By Jim Dower: Middleweight Don George (24-3-2, 21 KO’s) and David Lopez (41-14-1, 23 KO’s) fought to a disappointing 10 round draw on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The judges scored the fight 97-94 for Lopez, 96-94 for George, and 95-95.

The judges appeared to be more impressed with Lopez’s constant work rather than the bone-jarring right hands that George was landing in every round. To some it looked like George did more than enough to win the fight even though he was far from impressive. Lopez was busier with his jab combination punching in the first three rounds.

Lopez’s shots lacked power, and they were not even close to the power of the big shots that George was landing in comparison. The problem with George is he didn’t throw his punches nearly enough, and he rarely used his left hand. I was all right hand shots from.

In the 5th round, Lopez hurt George with a left hook late in the round and was teeing off on him when the round ended. George was fortunate that this happened at the end of the round because he would have in trouble if Lopez had more time.

From rounds six until the end of the fight, George dominated the action with his right hands and heavy pressure. There’s no way that you give Lopez any of these rounds because he was tired and just pushing his punches. Obviously the judges liked what they saw in Lopez in the last part of the fight because he ended up getting a draw, but I didn’t see anything from him that I felt was enough for him to win any of the last five rounds. He was too tired and you could see it.

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In the co-main event, former IBF welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (35-5-2, 28 KO’s) struggled with the energy, work rate and angles of the younger Adrian Granados (11-2-2, 7 KO’s) in fighting to a controversial 10 round draw. Granados looked like the better fighter, and arguably deserved the win. The judges’ scores were 96-94 for Granado, 97-95 for Cintron, and 95-95 even.

Cintron came into the fight with much more experience than Granados, and this should have been an easy win for him because it’s difficult to see Granados competing with the top welterweights in the division. However, Cintron didn’t let his hands go the way he needed to in order to win the fight, and he spent a good portion of the fight grabbing Granados in clinches each time the smaller and weaker fighter got close to him.

Cintron won rounds four, seven and nine convincingly by loading up with every shot he threw. Granados couldn’t stand in there with Cintron when he was fighting like this, and it really one-sided. However, Cintron was unable to fight like this in the other rounds for some reason. Had he fought like that in all ten of the rounds there’s no question he would have won the fight, but either it was a mental thing on his part or perhaps he didn’t have the stamina to fight hard the way he needed to beat Granados.