Tonight's Friday Night Fights featured the lights going out in the co-feature, and then a total lack of energy in the main event.
In the first televised fight of the night, prospect Sadam Ali was iffy in an eight-round unanimous decision win over John Revish, in what was a decent fight to watch. In the second, Ali scored a knockdown, but the memorable moment of the fight was definitely the lights going out at the bell signaling the start of the fifth round. In darkness, the two fighters sat for 16 minutes until the lights came back on, leaving them both a little cold and stiff for the rest of the fight. Revish rocked Ali in the eighth round, but couldn't follow up, and lost a wide decision. Scores were 79-72 across the board for Ali. Bad Left Hook scored it 78-73 for Ali.
Ali is now 13-0 (7 KO), but failed to really impress in this fight, though you have to forgive the odd break in the middle of the bout. Still, it seems like his power is far less than previously advertised, and the former Olympian still needs defensive work. Could be that the slow burn Main Events has him on is just the right path. He's cultivated an audience in Newark as he fights on just about every notable show in the building, and he's got the charisma to stand out when he hones his craft a little more.
It was a gutsy effort by Revish (10-4-2, 8 KO), but he had some gas tank issues. Physically, though, he looked like a guy with some gifts -- if only he were a full-time fighter.
In the horrible main event, Anges Adjaho stunk out the joint something awful and then after he predictably lost a wide decision to Joel Julio, acted all, like, surprised and offended and crushed, mixing his sadness and disbelief with that, "Psh, what are you gonna do? Boxing, am I right, folks?!" sort of tone that fighters used to getting "robbed" always do after a while.
Julio (37-4, 31 KO) deserves some of the blame for being totally unable to cut off the ring and not exactly putting his foot on the gas, but the heinousness of this snoozer is 95% Adjaho's doing. Adjaho (25-6, 14 KO) quite likely got himself blacklisted from TV for this performance, which he spent moseying around the ring with his back to the ropes, covering up like a dime store Joshua Clottey and occasionally flicking a jab out.
Julio won the fight 99-91 across the board. Bad Left Hook scored it 100-90 for Julio.
Hopefully next time we see Julio, he'll be matched with someone that scratches his itch to actually fight. I'm not the biggest Joel Julio fan or anything, but he's never downright terrible to watch, and this fight was terrible to watch.
Next week's show is a heavyweight double-header featuring Chris Arreola vs Kendrick Releford, and Tony Thompson vs Maurice Harris.