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ESPN Friday Night Fights Recap

March 30, 2007

Cobo Center-Detroit, Michigan

ESPN Friday Night Fights is in Detroit for WrestleMania weekend.

Junior Middleweight (154 pounds) 10 Round Match:
Joel Julio (29-1, 27 KO's, 152.75 pounds) vs. Thomas Davis (11-3-2, 7 KO's, 149.5 pounds)

Julio's only one loss came to Carlos Quintana in June on HBO and that is a very solid loss. Julio seems on the cusp of superstardom and is definitely a fighter to watch, but he still needs a big win to elevate himself to that next level. Davis is a former Marine and four inches taller than Julio. Davis wears "platinum pink trunks" and he wants this emphasized. Davis has to be awful tough to back up wearing trunks like that in a boxing ring. Davis grew up broke in project housing in Tennessee using boxing and the Marines to get out of that life. That life has instilled a lot of toughness in himand not to be counted out in this fight.

When the two boxers come together for the stare down it reinforces how much bigger Davis is than Julio. The size difference looks like a lot more than four inches for Davis. Davis will also have a huge reach advantage in this match.

Julio threw a few good combinations in the latter half of round 1 to take the round, 10-9 Julio. Julio is only 22 and has a great corner including boxing Hall of Fame nominee Pernell Whitaker. Julio looks great tonight. While Davis is tough and fighting well at points, Julio is just boxing really well. I give round 2 to Julio 10-9. Davis spent round 3 with his back voluntarily against the ropes for a large part of the round. That is not the best way for a taller fighter to fight. It takes away a lot of his reach advantage. The only punch Davis is really finding any success with is the jab from the outsideand Davis is not landing many of those off the ropes. Another good round for Julio, and I score it in favor ofthe foreign born fighter, 10-9.

Davis is consistently pulling down his trunks lower, which the referee had already advised Davis were too low before the fight began. I'm sure Davis is more comfortable with lower trunks as that is where his normal belt line is, but he is doing himself no favor when it comes to low blows. Julio has hit Davis borderline low a few times and already been warned about the infraction. However, if Davis keeps lowering his trunks it makes a punch on the belt that would likely be clean with most other fighters, will leave Davis singing soprano. At points, Davis also, puts his arms up inviting Julio to take swings at the taller fighter. Julio responds to that invitation by hitting Davis rather easily and Julio is showing no signs of tiring. Round 4 goes in favor of Julio 10-9. Through 4 rounds Bernard Hopkins, who is the special guest color commentator tonight, has the score through 4 rounds 40-35 in favor of Julio. Hopkins scored round 2 a 10-8 round in favor of Julio which is reasonable as it was pretty one sided despite the lack of a knockdown. Davis officially landed 3 punches in round 4. He's not fighting the smartest fight at this point. After round 5, this fight is real close to being stopped. Davis just isn't throwing any punches, literally. There are spans of about 30 seconds where Davis will not throw a punch. Davis will then throw six punches over the next fifteen seconds (maybe connect on one of them) and go back to being passive for another 20-30 seconds. Davis is very tough and I think that has definitely cost him in this fight. He knows he can take a good amount of punishment in the ring and has been too prideful in showing his chin. Davis needs to get desperate throwing punches looking to end the fight one way or the other. Round 5 may very well be 10-8 Julio with no knockdown, but I think the judges will still score it 10-9. There are not going to be too many more one sided rounds than this, though.

ECW's Elijah Burke (wearing a very loud shirt) joins the commentary table at ringside between round 5 and 6. Burke explains his finishing move, the Elijah Experience, and after the explanation I'm not even sure what his finishing move is. They ask Burke about his boxing experience (giving the incorrect WWE inflated numbers). Burke describes Julio's performance through the first five rounds as a classic example of staying the course, having a game plan and sticking to it. Burke says that Davis needs to stop talking and Davis needs to let his (Davis) punches start talking. Bernard Hopkins is pointing out that Davis' legs don't look good and steady anymore. Hopkins says the goal for Davis this round has to be to survive the round and make it back to the corner without incurring further damage. Elijah Burke points out that Davis has been showboating for the last three rounds. Davis, even foolhardily attempted to decline his stool in the break between rounds, following a round where Julio had really dominated Davis inflicting a lot of damage. Burke loves when people talk big, but they have to be able to back it up with good punching in boxing. Davis simply has not. They plug WrestleMania again and that Burke is going to put on a good show there. Amazingly, wrestling was treated as a real sport here for the last three minutes. Burke leaves the commentary with less than a minute to go in the round. This has been the least interesting round of the fight, so it was a great time for the Elijah Experience who was very entertaining and not too over the top. The round was not as bad for Davis who still lost the round, 10-9 Julio. Burke also brought some good knowledge to the broadcast dropping Julio's nickname "The Predator", which had gone unmentioned until now.

Through round 6, Davis averages landing 8 punches per round compared to Julio who is landing 38 punches per round. Davis goes down in round 7 and that is the end of the fight. Julio landed a clear late shot after Davis had already dropped to one knee in the corner. It was a cheap shot, but I put a lot of that on the referee for making zero, and I mean zero effort, to move in between the fighters after Davis initially went down. The cheap shot took Davis from down on one knee to sprawling face down on the canvas. The cheap shot had no impact on the outcome of the fight, because even, Davis on one knee would have likely been the end of the fight. In fairness to the referee he did yell at Julio as the punch was being thrown and again after the punch had landed on the down Davis to tell Julio to get away, but it was in a language Julio largely does not speak. The referee did not make an effort to step between the fighters. In the final round Davis landed 1 punch. Julio landed 29. I don't know if Compubox scored the late hit though, so it could be 30 punches landed for Julio. Julio is a big time talent and very young. Julio is a guy to be watched for many years to come, while Davis is really tough and clearly has some stuff to work on in the gym that won't be easy to fix. Davis has a lot of physical abilities, but he really needs to fight a lot smarter if he is going to become a superstar.

The final decision is that the winner by TKO, 2:48 into round 7: Joel Julio who is now 30-1 with 28 KO's. Julio connected on 40% of all of his punches thrown tonight in a completely dominant effort, out landing Davis 257 to 51. As to the point about Davis just not throwing enough punches, Davis only threw 256 punches in the entire fight, one less than Julio landed.