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By: William Holmes
ESPN Friday Night Fights was broadcast tonight from the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and featured two exciting bouts between upcoming and rising prospects in the junior middleweight and super bantamweight divisions.
Photo: Chris Farina/ Top Rank
“Jersey Boy” Glen Tapia (19-0) and Abie Han (19-1) was the first bout of the night and it did not lack in action. Abie Han had previously stated earlier in the week that felt slighted since Tapia and him were both promoted by Top Rank Boxing but Tapia had received most of the pre-fight press and push from Top Rank.
Tapia however showed that he deserved the push from Top Rank. Tapia started the fight off strong and was punishing Han in the first round strong combinations and had bruised up the face of Han. The early rounds clearly belonged to Tapia but Han was able to hurt Tapia in the middle rounds with a solid body attack.
In the fourth round a cut opened up on Han’s head when a clash of heads occurred and Han had Tapia hurt badly in the fifth round. Tapai however was able to come back and scored a knock down in the seventh round when Han went through the ropes. Han was also bleeding badly from the damage that Tapia had progressively accumulated on him.
Han’s corner was unable to stop the flow of blood and Tapia continued to pound Han in the eighth round. The ringside doctor checked out Han before the start of the ninth round and decided to stop the bout.
Glen Tapia remained undefeated and captured the NABO Junior Middleweight title.
The main event was between Chris Avalos (22-2) and Filipino Drian Francisco (24-2-1) for the vacant NABO Super Bantamweight title.
Filipino boxers have been on a losing streak as of late and Francisco was unable to stop that streak.
The bout started off close and evenly matched with Francisco getting the better of Avalos in the first two rounds. The action really picked up in the second round and didn’t let up for the rest of the fight.
Francisco was hurt by Avalos in the fourth round and was left trying to survive against the ropes. Francisco began to visibly tire as the fight wore on and his technique looked sloppy. He was still able to catch Avalos a few times, especially in the fifth round, but Avalos’ punches were crisper and cleaner.
Francisco was left looking for the knockout punch near the end of the fight but was unable to land. He looked exhausted by the last round and Avalos was close to having the fight stop in the last round since Francisco was barely able to fight back.
In the end the judges scored it 96-94, 97-93, and 97-93 for Chris Avalos.
The Filipino losing streak in boxing continues.
