ESPN’s Friday Night Fights: Former Jr Middleweight Title Challenger Rodriguez to Meet Former Welterweight Title Challenger Hernandez
ESPN’s Friday Night Fights: Former Jr Middleweight Title Challenger Rodriguez to Meet Former Welterweight Title Challenger Hernandez By Special Report on Doghouse Boxing (May 22, 2013) TweetFollow @DoghouseBoxing
ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes Studio Shows on Site at Mohegan Sun ArenaFriday Night Fights-Best KOs & Mike Tyson’s Greatest Hits to Air Before Friday’s Show
The May 24 edition of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights presented by Corona Extra will
feature former Junior Middleweight and Welterweight title challenger
Delvin Rodriguez (27-6-3, 15 KOs) and former Welterweight title
challenger Freddy “El Riel” Hernandez (30-4, 1 ND, 20 KOs) in the
10-round Junior Middleweight main event. Friday’s show from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., will air live at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2 HD, ESPN Deportes and WatchESPN. Friday’s card is promoted by Star Boxing.
Commentators: Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will be ringside describing the action for ESPN2 HD, while studio host Todd Grisham (@GrishamESPN) will be on site presenting all the latest boxing news and highlights. Pablo Viruega and Leopoldo Gonzalez will call this week’s fights ringside for ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates (Friday Night Fights) with Claudia Trejos anchoring the studio on site. Bilingual reporter BernardoOsuna (@osunaespn) will present live interviews and reports for both shows. Main Event: Connecticut’s Rodriguez, who also doubles as a boxing analyst for ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates, is making his 16th fighting appearance on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Rodriguez has had impressive wins throughout his career, including wins
over Mike Arnaoutis (W12), Shamone Alvarez (W12), Oscar Diaz (TKO11)
and a 10-round unanimous decision win in a rematch over Pawel Wolak,
which led to a Junior Middleweight title shot against defending titlist
Austin Trout. Rodriguez’s first match against Wolak--a 10-round draw
televised on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights--was named “2011 Fight of
the Year” by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). In his
last fight in February, Rodriguez scored a sixth-round TKO win over
George Tahdooahnippah. After the fight, ESPN.com boxing writer Dan Rafael wrote: “Rodriguez, with his home-state fans loudly behind him, simply
pummeled Tahdooahnippah, who had nothing but heart and a good chin.
Rodriguez nearly stopped him late in the second round as he teed off
with flush right hands over and over. Rodriguez opened a cut on the
bridge of Tahdooahnippah's nose in the third and continued to pound him
relentlessly, round after round. This was a strong performance from
Rodriguez against an utterly overmatched but game foe.”
California’s
Hernandez, who challenged former titlist Andre Berto for his WBC
Welterweight belt in 2010, enters Friday’s fight with wins over former
world titlists Luis Callazo (W10), Mike Anchondo (TKO4) and DeMarcus
Corley (KO5). Hernandez is looking to get back to his winning ways
following a 10-round unanimous decision loss to 2008 Olympian Demetrius
Andrade in his last fight in January.
"He
(Hernandez) needs to get a ‘W’ now to get some more opportunities, and
he's fighting a guy who's going to give him that opportunity,” advisor
Nigel Burns said. “That's not a knock on Rodriguez, but Rodriguez is
more of a fighter than a boxer. I think it should be a good fight.
Rodriguez is a good fighter and has fought some good people, and I
expect him to actually stand in the pocket and trade with us.” Co-Feature:
Friday’s
10-round co-feature will pit undefeated Junior Welterweight Issouf
“Volcano” Kinda (16-0, 6 KOs) against Chris “Hurricane” Howard (15-2-1, 7
KOs). Kinda scored a second-round knockout win over Javier Loya in his
last fight, while Howard is coming off an upset third-round TKO win over
Bayan Jargal.
Friday Night Fights-Best KOs & Mike Tyson’s Greatest Hits to Air Before Friday’s Show:
ESPN2 and WatchESPN will air the best KOs of Friday Night Fights at 9 p.m. and Mike Tyson’s Greatest Hits at 9:30 p.m. prior to Friday’s live show at 10 p.m.
Follow ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on Twitter @ESPNFNF or like it on Facebook. Follow ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates on Twitter @ESPNBoxeo.Also score the fights round-by-round with the “Live Friday Night Fights Facebook Voting App,” an application on the ESPN FNF Facebook page that allows viewers to score the fight round-by-round.
