Dyah Davis Tops Alfonso Lopez, Douglin Beats Martinez in Awful Friday Night Fights Season Opener
by Scott Christ on Jan 6, 2012 11:00 PM EST
in Boxing Results and Post-Fight Analysis
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It's always good when strong momentum can carry over. But that was not the case tonight in ESPN's Friday Night Fights season premiere, as a sloppy opener gave way to a truly dreadful main event. It's very clear: It's a whole new year for Friday Night Fights, and the hot streak of 2011 is over. The new season will have to earn its own accolades, and everything got off to a poor start tonight.
In the main event, Dyah Davis won a wide unanimous decision over Alfonso Lopez in a fight that will be hard-pressed to not wind up the worst Friday Night Fights main event of the season, and maybe even the worst televised fight of 2012. Davis (21-2-1, 9 KO) won on scores of 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91. Bad Left Hook stopped scoring the fight after four rounds. Lopez falls to 22-2 (17 KO) with a performance that will undoubtedly see him cast away from TV consideration for the foreseeable future.
It was just an outlandishly bad fight in all respects. Neither man wanted to lead the action, and Lopez especially was grabby and obsessed with tying up. In the entirety of the fight, Lopez landed one really good right hand, which at that point was such a shock that a stunned woman in the crowd reacted with a blood-curdling scream.
The good news is there's nowhere to go but up for Friday Night Fights.
In the opening bout, Denis Douglin improved to 14-1 (8 KO) with a win over slow and disappointing prospect Steven Martinez (11-1, 9 KO), winning via split decision over eight rounds. Douglin took two cards on scores of 77-75, with the third being the same score in Martinez's favor. Bad Left Hook scored it 77-75 for Douglin.
The fight was praised by those who may have simply been boxing-starved, but really it was just a decent fight at best, and calling it really good sets the bar very low, if I'm being completely honest. Douglin, whose greatest point of interest is that he's trained by his mother, was the better fighter but had some lousy footwork early in the fight, which may have just been nerves or the like. Martinez, a DiBella prospect, was really lousy; it felt like he should have won the fight, but he was so awfully slow with his hands and feet that he just couldn't nick enough rounds. Neither has star quality or potential to say the least, but I have to believe they both have better than this in them.
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After watching with some of the fighter's family
We all knew by the 5th that it was total stinkbomb…can only imagine what it looked like without rose colored glasses. Summed up one of the older guys there, “that was no fight.”
Yuck.
by George Washington Eagleclaw on Jan 7, 2012 12:03 AM EST reply actions
I said during the live thread that Lopez is a truly miserable fighter to watch. Kelly Pavlik deserves some real props for dragging a watchable fight out of that guy.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jan 7, 2012 12:36 AM EST up reply actions
He looked strong, rangy against much, much lesser last time out
But looks almost like he doesn’t know what to do boxing-wise when he clinches up. He has a good, strong jab that is (obviously) underused in just about all of his fights. I wrote in a FanPost about his last fight: “doesn’t…use the punch to its full ability (it was scoring well against Pavlik before an injury depleted its – and Lopez’ – effectiveness)” but damn, would it have killed either guy to, ya know, throw a few?
Terrible match to introduce the girlfriend to boxing with.
by George Washington Eagleclaw on Jan 7, 2012 1:21 AM EST up reply actions
It was a snore fest that drove me to bed
"If you sit there and watch a person take about an hour to tie his shoestrings, then you realize that whatever problems you got ain't that significant."
-- Vernon Forrest (1971-2009)
I'm out of town for a work related conference right now,
and last night I had to choose between staying in at the hotel and watching FNF (no Showtime at this place) or going out for drinks with some new friends.
Sounds like I made the right decision.
Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"
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