Live! Ringside at ESPN’s ‘Friday Night Fights’

UNCASVILLE, CT—Breitbart Sports covers the action at Mohegan Sun Arena live from ringside at ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.

Pablo Munguia set out to prove looks can be deceiving in the main event of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Detroit’s long and lanky Tony Harrison had his hands full with the doughy Mexican, who looked like he had been plucked out of the crowd but fought like he had been in the ring before. After a surprisingly competitive first five minutes, Harrison dropped the soft-around-the-middle-but-tough-everywhere-else Mexican in the second. Harrison starts the third where he finished the second, and the ref mercifully stops the ill-advised bout 11 seconds into the third. The Pride of the 313 improves to a perfect 21-0 with 18 knockouts while Munguia drops to 20-7 from the short-notice mismatch.

Undefeated Ryan Kielczweski backpedals and tags Danny Aquino in round one of their featherweight co-feature. Both boxers land flush throughout an exciting second. Though they fight evenly through the third, they fight the Mexican-American’s brawl instead of the Polish Prince’s boxing match. Kielczweski of Quincy, Massachusetts, transforms the brawl back into a boxing match in the fourth and enjoys success dictating the fight with head and foot movement. An uppercut sprays sweat and spit from Aquino’s brow and mouth in the fifth, with the local favorite replacing the jab with several looping shots that land. Aquino enjoys more success stalking in the sixth. Pressure fighter Aquino landing a lot of glove on glove in the seventh. Kielczweski lands several clean shots and shows himself as technically superior as his opponent shows himself as more aggressive. Both fighters land in the eighth but neither possesses the power to down the other. Aggression beats precision in the final frame and it does with the judges, too, who score it 78-74 Kielczweski,  78-74 Aquino, and 78-74 Aquino, who makes the Polish Prince’s “O” go.

Aggressive Tevin Farmer and Angel Luna fight toe-to-toe for much of their entertaining first round that launches the televised portion of Friday Night Fights. Luna pushes the action in the second by using the peek-a-boo style that allows him to get inside as he eats a punch or two. They fight inside a phone booth in the third, with Farmer now winning the head-leaning-on-head exchanges through body work and the occasional uppercut. He creates space and outboxes Luna to end the stanza. Luna fights as the hungrier man in the fourth.

The evenly-matched and entertaining bout takes a turn toward Farmer in the fifth and sixth, as the southpaw sporting Cincinnati Bengals trunks (“Ochocinco” chants erupt spontaneously) uses head movement and footwork to elude Luna and catch him off balance with punches. Farmer lands a tap-tap-tap-tap lightning-quick combination and concludes the seventh by snapping his opponent’s head back. Both men enjoy their moments head-hunting in the eighth.

The action-packed fight provides a thud-thud-thud soundtrack that would captivate a blind man. The judges unanimously see it 80-72, 80-72, 79-73 for Farmer.

Former University of New Haven basketball player Cassius Chaney tees off on fellow heavyweight Perry Filkins, nodding and smiling as his opponents stays standing despite the onslaught. Near the end of the first round, Chaney sends Filkins down to a knee on an accumulation of punches as much as the overhand right that put the punctuation mark on the attack. When a risen Filkins offers his glove, Chaney gives him more punches (protect yourself at all times!). After the ringside doctor gives Filkins a long look between rounds, the fight continues–but not for long. Laying leather, Chaney coaxes a stoppage at 31 seconds of round two for a successful boxing debut for the former D2 college basketball star.

Making use of a frequent lead right hook, the southpaw Lennox Allen knocks down an outmatched Paul Gonsalves early in the opening minute of their out scheduled eight-round tilt at light heavyweight. Allen stuns Gonsalves in the third before his opponent mounts a sustained rally before the bell. The combatants trade violently in a fourth-round exchange in which Gonsalves loses his mouthpiece and Allen loses a footing. The “opponent” appears more than that. We have a fight! In the fifth and sixth, Allen throws a jab but as a stand-alone punch and not to set up. He lands big punches but not big combinations. Gonsalves ends a nondescript sixth with a knockdown of Allen that Allen protests as a slip. No matter. Allen lands a bomb in the seventh that snaps Gonsalves’s head back hard with a straight left. His stiff body falls hard and his head impacts the canvass with an audible, percussive thud. The referee ticks off a few perfunctory numbers, but it’s a true knockout and he waives off the fight before reaching five.

Frank Sinatra “New York, New York” plays as Gonsalves remains lifeless.  Medical personnel rush the ring. Gonsalves leaves the ring on a board and then leaves the arena on a stretcher. Now wearing a neck brace, Gonsalves gives an “I’m okay” wave to the crowd.

The 6’5” Alantez Fox and 5’8” Frank Gonzalez provided quite a contrast in the second bout of the undercard. The shorter and wider middleweight went to the body almost by necessity on his head-higher opponent. But the taller American’s volume punching proved too much for the Dominican. With Gonzalez covered up against the ropes, and Fox furiously freeing his hands, the referee called a standup stoppage at 2:29 of the second round.

In the opening bout, Regis “Rougarou” Prograis, entering the ring to a howl and under a mask, goes into boogeyman mode early by stalking Abraham Alvarez. Midway through the opening round, Prograis lands a body shot to drop the Mexican to the canvass, where he remains. The Houston-by-way-of-New-Orleans fighter improves perfection to 14-0 on his 12th knockout.

“It was a perfect shot,” Prograis told Breitbart Sports. “I planned it. My coaches said, ‘Take your time.'”