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ESPN Friday Night Fights Recap

January 30, 2009

Bell Centre-Montreal, Quebec

ESPN has canceled their Wednesday Night Fights series and this has allowed them to use some of the money they saved in that move to load up their Friday Night Fights shows with better matches.

IBF Junior Welterweight (140 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Herman Ngoudjo (17-2, 9 KO's, 139 pounds) vs. Juan Urango (20-1-1, 16 KO's, 139.75 pounds)

This title is currently vacant. It had been held by Paulie Malignaggi, who had been ordered to make a mandatory title defense against Ngoudjo. However, Malignaggi forfeited the title to face Ricky Hatton for The Ring Championship at 140 pounds, rather then take the mandatory title defense.

Ngoudjo had a solid amateur boxing career that peaked when he represented Cameroon in the 119 pound weight class at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympiad.

Following the Olympics, Ngoudjo relocated to Montreal where he has had 16 of his 19 professional matches, all victories. Outside of Montreal, Ngoudjo is 1-2 with a split decision loss and a controversial unanimous decision loss challenging Malignaggi for this championship belt.

On January 5, 2008, Ngoudjo faced Malignaggi on the New Yorker's home turf at Bally's Park Place Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In that match, the refereeing was very one-sided against the newly minted Canadian citizen and Malignaggi may have escaped with a combination champion and hometown decision. However, Ngoudjo was not active enough throughout the match to make the decision a true robbery. The original recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/11/23/recap-of-paulie-malignaggi-vs-herman-ngoudjo.html

Ngoudjo's last match was a 12-round unanimous decision over Souleymane M'Baye on June 6, 2008 at Uniprix Stadium in Montreal.

Ngoudjo is The Ring's number 5 contender at 140 pounds to their championship in the weight class, Ricky Hatton.

Urango has held this title earlier in his career, when Ricky Hatton briefly vacated the belt to try his luck at 147 pounds. On June 30, 2006 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, Urango defeated Naoful Ben Rabah for the vacant belt via 12-round unanimous decision.

Unfortunately for Urango, Hatton's first outing at 147 pounds did not go well and the Englishman determined he wanted his belt back on January 20, 2007. Therefore, Urango was forced to make his first title defense against Hatton that night at Paris Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hatton dominated Urango in that match, winning 119-109 on all of the judges scorecards and reaffirming his superiority as the top 140-pounder in boxing at Urango's expense.

Urango's last match was a knockout victory at 1:45 of round 4 over Carlos Wilfredo Vilches on April 23, 2008 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Urango knocked down Vilches in round 1, before eventually knocking him out.

Urango is The Ring's number 8 contender at 140 pounds.

At 28-years-old, Urango is 1 year younger then the 29-year-old Ngoudjo. Ngoudjo will have the height advantage standing 5' 9" tall, while Urango stands 5' 8" tall. According to boxrec.com, Ngoudjo has the reach advantage with 73" wingspan compared to the 71" wingspan of Urango. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, the IBF requires boxers to weigh-in within 10 pounds of their official weigh-in weights the day of the match. That means both boxers should be about the same weight in the ring. Ngoudjo will employ the orthodox stance, and Urango will employ the southpaw stance. The Canadian is a slight betting favorite, because of his huge hometown advantage.

The official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are fromFlorida, Las Vegas and Montreal. The referee is Marlon B. Wright from Montreal. Wright was the referee who made a series ofhorrificcalls in favor of the Montreal boxer in another IBF title match from Montreal, Lucian Bute versusLibrado Andrade. Bute was knocked out at the end of the match, but Wright refused to rule it a knockout and allowed the Canadian to escape with his title belt. A recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/1/30/recap-of-lucian-bute-vs-librado-andrade.html Wright refereeing this match appears to be a huge edge for Ngoudjo. The fact that Wright is getting to officiate this match is a joke and insulting to anyone who follows boxing. It is recommended that people read that article to fully understand how disgraceful it is the Wright is getting to call this contest. There is literally no boxing referee in the world (not hyperbole) who could appear a worse choice to handle this contest then Wright. There are worse referees, but having Wright in the match makes this match look rigged for Ngoudjo to win. However, Ngoudjo will not have his trainer for this match. Ngoudjo's trainer is currently on suspension for pushing Wright after Wright's embarrassing performance in the Bute-Andrade debacle.

