Friday Night Fights Results
Friday Night Fights has been entertaing so far this Spring, and tonight was no exception.
In the first of the televised bouts, Brian "The Beast" Minto fought the always-game Billy "The Kid" Zumbrun in an eight-round bout.
I saw Zumbrun fight Riddick Bowe about a year ago, and despite suffering a fourth-round knockout, Zumbrun should have left with the victory. Zumbrun does not have the tools to be a top-tier heavyweight, but he is a solid fighter, and he was a good "style match" for Minto.
In the first round Minto established his jab, dictating the pace and dramatically outlanding Zumbrun.
The third round saw Zumbrun moving inside, pounding Minto with left hooks and straight right counters. Zumbrun suddenly started to use his greater strength to force his will on the shorter, lighter Minto. Minto fought back better in the fourth, but rounds three and four went to Zumbrun on my card.
Minto won the fifth round, though Zumbrun still threw good punches. As the round came to a close, Zumbrun landed a three-punch combo that started me thinking knockout thoughts, though Minto's chin looked to be strong.
The sixth round went to Minto as his jab took control over the fatigued Zumbrun. Minto was showing pretty good hand speed, good footwork, but his defense would not have held up against a more-skilled fighter.
In the seventh round Zumbrun started doubling up his own jab, and used it to set up some good right hand punches. Zumbrun looked good, but "The Beast" was far from finished. Minto finally started to throw rights of his own, added some left hooks off the jab, and nearly scored a knockout in the frames' closing seconds. Zumbrun looked to be in bad shape, and I was surprised that he answered the bell for round eight.
Zumbrun wasn't able to recover fully between rounds, and Minto charged out to capitalize. He punished Zumbrun with rights and lefts that went all but unanswered. In this writer's opinion the referee should have stopped the fight, but it turned out that Minto ran out of gas before he could score a knockdown. Zumbrun was able to survive out the final round, but he took a lot of punishment. I felt more than a little anxiety as the stunned, confused Zumbrun walked back to the wrong corner after the bell. I hope that he wasn't permanently injured.
I scored the bout 78-74 for Minto, who ended up with a unanimous decision victory. I don't know where he'll go from here, but I definitely do not think that he belongs in the ring with a top-tier heavyweight at this time.
In the main event, Samuel Peter dished out the whuppin' that everybody expected. Julius Long was terrified coming in, and it never even looked close. At about halfway through the first round Peter's wild punches caused Long to fall to a knee as he was fleeing. It was correctly ruled a knockdown, even though it was caused by fear, not a punch. About a minute later, as Long was leaning back across the ropes in a vain attempt to avoid Peter's mighty fists, Peter partially landed a big club of a right hand which appeared to knock Long out. All of this without Peter landing a single punch cleanly. It was pathetic.
Long did not use his height at all, and didn't look as if he should even be in a ring with a fighter of Peter's caliber. If Long has any skill, it was not evident tonight. I haven't seen somebody fade from fear like that since the heyday of "Iron Mike" Tyson.
Peter was 13lbs heavier than he was when he lost to Wladmir Klitschko, when poor conditioning played a huge role. He looked slow, but it was hard to tell anything much in such a short fight. Peter is probably the hardest hitter in the division, but he will need to come in with better conditioning if he wants to beat Wladmir Klitschko
Samuel Peter now holds the NABF championship belt, for whatever that is worth.
In the third of the broadcast's fights, an "undefeated but untested" Mike Marrone unloaded like a hurricane against tomato can Dan Whetzel. The first-round knockout happened in a fast and furious fashion, and I couldn't tell you much about what I saw, except that Marrone threw a lot of punches from a lot of angles. If he's fighting again, I'll be watching, though it will most likely be on another ESPN2 undercard.
In the fourth fight a couple of middleweights tusseled in the most exciting fight of the night. Another "undefeated but untested" fighter, Lajuan Simon, fought Darnell Boone in a six-round bout. Boone took the fight on less than a week's notice, so it wasn't expected that he'd offer much in the way of a challenge. Simon did well in the first three rounds with his jab, but abandoned it in the final three, which allowed the slick, quick Boone to look impressive. The bout was scored a draw, but it was an exciting draw. I would like to see these guys scheduled for ten or twelve rounds sometime soon.
