12-14 Preview and Review

Well, we have finally seen the end of the incredible excitement that closed out the year. And we ended it with a great fight. Let's see how they went:
Brian's pick Martinez I pick Martinez Winner Martinez
Brian's pick Foreman I pick Foreman Winner Foreman
Brian's pick Murray I pick Murray Winner Murray
Brian's pick McKart I pick McKart Winner Ornelas
Brian's pick Cherry I pick Cherry Winner Cherry
Brian's pick Lacy I pick Lacy Winner Lacy
Brian's pick Ponce de Leon I pick Ponce de Leon Winner Ponce de Leon
Brian's pick Mayweather, Jr. I pick Hatton Winner Mayweather, Jr.
Martinez thumped a skinny and no good Jordan. The Foreman Tsurkan fight was far from exciting, Foreman is nothing but a boxer, Tsurkan is a straight ahead plodder. Murray did not look great but got the win. Ornelas got knocked down in the first and second round, then knocked McKart down in the 4th and 5th making their fight the most exciting of the undercard matches. Cherry looked good in the 6th, taking out Ferguson, Lacy and Ponce de Leon struggled but won. Mayweather was remarkable. Hatton gave him a great run, but he just didn't have enough. Mayweather is definitely an All-Timer. So, I went 6-2, the Brian's went 7-1.
This week, we have a bit of a lull, with only the Telefutura card on the dockett. In the cofeature, we get Miguel Angel Huerta vs. Daniel Alicea in a 10 round Lightweight bout. Huerta was born in Mexico City and fights out of West Covina, CA. He is 25-8-1 and 29 years old. In his last fight, at the end of August, he won a unanimous decision over Efren Hinojosa. I have seen him fight twice unremarkably. He has fought some decent competition. The Hinojosa fight was an upset. He lost to Almazbek Raiymkulov (Kid Diamond), Julio Diaz, and Victoriano Sosa, but he beat Rolando Reyes and Allan Vester. Essentially he has beaten most of the folks that are suspect and lost to the guys that are actual quality. He is rated 117th on the All-Time Lightweight ratings and 39th on the Active ratings. Alicea was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and fights out of Camden, NJ. He is 35 years old and 30-6-2. He is coming off a 16 month layoff after he got knocked out in the 12th by Edner Cherry in August of 06. That fight was the only time I have seen him fight. He gave Cherry some trouble, but couldn't sustain the effort all the way to the end. He has fought some good opposition, in addition to Cherry, he lost to Naseem Hamed, Nate Campbell, Acelino Freitas, and Lamar Murphy and beat Brian Adams. That's quite a list of top notch opposition, but he may be on the downside, especially after that last fight. He is rated 112th on the All-Time Lightweight list and he would be 46th on the Active list were he active. This is a guy trying to get back in the game after taking some time off following a devastating defeat against a guy looking to capitalize on a decent upset by beating another decent name guy. The Brian's take Huerta 780.9 over Alicea 766.69. I think Alicea may have been better at one time, but after the long layoff, I think Huerta will be able to take him out.
The main event features Orlando Salido vs. Hector Julio Avila in a 12 round Featherweight bout. Salido was born and fights out of Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. He is 28-9-2 and 27 years old. In his last fight he won a unanimous decision over a highly mediocre to worse Marty Robbins. This after he was stripped of the IBF Featherweight title due to a positive steroid test after his defeat of Robert Guerrero in 2006. I have seen him fight a couple of times unmemorably. He has fought some decent folk, beating Cesar Soto, Fred Neal, Carlos Gerena, and Lamont Pearson and losing to Juan Manuel Marquez, Alejandro Gonzalez, and Ivan Valle. Highs and lows, and one might wonder how the steroids affected his prediscovery and postdiscovery efforts. He is rated 77th on the All-Time Featherweight list and 18th on the Active list. Avila (on right, with Joan Guzman and Alexander Zapata) was born and fights out of La Romana, Dominican Republic. He is 41-3-0 and 35 years old. He fought in the 1992 Olympics for the Dominican Republic. He is a virtual unknown here in the US with almost all of his fights in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, or Argentina. I have never seen him fight and he has never really fought anyone of note. He is rated 16th in the All-Time Super Bantamweight ratings and 13th in the Active ratings. This is a guy coming to the US to maybe start a new pohase of his career near the end against a guy trying to regain credibility and get back in the title picture by beating a big record. The Brian's put this at Avila 869.7 over Salido 866.5. I think Salido will win this, though, as Avila looks old and untestedSo, Brian's pick:
Huerta---------I pick Huerta
Avila-----------I pick Salido