Close round 1 that Ngoudjo's superior boxing may have been good enough to win, 10-9. Urango landed the harder punches to take round 2, 10-9. With 2:12 to go in round 3, a left hook puts Ngoudjo's back on the mat. The punch is not really what dropped Ngoudjo's. He was hit and reacted by backing up with his left foot. However, Ngoudjo's left foot was just inside Urango's right foot. Therefore, when Ngoudjo went to step back, the Canadian caught his foot on Urango's foot causing him to trip and take a flat back bump. By rule, the punch caused the initial motion of Ngoudjo leading to the fall. Therefore, that is a knockdown. The referee after a moment's hesitation correctly rules it a knockdown. A jarred Ngoudjo successfully answers the referee's count to continue with 1:58 to go in the round. Ngoudjo's eyes do not look completely clear and he may have a hard time lasting out the last 2 minutes of this round. With 39 seconds to go in the round, Ngoudjo hits the canvas for a second time. However, this time it is a slip. Ngoudjo tripped over Urango's right hip pulling back to dodge a wild right hand from the Colombian. The referee correctly rules it a knockdown and without dusting off Ngoudjo allows the action to continue with 35 seconds to go in the round. A left hook to the chest sends Ngoudjo bouncing off the ropes, where he is met with a right to the chin that puts him back down to the mat with 26 seconds to go still in round 3. Ngoudjo successfully answers the count and is allowed to continue with 14 seconds to go in the round. The 3 knockdown rule is not in effect in this match. Huge round 3 for Urango, who with the 2 knockdowns wins it, 10-7. Urango has Ngoudjo hurt and appears poised to score another knockdown with 2:06 to go in round 3, until referee Wright steps in to help out a Montreal boxer, again. Wright calls time to issue a severe warning to Urango for hitting low. This move seems inexplicable, other then the referee is consciously looking to effect the outcome of the match in favor of the Montreal boxer. Urango has not been throwing low blows to the point he deserves a severe warning. Also, Ngoudjo was not hurt by the punch that the referee is admonishing Urango about, because it was on the belt line not on the cup. This is just buying Ngoudjo time to recover he does not deserve. After Wright has bought 10 seconds for Ngoudjo, the referee graciously allows the action to continue. Urango wins round 4 decisively, 10-9. However, it is clear with the way Wright is talking to Urango that the Colombian is going to lose a point in this match for a phantom low blow at some point. This is Nick Patrick as the NWO referee bad. After 4 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 39-35. After 4 rounds, Atlas has Urango ahead in the match, 40-36. Atlas scored round 1, 10-10, and round 3, 10-8, even though it was a 2 knockdown round. We both scored rounds 2 and 4 for Urango, 10-9.

Urango landed several good power punches to win round 5, 10-9. However in round 5, Ngoudjo appeared to have recovered from the earlier knockdowns and is back in the match. The ESPN commentators pointed out, that Ngoudjo may benefit from some very friendly judging in this match. With the referee working for Ngoudjo and potentially the judges as well, Urango may need to score a 25-count knockout to win this match. Andrade was only able to manage a 24-count knockout in this building, and therefore he lost. Urango wins a close round 6, 10-9. It appears that in the close rounds that Ngoudjo is consistently out-landing Urango. However in those close rounds, Urango will catch Ngoudjo a couple of times with hard punches that send the Canadian off balance. That has continually been the deciding factor on my scorecard. Urango landed some good right hooks to the body inwinning round 7, 10-9. After 7 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 69-62. After 7 rounds, Atlas has Urango ahead 67-66. Atlas scored rounds 5, 6 and 7 for Ngoudjo, 10-9. (Actually, ESPN put up the graphic saying Atlas had the match a draw after 7 rounds, 76-76, which is not possible.) Urango does not land as many clean power punches in round 8, but enough to take the round, 10-9. Atlas scores round 8 for Urango, 10-9. After 8 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 79-71. After 8 rounds, Atlas correct scorecard has Urango ahead 77-75.

