By Sam Gregory: Tonight on ESPN 2 Friday Night Fights from Laredo, Texas Bernard Hopkins stood in for Teddy Atlas calling the shots alongside Joe Tessitore. Meanwhile Teddy was in the studio in Bristol because he’ll be calling tomorrows fight between Vitali Klitschko and Juan Carlos Gomez. The Saturday afternoon Klitschko-Gomez fight will take place in Stuttgart, Germany. Teddy Atlas and Brian Kenny will call the fight from the studio by way of a satellite feed.
The first fight on tonight’s card was a scheduled four round bout in the lightweight division between Demetrius Andrade who was making his second appearance on ESPN in 2 weeks, and Arnulfo Javier Romero. Andrade put pressure on Romero from the opening bell going right to the body. With less than half a minute left in the first round Andrade landed a solid shot the dropped Romero to the canvas who barely made it through the round. At the start of the second round Andrade came out throwing and landing solid combinations until he saw the opening to land a brutal left uppercut that again sent Romero to the canvas; this time for good at 2:53 seconds in round number 2.
Demetrius Andrade improved his undefeated record to 4-0 with 4 KO’s while Arnulfo Javier Romero suffered his first defeat by KO falling to 2-1.
In a scheduled 6 round Jr welterweight fight undefeated Ruslan Provodnikov 11-0 with 7 KO’s took on Esteban Almaraz 9-1 with 4 KO’s. The undefeated Russian started as the aggressor going right to the body of “Stevie” as Almaraz is known to his Texas fans. Putting strong combinations together in the second round, Provodnikov was soon dictating the offensive flow of the fight. In the third round a cut opened above the left eye of Stevie which later was discovered had come from an accidental clash of heads. The work rate of the Russian continued to pick up going into the middle rounds. Almaraz was a very game fighter and took everything the Russian threw at him put did little to counter. Going into the fourth round the Russian was making a clean sweep on the unofficial ringside score card.
A perfect body shot in the fifth round from Provodnikov dropped Almaraz who beat the count with less than 10 seconds in the round. After six rounds they went to the score cards which read: 59-54, 60-53 and 60-53 all for the winner by a unanimous decision Ruslan Provodnikov. The Russian improved his record to 12 wins with no loses, 7 of the wins coming by way of KO. Esteban Almaraz fell to 9-2.
In the main event southpaw Fernando Beltran 31-3 with 18 KO’s took on Miguel Roman 25-4 with 17 KO’s in a scheduled 12 round featherweight bout.
This fight was pretty close and the opening round proved to be a feeling out round for both fighters. In the second round both men fought in close. Beltran was sharp in landing his jabs and Roman wasn’t able to offset his southpaw style and was at the receiving end of Beltran’s solid punches.
In the third round Roman was able to close the gap and went on the attack early in the round. Beltran stopped using his jab and when he did Roman was able to turn things around backing Beltran into the ropes landing solid shots t-o the body. Having turned the fight around in the third round Roman came out strong in the fourth; by the end of the round the fight looked even.
In the sixth and seventh rounds Beltran found a home for his jab once again and was able to keep Roman at bay. By the eighth round body punches played a bigger role for Roman backing Beltran t-o the ropes.
By the ninth round strategy seemed to go out the window and the two Mexicans appeared to be fighting for bragging right. After the tenth and going into the championship rounds the punch numbers were almost even. Roman was landing solid combinations; it was a hard fought competitive fight throughout.
Both men went into the twelfth round like they needed that round to win the fight. The final round still went back and forth and was very even. When the final bell rang at the end of the twelfth round they went to the judge’s score cards. Two judge’s had it 115-113 for Beltran, the last card was 111-117 for Roman.
Fernando Beltran won by split decision improving his record to 32-3 with 18 KO’s while Miguel Roman fell to 25-5 with 17 KO’s.