Friday Night Fights Recap and Analysis

By Nick Tylwalk

We're joining Friday Night Fights in progress here at BW headquarters, already in Round 2 of the co-feature. Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas are on hand as usual, discussing the big victory for my school in a certain college hoops game earlier this week.

The opening bout pits 17-0 Raymond "Tito" Serrano, a Philly native, against Kenny Abril, a leftie from Rochester who comes in with an 11-4-1 pro record. Tito is the aggressor as we move into Round 3, backing Abril up with a pair of good right hands. This is only his third fight at junior welterweight after starting out at welterweight. Abril smacks him with a counter in the final minute of Round 3, and Serrano goes down. He finishes out the round, but there could be some drama in the upcoming rounds. 

Serrano backs Abril into a corner, but Abril looks like he has more confidence now, even in that position. Atlas thinks Serrano is still a bit crude: Too wide open, not very effective or consistent setting up power shots with his jab. One thing that is a noticeable positive is his commitment to landing left hooks to the body.

Abril goes down with roughly 35 seconds to go in Round 5, but it's ruled a slip. Serrano is hunting mostly for chances to throw hooks to the head or body without a lot of variation to his attacks. Abril lures Serrano into standing and trading in the final minute or so of Round 6, leading to the best sustained action of the fight so far.

It looks like Serrano may win this one simply by being busier in the second half of the fight. He is jabbing more and continuing to take the lead, which Abril has been more than willing to let him do. Atlas has Serrano up by three points with two rounds to go.

Abril's face is starting to show some definite wear and tear as we approach the final round. He's never been past eight rounds before, so this is new territory for him. We go down the stretch pretty much the same way we've been going since Round 7 or so, and you'd expect that Serrano will take this one on the judges' cards.

The judges see it 97-92 twice and 95-94, and Serrano wins by unanimous decision.

Bernardo Osuna and Atlas go back through last weekend's big fights, including Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. successfully fending off Marco Antonio Rubio at the Alamodome. Rubio says in an interview clip that it wasn't JCC Jr.'s power but his size that bothered him. Remember the tagline from the Matthew Broderick version of Godzilla: Size does matter.

Osuna offers the suggestion that JCC Jr. isn't as good as his supporters think nor as bad as his detractors believe. Atlas thinks that Junior is not as talented as his dad but has a true fighter's heart. He thinks Junior really needs to continue to be matched carefully.

They also examine the Nonito Donaire-Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. fight. Atlas blames Donaire a bit for making the fight closer by dropping his hands and showboating instead of focusing on the task at hand. He questions the Filipino Flash's defense, but not as badly as he blasts the judge who scored the bout in favor of Vazquez.

Delvin Rodriguez joins Osuna to talk about his second meeting with Pawel Wolak. That was undoubtedly a great fight, and Rodriguez credits his uppercut as the punch that Wolak could not answer. Asked about his upcoming plans, he smiles and says he can't say exactly what's next, but he promises something big is about to happen.

It's time for the main event, and former U.S. Olympian Demetrius Andrade is on his way to the ring. He's in somewhat of a no-win situation tonight, as opponent Angel Hernandez was the third choice after two other fighters dropped out and took the bout on just a few days' notice. Atlas has already stated that Andrade needs to get rid of Hernandez quickly.

Andrade is 15-0 with 10 KOs, while Hernandez is 30-10. Looks like we are all set for a scheduled 10 rounds of boxing in the junior middleweight division.

Hernandez had to go through extra tests during the week to be allowed to fight due to questions about his health. He passed them all, but he may wish he hadn't since Andrade towers over him.  He's certainly giving it his all early on, swinging for the fences and actually landing a few power shots late in Round 1.

Andrade starts ripping hooks with both hands in Round 2, and Hernandez goes down from accumulated shots a little more than a minute into Round 2. He gets back up, but a nasty left hand followed by a body shot put Hernandez down again, and that's it for this one. Andrade wins by KO at 1:39 of Round 2.

Despite the chaos surrounding this card, Andrade says he wanted to fight no matter who the opponent was, and he felt good. Asked about the top guys in his division, he mentions Canelo but says he believes that idea was shot down by Alvarez's people. He offers to go up to 160 to fight JCC Jr., but Atlas laughs back at the announce table, saying Andrade is about 20 pounds south of the younger Chavez. Real talk!

Since the main event was so brief, Emmanuel Gonzalez and Jesus Bayron get their swing bout on TV. At 9-0, Gonzalez is the A-side here.

While the fight is going on, Tessitore announces what Dan Rafael has already been telling the boxing world on Twitter: Canelo Alvarez will face Sugar Shane Mosley on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto pay-per-view on May 5. Atlas says he isn't running out to buy tickets, as he doesn't expect Cotto or Mosley to really be competitive.

I haven't talked much about this fight because there wasn't all that much to discuss. It goes to the cards after four rounds, and though Bayron gave a good effort, the judges score it 40-36 and 39-37 twice, and Gonzalez wins by unanimous decision.

That's it for this week. Next Friday, the scene shifts to the Dallas-Fort Worth Area for Mike Dallas Jr. and Miguel Gonzalez.

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