Prospect watch - 6/1/2012

I'm back with my first prospect watch of 2012 and there's two actually really solid cards in the USA tonight, with ESPN's Friday Night Fight's returning and also an addition of ShoBox, both of which can be seen in the UK on ESPN America 1:30am for FNF and Premier Sports 4am for the ShoBox card.

Martinez and Douglin at the weigh in

The main event on FNF is going to be a real cracker between Dyah Davis and Alfonso Lopez, two very solid, and improving pro fighters, a win for either will be huge. However the chief support is what takes my eye as 11-0 (9 KO's) New York light middleweight Steve Martinez takes on Dennis Douglin, 13-1 (8 KO's), a matchup between two guys who won National Golden Gloves titles in 2008.


Martinez won his title at welterweight, while Douglin won at middleweight, so naturally being a couple years younger, you'd expect Douglin to have the physical advantage. However the only time he's been beaten was against a hard hitting Puerto Rican called Doel Carrasquillo in his penultimate fight, and that was in the third round, so questions are raised about his chin. In his last fight he came up against a guy who wasnt going to test his resistance, this is a completely different ask as Martinez is very much on the up and comes into this on the back of two very good showings.


The bookies have it a very close one, but I think the man from the Bronx is going to win it, with his power expected to give Douglin serious problems.


If you fancy some more action after the bill in Key West, then there is some good prospects on show at the Fantasy Springs in Indio, a place which is starting to become renowned with showcasing some of the US's finest prospects.


Headlining is a great looking war between the unbeaten Luis Ramos Jr and Rayundo Beltran at lightweight, but like in Florida, it's the undercard that takes my eye.

The Artist and his opponent

In the co-feature, exciting Newark lightweight Michael Perez faces Omar Figueroa in a someone's 0 has to go 10 rounder. Perez is 15-0-1 (9 KO's) and comes into this having stopped his last four opponents, showing why the people in Puerto Rico are getting very excited about him (he is of Puerto Rican descent). Two of those wins have come against very experienced campaigners in Ira Terry and Tyrone Harris, and in the Harris fight he really did look spectacular, so he needs to build on that. Figueroa is a decent fighter with a record of 13-0-1 (10 KO's), but he's campaigned at a much lower level and doesnt look as good as prospect as Perez. However his record suggests he can bang and this could be a good one.


A late addition to the undercard is 1-0 (1 KO) Cleveland middleweight Christopher Pearson, who I watched make his debut a few weeks ago on the undercard of Adrien Broner's world title fight, and I was very impressed with this guy's technical ability. He was a well regarded fighter on the amateur scene, boxing in the World Series of Boxing, but for me his style looks made for the pro ranks. Here he faces Cleven Ishe, stopped just once in seven fights, but with just one stoppage win on his record. Pearson needs to be a bit more patient tonight and just use his considerable skills, a stoppage victory would be an impressive way to start 2012.


Just to recap then, the three fighters to look out for tonight are -


Steve Martinez
Michael Perez
Christopher Pearson.


Happy New Year to my all my readers and let's hope for a great 2012 in the sport we love.