Tonight's Friday Night Fights main event had plenty to think about, but no real surprises. Colombian junior welterweight Breidis Prescott cruised to a wide ten-round unanimous decision over Mongolian Bayan Jargal, winning on scores of 100-90, 99-90 and 99-91. Bad Left Hook scored it a closer 97-93 for Prescott, giving the final three rounds to Jargal simply because Prescott was clearly just hanging in there and doing enough to get the decision win, while Jargal put his foot on the gas as much as he could. In other words, hardly clear-cut Jargal rounds, and outside of one judge not even giving Jargal the 12th round -- which I thought he did obviously win as Prescott was doing nothing -- I have no issue with the official scores.
Prescott (24-2, 19 KO) was his usual self, though I will say he looked looser tonight. He swept the first six rounds with relative ease, occasionally seeming to sting Jargal (15-2-3, 10 KO) with his shots, but mostly using his height and jab well, and keeping effective distance while maintaining a solid workrate. It wasn't the most thrilling exhibition, but Prescott simply got the job done tonight.
Jargal was an offensive zero for the first half of the fight, looking extremely tentative early on. He did some decent work defensively to slip power shots and not let Prescott land in the sweet spots too often, but by the end of the night his left eye was badly swollen and he had clearly shown himself to be at least a class below Prescott.
I still have zero interest in a Khan-Prescott rematch, at least for now. Look, if Prescott keeps winning and Khan loses a fight sometime, then it would make some sense to me as a Khan "comeback" fight, where the revenge tale would be more effective. Right now the fight is, on paper, a legitimate star against a one-hit wonder whose one hit came at the star's expense. I do understand the reasoning that look, Prescott DID knock out Khan, but the Khan who fought Prescott doesn't fight anymore. Not under Freddie Roach. There may come a time when the fight makes sense to me, but right now it doesn't.
That said, Prescott is going to keep getting fights because of his notoriety, and frankly because he's not that good that top fighters are likely to really worry about fighting him. Kevin Mitchell dominated him, for heaevn's sake. What might make sense for Prescott at 140, then? A few guys were popping into my mind tonight, but the one who made the most sense to me was Paul McCloskey.
McCloskey himself just lost to Khan, and wasn't impressive in doing so. And I think style-wise, Prescott could trouble McCloskey some, what with McCloskey constantly keeping his hands at his waist and daring fighters to hit. Prescott is no speed merchant, but if he relaxed and fought within himself, I could see him chin-checking McCloskey. As for other fringe contenders like the Josesito Lopez-Steve Upsher Chambers winner, or Ruslan Provodnikov, or Kaizer Mabuza, etc., he has no good reason to fight those guys. He won't get paid any more for fighting them than he would fighting the likes of Jargal and Harrison Cuello, and the risk is higher. Prescott still has the ability to make a little money, particularly in the UK, and jeopardizing even a remote chance of facing Khan for big bucks again within the next year probably isn't a good idea for him or his promoter. That's just reality.
In the main co-feature, former U.S. Olympian Demetrius "Boo Boo" Andrade improved to 13-0 (9 KO) with an easy second round knockout of part-time fighter Omar Bell (8-2, 5 KO). The fight told us absolutely nothing new whatsoever about Andrade. I'm not for rushing guys, but could we at least get him in against a low-level gatekeeper next? These fights are pointless.
Also televised tonight thanks to the early ending of Andrade's fight was Star Boxing publicist Kevin Rooney Jr.'s professional boxing debut. Rooney is the son of the famous Kevin Rooney, the former fighter who wound up learning the training trade under Cus D'Amato. The father was in the son's corner for this one, and it was the most entertaining fight of the night. Rooney won a four-round decision, twice knocking down Philly's David Navarro (0-3) and getting unanimous 40-34 scores in his favor. Rooney is far from a serious prospect, but the Connecticut crowd was hotly behind him and you have to respect any publicist with an itch to fight for himself strong enough that he actually does it. It does leave open the question of what the press release will look like tomorrow, of course.