Peter Manfredo, Jr., took only a month and four days off after his fight against Joe Calzaghe in Wales, and came back to notch a ninth-round TKO against veteran tomato can Ted Muller at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, RI. Both fighters weighed in at 169 pounds for the fight. Manfredo improves to 27-4. Muller has now lost his last three fights, including what I'm sure was a thriller to Bronco McKart at McKart's old high school in Monroe, MI.
Last night's Friday Night Fights was all action, and I hope you watched it. Brian Vera improved to 13-0 with a majority decision win over super exciting Samuel Miller, though I thought that Miller won the fight, and so did Teddy Atlas, and so did plenty of the crowd, it seemed. Miller is made for TV, a guy that pushes action and can box a little bit, too. He's now lost his last two fights, both really exciting, and both controversial majority decisions. I did think that Darrell Woods edged him in March, but he beat Vera last night.
The main event saw heavyweights Terry Smith and Kelvin Davis put on a good show, with Smith winning a unanimous decision in a fight that he was able to control simply because he is so much taller than Davis. You can't ask for a lot more out of a FNF heavyweight main event, though. It was a really good fight.
Terry Smith is an interesting fighter. He's 35 years old, with a 30-2-1 record. His only losses are to Calvin Brock (UD-2004) and Jameel McCline (UD-2006). The problem is he has no quality wins, really, and he's just too old to be able to get a whole lot. He could fight a guy like Chris Byrd or Evander Holyfield, maybe, but he'd probably lose to Byrd, who is too slick for him, and I think he'd beat Holyfield, but Evander is an old man. Terry Smith is a better fighter than Ray Austin, I'm pretty certain of that, and I don't really believe he's worse than Tony Thompson or any of the other B-list heavyweights who are floating around and becoming supposed contenders.
Kelvin Davis just isn't big enough to fight at heavyweight, but God bless him, he put up a fight.
Speaking of Holyfield (although I stopped a moment ago), his next fight is going to be on June 30 against Lou Savarese. So it's the 44-year old Holyfield (41-8-2) against the 41-year old Savarese (46-6, hasn't fought anyone real in years) at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso. Count me out.