ESPN 2’s Friday Night Fights and ShoBox: The New Generation are not direct competitors, yet you can’t help but to compare the two since they both air on Friday nights. ESPN 2 offers the earlier programming, shown weekly at usually 9 p.m. ET, earlier in the West, and ShoBox airs faithfully at 11 p.m. ET/PT, once or twice a month, so there is never a conflict on viewing time. You can watch and enjoy both.
Fighters don’t pull in huge purses for either show, so their motivation, more or less, is the opportunity to be recognized by a good performance on television. Once upon a time, I might have said that ShoBox had the superior cards. The ShoBox philosophy of giving up and coming prospects an opportunity has served them well, and they can proudly produce a list as long as your arm of the name fighters who received their first break there. But, unless it’s my imagination, ESPN 2 has stepped up their game and now there’s an attractive matchup or two almost every week. Their sister show, Wednesday Night Fights, is due back in April for additional viewing for boxing fans.
The prospects of ShoBox can provide some scorching action, but dealing with the unknown, as they are, they occasionally get stuck with some turkeys, too. Meanwhile, ESPN 2 plows ahead with the more familiar names, contenders or former contenders on the rebound, pitted against good competition, usually playing for higher stakes. They have their own share of prospects fighting on their undercards as well. This might well be the reason why ShoBox is taking it up a notch on April 20 with a Kendall Holt-Mike Arnanoutis matchup in a jr. welterweight eliminator fight.
Showtime’s biggest advantage over ESPN is that as a premium cable network, they don’t break away between rounds for one “Just for Men” commercial after another. Many times ESPN 2 will end a round with a thrilling sequence, or even a knockdown, then be forced to cut away to pay the bills. Therefore fans rarely get to see the corner work between rounds.
On the other hand, ESPN 2’s strategy of using studio host Brian Kenny with a special guest commentator every week is absolutely brilliant. Aside from the commercials, there is no down time as Kenny keeps it alive with news and commentary on upcoming fights and results, chats with the studio guests, and shows clips of current and/or classic fights, depending on who the guest is. ShoBox, on the other hand, may not have commercials, but they use their downtime to pump up their coming attractions and programming.
But, in the final analysis, what separates the two in boxing programming is the production values and announcing teams. For some reason, the ShoBox series always seems darker, almost completely obscuring the fans at ringside. It’s as if they were fighting in a dungeon. This is not the case on Showtime Championship Boxing, which is an excellent production, and ESPN 2 doesn’t have that problem either.
ESPN 2 draws its biggest competitive edge from their announcing team. ShoBox’s super-tanned Nick Charles was a local reporter in my area some 30 years ago. It was a very competitive position at that time and Charles, while not bad, simply paled in comparison. That’s the problem that he and his broadcasting partner, Steve Farhood must now endure.
Charles is prepared and professional, but lacking in pizzazz. I don’t care for his pet term of “dialing in” punches, but overall he calls a fight well, and there are certainly worse. But he is definitely vanilla. Farhood still seems a bit stiff before the camera, but with his background as editor-in-chief for Ring and KO Magazine, he is one of the more knowledgeable men in boxing today. As an analyst, he is not afraid to voice his opinions, and show true respect for the participants. Very few could analyze the unknown fighters with the skill of Farhood.
But by contrast, Joe Tessitore may well be the best blow by blow announcer today. He is insightful, perceptive, passionate, and connects with the viewer at home. Teddy Atlas is one of a kind, unafraid to criticize a commission, sanctioning body, referee, judge, venue, fighter, or anyone else if that is what he believes. He’s the ultimate straight shooter. I’ve disagreed with Atlas in the past, but I have to respect him because as a fan I believe he has the best interests of the sport at heart. One thing about Atlas – week after week after week he analyzes the fighter’s flaws and week after week after week we watch his observations come to pass moments after he tells us. No one in the business can touch him in this regard.
