Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund Join Friday Night Fights Studio Tonight

I feel like I enjoyed FNF more back then. It was 2 1/2 hours and you always got at least one or two swing bouts out of it, sometimes some really good ones. (Jose Nieves’ one-shot KO of Fidencio Reyes comes to mind, as does some Midwestern journeyman named Patrick Thorns knocking off an undefeated non-prospect named Calvin Green. Go figure.)

Micky Ward being on the show sort of makes me pine for the days of the ESPN Fighter. At one time, it seemed like ESPN would adopt certain guys — usually hard-nosed veterans who drew well locally, but weren’t good enough to make it on Showtime or HBO. Emmanuel Augustus feels like the last of an era in that regard.

Really, at one time it seemed they adopted entire weight classes that way. Remember in 2001 or 2002, when it didn’t seem like we went a month without a junior middleweight main event between guys like Alex Bunema, JC Candelo, Michael Lerma, Verno Phillips, and so on? But it was OK, they all made pretty good fights, and as their faces got familiar it made the fights more interesting.

Now it seems like their cards are used more to build up prospects. And that’s fine if it’s done the right way — we practically watched Kassim Ouma grow up on FNF against those same 154 pounders. He had some tough, tough fights against dudes like Verno and Angel Hernandez, and it was great because even in his easier outs (like Jason Papillion), you could see him learning instead of being showcased.

But now it seems like “building a prospect” means stuff like Yudel Jhonson’s fight last week. Or Yan Barthelemy against that no-hoper the week before. Or Ray Narh against 475 year old Freddie Norwood on the card before that. No one in their right mind thought there was any chance those guys would lose (well maybe Barthelemy, but that’s simply an argument not to put him in a televised co-main). Then they fight like they’re biding time and padding their record — has anyone ever looked more bored in the ring than Yudel? — and it’s reflected in my disinterest in their fights.

I wish ESPN would bring back TNF/WNF, and build it up as a complete different show. Get two different announcers (what are Barry Tompkins and Rich Marotta doing these days?), no studio segments, nothing but 2 hours of good old-fashioned boxing. Leave FNF to build up the prospects, and use the mid-week program for semi-club level crossroads fights. Terrence Lewis vs. Robert Davis and Ben Tackie vs. Teddy Reid weren’t matchups between great fighters, but they were a lot of fun to watch. But they’ve spent $2 billion to air SEC football, so I guess it’s a pipe dream.