In the first of the televised bouts, Brian "The Beast" Minto fought the always-game Billy "The Kid" Zumbrun in an eight-round bout.
I saw Zumbrun fight Riddick Bowe about a year ago, and despite suffering a fourth-round knockout, Zumbrun should have left with the victory. Zumbrun does not have the tools to be a top-tier heavyweight, but he is a solid fighter, and he was a good "style match" for Minto.
In the first round Minto established his jab, dictating the pace and dramatically outlanding Zumbrun.
The third round saw Zumbrun moving inside, pounding Minto with left hooks and straight right counters. Zumbrun suddenly started to use his greater strength to force his will on the shorter, lighter Minto. Minto fought back better in the fourth, but rounds three and four went to Zumbrun on my card.
Minto won the fifth round, though Zumbrun still threw good punches. As the round came to a close, Zumbrun landed a three-punch combo that started me thinking knockout thoughts, though Minto's chin looked to be strong.
The sixth round went to Minto as his jab took control over the fatigued Zumbrun. Minto was showing pretty good hand speed, good footwork, but his defense would not have held up against a more-skilled fighter.
In the seventh round Zumbrun started doubling up his own jab, and used it to set up some good right hand punches. Zumbrun looked good, but "The Beast" was far from finished. Minto finally started to throw rights of his own, added some left hooks off the jab, and nearly scored a knockout in the frames' closing seconds. Zumbrun looked to be in bad shape, and I was surprised that he answered the bell for round eight.
Zumbrun wasn't able to recover fully between rounds, and Minto charged out to capitalize. He punished Zumbrun with rights and lefts that went all but unanswered. In this writer's opinion the referee should have stopped the fight, but it turned out that Minto ran out of gas before he could score a knockdown. Zumbrun was able to survive out the final round, but he took a lot of punishment. I felt more than a little anxiety as the stunned, confused Zumbrun walked back to the wrong corner after the bell. I hope that he wasn't permanently injured.
I scored the bout 78-74 for Minto, who ended up with a unanimous decision victory. I don't know where he'll go from here, but I definitely do not think that he belongs in the ring with a top-tier heavyweight at this time.
In the main event, Samuel Peter dished out the whuppin' that everybody expected. Julius Long was terrified coming in, and it never even looked close. At about halfway through the first round Peter's wild punches caused Long to fall to a knee as he was fleeing. It was correctly ruled a knockdown, even though it was caused by fear, not a punch. About a minute later, as Long was leaning back across the ropes in a vain attempt to avoid Peter's mighty fists, Peter partially landed a big club of a right hand which appeared to knock Long out. All of this without Peter landing a single punch cleanly. It was pathetic.
Long did not use his height at all, and didn't look as if he should even be in a ring with a fighter of Peter's caliber. If Long has any skill, it was not evident tonight. I haven't seen somebody fade from fear like that since the heyday of "Iron Mike" Tyson.
Peter was 13lbs heavier than he was when he lost to Wladmir Klitschko, when poor conditioning played a huge role. He looked slow, but it was hard to tell anything much in such a short fight. Peter is probably the hardest hitter in the division, but he will need to come in with better conditioning if he wants to beat Wladmir Klitschko
Samuel Peter now holds the NABF championship belt, for whatever that is worth.
In the third of the broadcast's fights, an "undefeated but untested" Mike Marrone unloaded like a hurricane against tomato can Dan Whetzel. The first-round knockout happened in a fast and furious fashion, and I couldn't tell you much about what I saw, except that Marrone threw a lot of punches from a lot of angles. If he's fighting again, I'll be watching, though it will most likely be on another ESPN2 undercard.
In the fourth fight a couple of middleweights tusseled in the most exciting fight of the night. Another "undefeated but untested" fighter, Lajuan Simon, fought Darnell Boone in a six-round bout. Boone took the fight on less than a week's notice, so it wasn't expected that he'd offer much in the way of a challenge. Simon did well in the first three rounds with his jab, but abandoned it in the final three, which allowed the slick, quick Boone to look impressive. The bout was scored a draw, but it was an exciting draw. I would like to see these guys scheduled for ten or twelve rounds sometime soon.
posted by Paul at 10:15 PM
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