Tonight's Friday Night Fights was live only on ESPN3.com from the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, held outdoors in one of their pool areas on a windy night that saw steady 29mph winds and 40mph gusts. The wind might have been the most interesting part of the evening.
In the main event, Carlos Molina improved to 18-4-2 (6 KO) with a seventh round stoppage of Allen Conyers (12-5, 9 KO). Conyers returned to boxing in January after a long absence and upset an unbeaten prospect, but was totally overwhelmed tonight by Molina's ability to box and not get hit by the telegraphed power shots that Conyers was trying to use. It's the second strong Friday Night Fights performance in the last five weeks for Molina, who drew Erislandy Lara in March. For Conyers, it's a step back into reality. He was out of his league against Molina, who sent him reeling on a big right hand in the seventh, at which point referee Tony Weeks had seen enough and called a stop to the fight. By that point Conyers had become a human punching bag, barely offering resistance or much return fire.
The night's co-feature saw lightweight prospect Hylon Williams Jr. (14-0, 3 KO) outpoint late notice opponent Marcos Herrera (6-5-1, 2 KO) over eight rounds. This fight either showed that Williams, 20, likely has limited upside, or he and his team were trying to work almost exclusively on fighting on the inside. He had a huge speed advantage over Herrera, and on the occasions that he bothered to create some distance and throw in combination, it was very obvious he was the much better fighter. But considering the levels of the fighters, I thought Williams was unimpressive. Bad Left Hook did score it an 80-72 shutout for Williams, while two judges had it 79-73 and the other had it a very generous (to Herrera) 77-75.
For those interested in seeing what I would nicely describe as a "fairly watchable" night of fights, ESPN2 will have the show at 10pm EDT on Saturday night and again at 2pm EDT on Sunday. Or maybe they scrapped the Sunday airing. Check your local listings.
We'll have more live coverage tonight for Solo Boxeo Tecate starting at 11:30pm EDT. Join us!