez. Gutierrez has adjusted his stragtegy and is trying to fight on the outside now, which is nice in theory since he’s the longer fighter, but his shots are a lot loopier than Smith’s, so he has to get in close enough for Smith to hit him to get his shots off. Gutierrez doing a good job of weaving and avoiding more of Smith’s shots. Gutierrez comes over the top of Smith to land a big left hook that gets Smiths attention. Smith comes right back with two big shots to the head to close out the round. Much closer round than it had been in a while, but Smith barely takes it.

86-65 Smith

Gutierrez back boxing on the outside again, but not finding too much success with it. Gutierrez leans back in and wings back for a monster hook to the body. Smith responds with a flurry to the body of his own. Every time Gutierrez throws a punch now, Smith is coming back with two. Gutierrez’s punches are harder, but Smiths are more voluminous and more accurate.

A couple minutes in, and Gutierrez decides to go back to leaning. Smith manages to push him back and up against the ropes, and it’s open season for Smith, who loads up for a couple of combos to the head. Gutierrez gets back to the middle of the ring, and Smith hits Gutierrez with another combo. In the middle of a combo by Smith, the ref calls time to have the doctor look at a cut over Smith’s eye. bad timing there, and not sure if the cut was from a butt or a punch. I mean, it was almost certainly from a butt, but not sure how the ref ruled it.

Smith pulling away, if he can keep from having the fight stopped due to the cut.

78-74 Smith

Smith has never gone past 8 before, so this is new ground for him. Smith bleeding all over Gutierrez whenever they get inside. Still, Smith continues his trend of throwing more punches in these later rounds than Gutierrez. Gutierrez with a couple nice hooks to the head, then to the body. Gutierrez starting something new and pretending he’s Floyd Mayweather, giving himself a shoulder roll look. Smith wildly throws a big hook that misses badly, but Gutierrez can’t capitalize. Smith’s punches seem to have very little pop behind them now. Gutierrez is throwing out punches and pulling straight back, but Smith can’t take advantage because he’s so short. Another pretty close round, and I think Gutierrez landed the more effective punches in that one.

Gutierrez round

87-84 Smith

Smith and Gutierrez posing in the middle of the ring. Gutierrez back to trying to bully Smith on the inside, but Smith just isn’t letting him. A lot of leaning going on this round, but not a lot of punching. Both guys are fighting like they think they have the fight well in hand. Gutierrez comes with a couple shots, and Smith throws a 9 punch flurry that pushes Gutierrez back to the ropes, and then lands a couple more while he’s on the ropes. Back in the middle of the ring, Gutierrez is trying to headhunt, throwing one big shot at a time while kind of crouching away, but he’s missing and Smith is coming back with lighter shots that are actually landing.

According to punch track, Smith has incredibly landed nearly 50% of his punches this fight. Ref stops the action again with about 30 seconds to go, but Smith really took over late in the fight and should be emerging victorious.

Smith round

97-93 Smith

Teddy scored it a shutout for Smith

I got it 98-92

97-93
96-94
100-88

All for Antwone Smith

100-88??? Huh?