Close round 9, that Ngoudjo may have won with a flurry at the end of the round, 10-9. Ngoudjo wins round 9 on Atlas' scorecard, 10-9. After 9 rounds, Urango leads on my scorecard, 78-71, and on the Atlas scorecard, 77-76.

With 33 seconds to go in round 10, Ngoudjo motions to Wright that he was hit low. Therefore, like a good puppet, Wright calls time and admonishes Urango for hitting low. Wright tells Urango the next phantom low blow will cost him a point. On very slow motion replay, it appears Ngoudjo may have been tapped on the hip. Urango did not throw a punch anywhere near Ngoudjo's cup and it was on the side Wright was screened off from seeing. The referee never saw the punch Ngoudjo was complaining about, but responded to Ngoudjo's complaining. A referee is not supposed to do that. Both boxers have been tired and holding on in this round. Therefore, it appears Ngoudjo decided he wanted a break and maybe Wright would help him out on the scorecards at this time. It looks like Wright will have to take the point from Urango in rounds 11 or 12 instead of now. With 22 seconds to go the action is resumed. Actually, there was a lot more then 22 seconds to go, because the timekeeper made a mistake. The crowd caught on when the round was over 30 seconds too long. The extra time in the round is helping Ngoudjo. The round ended up being 5:10 minutes long. The stunning level of incompetence being displayed at this event continues to amaze. The better conditioned Ngoudjo won the first 30 seconds of extra time, and would have taken a 4-minute round. However, eventually the larger Urango's size got to Ngoudjo and he was able to win the marathon round 10, 10-9. After this, the sanity of any boxer going to challenge for a world title in Montreal may need to be questioned. Urango wins round 10 on Atlas' scorecard, 10-9. With 1:53 to go in round 11, the referee calls timeout to deal with some loose tape around the left glove of Ngoudjo. The tape had come loose early in round 10, but it had not been strategically useful for Wright to call time to deal with it. There is finally too much loose tape for the referee to ignore and it is posing a severe safety risk to the boxers. After a brief break, that both boxers could use, the action is resumed. Urango's aggressiveness takes round 11, 10-9. Atlas scores round 11 for Ngoudjo, 10-9. Round 12 was very close, but Ngoudjo's activity may have been enough to take the round, 10-9. However, Urango wins the match on my scorecard, 117-109. Atlas scored round 12 for Urango, 10-9, and has the Colombian winning the match on his scorecard, 115-113.

The official decision courtesy of Christian Gauthier is that the judges have scored the match: 118-108, 116-110, 120-106 all for the winner by unanimous decision and new IBF Junior Welterweight Champion of the World, Juan "Iron Twin" Urango. The win moves Urango to 21-1-1 with 16 wins coming by way of knockout. All of these scores sound far more reasonable then Atlas' scorecard. The 120-106 is perfectly reasonable. Round 1 was very close and after that I had to work hard to come up with reasons to give Ngoudjo any more rounds.

Urango was good in this match, but the memory of him being dominated by Hatton makes it hard to believe in him as a serious threat at the top of the division. However, it could be interesting to see Urango face Malignaggi. Malignaggi never lost this title, which gives the built in storyline for those 2 to face each other in the spring. It would make sense for Urango to face Malignaggi at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City for their big June show.

Ngoudjo had the deck stacked completely in his favor for this match and failed to deliver. However, this should not be a tremendous setback. Apparently, Ngoudjo had his jaw broken at some point early in the match, and will be out of action for much of the rest of 2009. When Ngoudjo returns, he should be able to continue main eventing ESPN shows in Montreal and earn another title shot that way. Still, Ngoudjo is going to need to get much better defensively and much more consistent offensively if he is going to be a serious factor in this division.

This show actually went long, because ESPN threw on an extra 4-rounder to open the show. The main event seemed largely boring besides for the car crash elements of Wright's horrific refereeing and the 5:10 round 10. It is actually very lucky that nothing significant happened in the extra time of round 10. Had anything significant happened in the additional 2:10 of round 10 the match would have been ruled a no contest. Most disappointing though, was this show hurt the image of Montreal as a good boxing city. It would be very bad if Montreal came to be thought of like South America and Indonesia, where boxers turn down title matches there knowing it is a no win situation. This is a show to avoid.