Last night, in a pretty good slugfest on the new VS. network, Kevin Kelley sent Carlos "Famoso" Hernandez into retirement with a 10-round UD victory. Given Kelley's previous performance (a 4th round TKO loss to Bobby Pacquiao on the Cotto/Malignaggi undercard), it was a pretty surprising victory.
Hernandez, a former 130-pd. titleholder, finishes his career with a record of 42 wins and 7 losses, with 24 wins coming by KO (and 3 of those losses coming by split decision). Throughout his career, this guy always brought his best, fought top-level opposition, and never got knocked out. He's a warrior in every sense of the word.
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Looking forward to this weekend, there are some pretty good fights that, sadly, I won't be able to see.
Tonight, in what could be a great fight, undefeated super-prospect Irish John Duddy (17-0, 15KOs) faces Mexican legend Yori Boy Campas (88-8, 72KOs) at Madison Square Garden. This will be, without a doubt, the toughest test of Duddy's career. Campas, a former 154pd. champion, is one of the hardest punchers of the last 20 years, and certainly has the ability to end the fight with one shot. Defense has never been his forté, however. He's been fighting for almost 20 years, having faced the likes of Trinidad, De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas. He's still 35, but having taken as much punishment as he has, it's a pretty old 35. I guess we'll see if he has anything left in the tank tonight.
Also tonight, in a card televised on Telefutura (which, unfortunately, I don't get here in Iowa), undefeated Puerto Rican prospect, Alex "El Pollo" De Jesus (10-0, 7KOs) faces the Dominican Republic's Antonio Martinez in the main event. I've never seen De Jesus fight, but he's being touted as one of the top up-and-comers in the jr. welterweight division. This will be his first fight scheduled for ten rounds.
Tomorrow night, in another card out of Puerto Rico (to be broadcast on DirecTV Pay-Per-View, which I also can't get), Puerto Rico's Nelson Dieppa will try to regain his WBO flyweight title from Mexico's Hugo Cazares. The two fought a pretty good scrap last year, which Cazares won via Technical Decision. On the undercard of that, highly regarded Puerto Rican prospect Juan Manuel Lopez (13-0, 11KOs) will fight Mexico's Jose Alonso (31-10-2, 14KOs) for the WBO Latino Bantamweight Title. It will be Lopez's first 12-round fight.
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On another note, has anyone seen the Edison Miranda/Arthur Abraham fight? I haven't seen it myself, but from what I understand, Miranda was robbed. He had 5 (five!!!!) points deducted throughout the fight, a couple of them supposedly questionable. And still, even with the point deductions, most of the people who've seen a copy of the fight still see Miranda coming out on top.
I also read a report that said that Abraham won't be able to fight for at least a year, given his jaw fractures. If this is the case, it might seem fair to say that Abraham won the battle, but Miranda won the war.