Friday Night Fights Report - January 15, 2010

Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas are back on the air for another year of Friday Night Fights on ESPN2. Laredo, Texas is the site, and tonight's card features undefeated former U.S. Olympian Demetrius Andrade, as well as featherweight Juan Carlos Burgos.

Brian Kenny and B.J. Flores are in the studio, and of course they start off quickly discussing the collapse of Mayweather-Pacquiao.

There's already some drama of the unwanted kind for tonight's main event, as Juan Carlos Martinez, who signed to fight Burgos on short notice, was unable to make weight. He'll go in at 129 pounds.

We're set for action as Demetrius Andrade takes on Bernardo Guereca. Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, Andrade is 8-0 with six KOs thus far in his young pro career.

Guereca took this fight on just a week's notice and is much smaller than the southpaw Andrade. The first time Guereca gets hit by a right hook, he goes down and doesn't get back up. There isn't much, if anything, Andrade can take out of this one. Andrade wins by first-round KO.

Flores liked Andrade's quick hands and good spacing. Tough to believe there was even time to see those things.

Kenny talks Pacquiao-Clottey and whether or not Mayweather will actually stay on the March 13 date for a rival fight. Dan Rafael says there will be a press conference Tuesday for Pacquiao-Clottey, but there are no concrete plans for a Mayweather fight with Nate Campbell, Kermit Cintron or Paulie Malignaggi.

Could Floyd wait and fight the Shane Mosley-Andre Berto winner? Dan thinks there's a slight chance.

Flores puts more of the blame on Manny for the drug testing flap. They bring it Atlas, who feels like it's beating a dead horse, but he takes the diplomatic way out and blames both men equally for the fight falling apart.

BK says after considering the issue for a while, he backs Floyd. They move on to talk about the possibility of Mayweather fighting a smaller guy (like Campbell), and Flores thinks the media will rip him apart. Atlas wants Floyd to wait for the Mosley-Berto winner, saying even Timothy Bradley wouldn't be a satisfactory opponent.

A video segment takes a look back at Orlando Canizales, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame last year.

Next up is Yaundale Evans and Gino Escamilla. Evans is 4-0 with 3 KOs, while Escamilla is a local attraction who resides in Laredo.

Evans is bigger and faster. Though he is a southpaw, he has a nasty right hook. Escamilla gets knocked down in the first, but gets up to finish the round.

Early in the second, Escamilla goes down hard for a second time. Though he was clearly hurt, Evans doesn't seem to have any notion on how to finish him, and he survives again.

Escamilla keeps battling and takes Evans past the fourth round for the first time in his career. He makes it all the way to the final bell, though he posed no real threat to Evans, so we'll go to the scorecards. The scores come in 60-52 twice and 59-53, and Evans takes it by unanimous decision.

Back in the studio, talk turns to Jermain Taylor's decision to drop out of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. Flores hints (but doesn't actually come out and say) that Taylor was pressured to drop out, though he feels the time off will be good for JT. As rumored, they say Sakio Bika and Allan Green will fight, with the winner taking over for Taylor.

The guys also talk Roy Jones-Bernard Hopkins II. Like me, Flores likes Hopkins in the rematch.

Technical problems prevented us from doing a live round by round post for the main event between Juan Carlos Burgos and Juan Carlos Martinez. Suffice it to say that Martinez hung in pretty well considering he drained himself so much to try to make weight.

In the 12th and final round, Burgos turned up the heat with some blistering combinations, forcing Martinez to take a knee. He got up and fought on, but another combo punctuated by a wicked straight right made the referee decide he had seen enough. Burgos earned a TKO win in Round 12, running his record to 24-0 with 17 KOs.

Friday Night Fights takes next week off before returning on January 29 at a special (read later) start time of 10 pm Eastern.

Posted by The Franchise