That is what ShoBox has to face. Their “B” team is just not as good as Tessitore and Atlas, who make up the best team in the game.
This past week ShoBox featured unbeaten prospects Elio Rojas and Devon Alexander. In the opener, jr. welterweight Alexander, 11-0 (6), stopped a courageous but outgunned Scott Ball, 8-3 (6). Alexander had the faster hands and was the aggressor but fought in spurts. Ball, who may have suffered a broken jaw in the sixth round, finally went down twice in the seventh before being counted out at 59 seconds of the round.
In the main event, Elio “The Kid” Rojas, 19-0 (13), a 24 year old projected star of the future shut out Johnnie Edwards, 11-1 (7), in a featherweight bout, 100-90 on all cards. Rojas rocked Edwards in the first round, showed quick hands by consistently beating Edwards to the punch, and Edwards was just out of his league.
Over on ESPN 2, there was an exciting eight round middleweight fight between prospect Samuel Miller and 39 year old Darrell Woods. Miller, now 18-1 (15), dropped a slugfest to the journeyman Woods, 26-10 (18), by a majority decision, 76-73, 76-72, and 75-75.
Miller came out strong at the opening bell, staggering Woods and dominating the round. Woods came back and floored Miler in the second and third rounds. About a minute before the first knockdown, Atlas was telling the viewer that Miller was open for the straight right, and sure enough, straight right hands scored both knockdowns. Miller came back with a fury after the third round knockdown and hurt Woods with a right hand, then pounded away at Woods in a neutral corner. Miller lost a point in round seven for holding, but hurt Woods badly with a barrage late in the round to even it up. Miller went all out to start the eighth, and dominated the round, but was unable to put Woods away, thus suffering his first loss.
It was probably the best eight round fight that you’ll see all year, so good that Miller outlanded Woods 197-107, yet lost the fight with the two knockdowns and the point deduction in what was a true war.
In the main event featuring Nate Campbell and Ricky Quiles in a 12 round IBF lightweight title eliminator, Campbell , 30-5-1 (24), completely dominated Quiles, 39-8-3 (8), winning a unanimous decision, 120-107, 119-109, and 119-106.
Quiles was totally ineffective throughout the bout, hurting his own cause by engaging Campbell instead of utilizing his typical movement.
But the real story here was the fact that such a one-sided fight, with Quiles and his eight career knockouts having absolutely no shot at winning, actually went the full 12. Campbell had a 457-177 advantage in punches landed, including an eye popping 337-122 in head shots. Most disturbing was Campbell’s 118-15 connect advantage over the final three rounds.
Quiles took a knee about 30 seconds into the 12th round. Campbell looked as if he was actually letting up, but he couldn’t miss and with about 40 seconds left in the fight, Atlas began shouting to Referee Jorge Alonso to stop the fight. Neither Alonso nor Quiles’ corner responded.
The next day a website reported that Atlas attempted to “distract” Alonso and influence him to stop the fight, but that the veteran Alonso allowed the game Quiles to go the route. I honestly can’t comprehend that line of thinking. As of Monday afternoon Victor Burgos remained in a coma after brain surgery following his TKO loss to flyweight titlist Vic Darchinyan Saturday night, and although Darchinyan can really crack for a flyweight, there was far less evidence of danger in that one than Campbell-Quiles. (There were reports on Monday evening that Burgos had come out of his coma and was reacting to doctors. He was described as being in stable condition.)
In the end, referee Alonso, the ringside physician, and Quiles’ corner all share equally in permitting this beatdown. Fortunately he was not beaten as badly as Burgos, and hopefully there will be no long term effects. I’ve always believed that the corner above all others, and particularly more so than a TV announcer, should bear the greatest burden for fighter safety.
No other announcer in the game would be so willing to put it on the line, and for that reason alone, ESPN 2 deserves the nod as the premier network of Friday night fights. On Thursday, we’ll look at the Saturday night fights.