New York, NY– Boxing, a sport that typically (for the most part) shuts down during major holiday weekends, surprisingly offers a couple of entertaining cards over this July 4th weekend.
ESPN CONTINUES TO DELIVER THE GOODS
Last month’s card highlighted by undefeated David Lemieux’s first round destruction over seasoned veteran Elvin Alaya featured four entertaining and competitive fights, all of which ended by brutal knockout. Prior to that scintillating card of the year canidiate, throughout the year, previous scraps on ESPN’s air have been nothing to sleep on. Highlights include Ed Paredes skull crushing “knockout of the year” type drumming over Joey Hernandez, a crowd pleasing affair between Ji-Hoon Kim and Tyrone Harris’s which featured a scorching display of pugilistic terror (W Kim TKO 6), Roman Karmazin’s classic come from behind dramatic 10th round knockout over Dionsio Miranda, Guillermo Rigondeaux ‘s rib shattering first round knockout blow out over Adolfo Landeros, a and savage “barn burner” between Librado Andrade and Eric Lucas (W Andrade TKO 9). ESPN, without a doubt has been Boxing’s heartbeat in 2010. Each installment of the popular series offers news, analysis on upcoming bouts, interviews, competitive scraps, and in studio celebrity guests offering insight into the world of boxing. This week features a showdown between experienced former title challenging pugs looking to take the step up in contention when Demetrius Hopkins (29-1-1, 11 KOs) squares off against Mike Arnaoutis (22-5,2 10 KOs) at light welterweight (140) in a scheduled 12 round contest form the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, Friday, live at 11 PM ET on ESPN 2.
ARUM’s “TOP RANK” BUSY SCHEDULE TRUDGES FORWARD
Action continues on Saturday when veteran light flyweight (108) combatants Ulises Solis (30-2-2, 21 KOs) and Eric Ortiz (32-10-3, 21 KOs) throw down over 10 rounds at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, live, on Fox Sports Net at 10 PM ET.
ANY THING LEFT IN THE FORMER CHAMP?
After defending his IBF strap for 3 years, Ulises Solis met Brian Viloria in a battle of epic proportions. Down the stretch of their pitched battle, a heavy hook to the head dropped Solis in round 11. Ulises was unable to recover and the fight was waived off at 2:56 mark. Since the loss, Ulises has been keeping active and has won two straight.
ORTIZ CAN PUNCH SOME BUT CAN’T TAKE A HIT
While having stopped almost 50 percent of his opponents by knockout, Eric Ortiz has been devastated 9 times in his 10 losses.
John Signorella