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Last night's fight on Friday Night Fights had a pretty strange ending. Vivian Harris basically got knocked out by a headbutt (there was a delayed reaction, but he collapsed after the butt) and looked to be in pretty bad shape. The Maussa and Witter fights probably proved that his chin is pretty much done, but this can't have helped. On the bright side, Keith Thurman and Deontay Wilder looked good in knocking out their respective opponents early. Also, Antonio Pitalua, who maybe has the best hair in boxing history (bomb top hairdo, pornstache AND a rattail)spectacularly knocked out Jose Reyes in the 7th. Brian Minto won a somewhat controversial technical decision over Donnell Holmes, who by reports he was dominating. The fight was stopped after the fourth due to a cut over Minto's eye, but the referee never actually called the cut as being from a headbutt. Expect this one to get appealed. - According to Dan Rafael's notebook, Gary Shaw is looking to put together a December 5 card including Vic Darchinyan vs. mandatory Tomas Rojas, Ali Funeka vs. Joan Guzman and Joseph Agbeko vs. Jonnhy Perez. Funeka-Guzman presents a very interesting style matchup for each of them, and Agbeko-Perez could be a burner. Perez was able to come from behind for a knockout win over Silenze Mabuza to earn his title shot.
- Also per the notebook, Golden Boy is trying to work out a fight between Sakio Bika and Karoly Balzsay on the Bute-Andrade undercard. If it comes off, it's nice to see Bika get another title shot - he's 0-1-1 in title bouts, and got spanked by Bute, but he seems to have improved significantly since winning the Contender and being able to afford to train full time. Balzsay is an undefeated southpaw with a decent punch, so it could be a good scrap.
- Andre Berto may unify against Isaac Hlatshwayo. If it happens, it probably gives Berto a way to weasel out of a rematch with Luis Collazo. Nice to see he's still taking the path of least resistance.
- Rafael Concepcion couldn't make weight for tonight's bout against Nonito Donaire, coming in four pounds over. The fight will still happen, but the paper title will only be on the line for Donaire. Everyone else has made weight - Shumenov, Campillo, Jones (who looks ripped as usual), Lacy, etc.
- The biggest all-Australian heavyweight bout in years will be on the undercard of the biggest all-New Zealand bout in history. On the David Tua-Shane Cameron undercard, Kali Meehan will take on John Hopoate. Nice to see he's getting back in the ring and not just sitting on his mandatory that probably won't become due for years. It's really unfortunate for Meehan - if he's still anything like what he used to be, he probably could be in the top 5 right now if he was more active. He probably has the size and power to bother Wlad. He probably would beat either Nicolai Valuev or John Ruiz, both of whom stand in his way to a belt. He probably should have won a belt from Lamon Brewster in a very close fight that I scored in Meehan's favor. He was all set to fight Valuev for the title in Finland when Chagaev pulled out, but Valuev's people weren't willing to face an orthodox fighter after training for a southpaw. Hopefully he'll still be in good shape by the time he finally gets his shot. Also, for those who care, Tua appears to be in his best shape in years.
