Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Tomorrow on ESPN2's Wednesday Night Fights

Tomorrow night on ESPN2, the exciting Allan Green will be fighting. Lest you've forgotten, he's the super-hot super-middleweight who delivered unto Jaidon Codrington the most brutal first-round knockout of 2005. He gave Codrington eighteen seconds of Hell, and I'm expecting that he'll give something similar to the light-hitting Donnie McCrary. I saw a few clips of McCrary on the internet, and, from what I saw, he will most likely be a smudge on Green's gloves by the end of this match. Green could be coming in overconfident, but barring a total breakdown in his training, he should roll over McCrary.

Jameel "Big Time" McCline will be fighting Rob Calloway on the same card. I'm hoping that ESPN2 will be showing this fight as well, though it's not mentioned on their website. Jameel McCline seems like a great guy, but this may well be his last chance to turn around a once-promising, now-stalled, career. If he wins, he might move closer to re-establishing himself as someone to be taken seriously. If he loses, it may mean the end of a shot at the big money.

After a shaky start in the pro ranks, McCline put together a 31-fight unbeaten streak that included wins over contenders Michael Grant, Lance Whittaker, and Shannon Briggs. This ended with a TKO loss to Wladmir Klitschko in December of 2002, where McCline's corner called a halt to the beating that McCline was taking. McCline's attempted comeback was stalled with a disputed split-decision loss to Chris Byrd, a loss to the ascendent Calvin Brock, and then a disastrous loss to unheralded punching bag Zuri Lawrence. He is now riding a three-fight winning streak, though he's been fighting third-tier competition. McCline is big and strong, and while he has some boxing skill, he tends to get lazy, and the few punches he does throw tend to be ineffective"arm punches" that lack speed, accuracy, and power.

Calloway's career had a solid start, though much of his competition has been quite poor. He's lost three fights to solid fighters, most recently to undefeated prospect Ruslan "The White Tyson" Chagaev by unanimous decision in January. He has also been knocked out twice. Having been KO'ed by Hasim Rahman is nothing of which to be ashamed, but having been KO'ed by the ever-underachieving Audley Harrison is an indicator that Calloway will not likely be much of a test of McCline's ability, should McCline decide to throw hard, sharp punches. That said, Calloway has kept up an active fight schedule, and he could well win a decision over McCline by simply outworking him. I'll be watching.

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