By Sevak Sarkisian: Boxing fans will be treated to an exciting match-up on July 12th between super bantamweights Chris Avalos (21-2 16 KO’s) and Drian Francisco (24-1-1 19KO’s) on ESPN2 9pm ET.
Chris Avalos is 23 years of age and 5’7 in height with a 67” inch reach. He has good size for a super bantamweight and will undoubtedly be the bigger man in the ring come July 12th . Avalos likes to come forward and work behind his jab. He does a fantastic job using his jab to set up his power shots and combinations. He also has good power and is a dangerous fighter to exchange with.
However, Avalos can get lured into brawls and get distracted from fighting more measured and doing everything off of his jab like he usually does. That is not something that will serve him well against Francisco. Avalos also has a habit of switching from orthodox to southpaw and sometimes when he’s switching back to the orthodox stance he can be vulnerable to being caught with a big shot.
Drian Francisco on the other hand is 5’5 in height with a 65” inch reach. He is the older fighter at 30 years of age. He is also physically the smaller fighter, Francisco started out his career as a flyweight. However, I believe Francisco is a very dangerous opponent. He happens to be athletic and has a very aggressive awkward style. He doesn’t mind brawling and throws vicious uppercuts. He also has good power with 19 of his victories coming by way of knockout. However, he tends to throw wild punches and wide looping ones as well.
A bigger fighter that throws a good jab such as Avalos will pose problems for Francisco in my opinion. However, if Avalos chooses to brawl too much, anything is possible because brawling is something Francisco is good at. Avalos has to stay disciplined throughout the fight and avoid brawling.
This fight is a truly good match up and I’m glad that ESPN FNF picked it up and made it the main event. In my humble opinion, this fight could have been televised on HBO’s B.A.D series or Shobox easily.
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