13.2.09

Friday Night Fights Report - Feb. 13, 2009

FNF comes to us from New York City with a main event that pits Alexis Camacho against Carlos Molina. Camacho has won his last 16 fights by KO, and Teddy Atlas thinks Molina will oblige him by standing and trading with him.

In the co-feature, two undefeated welterweights, Ray Robinson and Darnell Jiles Jr., will do battle.

Brian Kenny and Bert Sugar are in the studio to discuss all things boxing, including Antonio Margarito's suspension and Nate Campbell failing to make weight for his fight tomorrow night. But we go to the ring quickly for the first fight, a four-rounder between cruiserweights Yathomas Riley and Julius Jackson.

Riley scores a knockdown 75 seconds in and keeps wailing away to the body. Jackson takes a knee late in the round after a wicked body shot.

Jackson has to take another knee in the third round, but the ref says the cause was an accidental headbutt. He manages to hold on through all four rounds showing occasional bursts of offense, but this fight was all Riley for the most part, and he wins by unanimous decision.

Back in the studio, Kenny discusses Campbell's inability to make weight for his fight. He weighed in twice and was over the 135-pound limit both times. Campbell was stripped of his lightweight title belts but his fight with Ali Funeka will go on.

Some video is shown of Margarito's hearing with comments from the head of the CSAC and Bob Arum. Sugar adds that the decision of the commission was unanimous. They also show Miguel Cotto's quote discussing how he doesn't think Margarito should be allowed to fight anywhere.

Sugar is a bit incredulous that no one from any of the commissions noticed anything funny with the hand wraps, and Atlas feels the same way. Everyone echoes the commonly held opinion that the findings call into question Margarito's victories over Cotto, Kermit Cintron and Golden Johnson.

Atlas and Joe Tessitore talk to Melvina Lathan, the head of New York's commission, about the Margarito situation. She gives a vague answer about what her state would do differently in terms of inspecting gloves, but she did say she thought her suspension would have been even more harsh had the same thing happened in New York.

We're ready now for Ray Robinson (that's his given name) and Darnell Jiles Jr. in an eight-rounder. Both men have nine pro fights under their belts, both are southpaws and both are undefeated.

The first round is fairly even, with the taller Robinson just missing with some power shots and Jiles able to get inside a couple of times. Both men show good movement and avoid a lot of incoming fire, though the closing seconds of Round Two get a little scrappier.

Robinson lands a mean left hand with a minute left in the third, forcing Jiles to cover up and hold on for dear life to make it out of the round. The fight is stopped between rounds, and Robinson earns the TKO victory.

1 comment:

uatu said...

that is bad news about nate campbell. I hope it doesn't affect his future bouts. presumably he won't be in that lightweight tournament picture anymore. i would still like to see him with Golden Boy for some nice match ups down the line.