Bailey-Urango tonight

By Boxing News - 08/28/2009 - Comments

By Jim Dower: On Friday night, power puncher Randall Bailey (39-6, 35 KO’s) will be facing IBF light welterweight champion Juan Urango (21-2-1, 16 KO’s) at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. For the 34-year-old Bailey the title shot is long overdue, as he’s been toiling away for the past five years since being stopped in the 6th round by Miguel Cotto in 2004.

Bailey was beaten in a controversial 12 round split decision by Herman Ngoudjo two years ago in June 2007, a fight which I saw Bailey winning by four rounds. However, Ngoudjo was fighting in front of his home crowd in Montreal, Canada.

Despite Bailey losing the fight by a questionable decision, I figured that Bailey would get a title shot sooner rather than later due to his huge power, crowd pleasing style and most importantly because of the controversial nature of his loss to Ngoudjo.

But I was wrong. Boxing isn’t always fair and it’s more than disappointing that a talented fighter like Bailey had to sit on the shelf for two years and not get chance at a title until now. With the kind of huge power that Bailey has, I would pick him over any light welterweight in the division except for maybe Timothy Bradley.

Bailey with his huge power, he’d probably be much too dangerous for British fighters like Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan, both of which I think Bailey would knock out. On Friday night, Bailey will be facing a big puncher in his own right in 28-year-old Colombian Urango, who will be making his 1st defense of his IBF light welterweight title.

Urango moved up in weight in his last fight, taking on WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto and losing by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision in May. Urango, although game, was far too slow for the fast hands of Berto and the fight was never really competitive because of the speed difference between the two fighters.

Bailey isn’t nearly as fast as Berto, but he is probably the harder puncher. It’s unclear, though, whether Bailey’s big punches will have much of an effect on the steel chinned Urango, because as if yet, there hasn’t been a fighter that has hurt Urango in any of his fights.

Few fighters are willing to stand in front of Urango and trade shots, because he’s got heavy hands and respectable power. The rap on Urango, though, is he moves like a slow tank and can be outmaneuvered in the ring fairly easy.

Plus, Urango’s lack of hand speed makes it easy to see his punches coming and either block or get out of the way of the looping shots well before they land. Urango was easily beaten by Ricky Hatton by a 12-round decision in January 2007.

This was Hatton before he had suffered knockouts losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. However, after trying to trade shots with Urango in the 1st round and getting hit with some big punches, Hatton quickly abandoned his customary brawling style and elected to box Urango the rest of the way.

Hatton’s boxing skills enabled him to dominate Urango and beat him by a lopsided decision. Bailey, for his part, also has excellent boxing skills. However, he prefers to land bombs on the outside and take his chances to try for a quick knockout. It may not work out well for Bailey if he tries that with Urango, because the Colombian can take a heck of a shot and return fire.

Bailey is going to have to make sure he can get out of the way of Urango’s big punches or else he’s going to wind up on the deck at some point. Bailey has to make sure he paces himself because if he tries to score a knockout early by unloading on Urango with a horde of punches, there’s a chance that Urango will nail him with a big shot and take him out. Urango is the younger fighter and more rugged and suited for brawling than Bailey.