This up coming Friday night, Danny Perez (34-5, 17KO) of Carlsbad, a northern San Diego suburb, will be featured on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.The bout which is being broadcast from the Mahi Shrine Temple in Miami, FL. Perez will be facing unheralded Carlos Molina (16-4-1, 5KO) of Chicago, IL, by way of Patzcuaro, MX.
The ten round bout will probably not shake up the middleweight division too much since both participants reside in the fringes of the division at best.
The original opponent for Perez was former WBO welterweight champion Carlos “Indio” Quintana of Puerto Rico but because of an undisclosed reason, Quintana dropped out of the bout last week.
Perez is best known for going toe to toe with the “Tijuana Tornado” Antonio Margarito, not once but twice in the beginning of the decade and actually was the last man to score a knock down of Margarito before Shane Mosley made it look easier to do than going out to the front yard and picking up the morning paper this last January. Perez, 32, at one point in his 13-year-old career was ranked in the top ten in Ring Magazine’s welterweight listings.
Molina on the other hand is an awkward wily fighter whose claim to fame is battling the Son of a Legend Julio Cesar Chavez Jr to a six round draw back in ’05 before dropping a majority decision to Jr. two months later.
Besides that, Molina has also lost to Mike Alvarado and picked up a win against Donald Camarena last year.
With his high pressure style and strong chin, Perez should win easily although Molina’s troublesome technique should make it difficult at times.
What makes the bout interesting is not necessarily what is going to happen inside the ring but what has happened outside of it.
As soon as it was known that Quintana was out of the fight, fighters came out of the woodwork to put in their two cents of why they should face Perez on the coveted TV spot.
No other fighter made more noise than the former first season “The Contender” alumnai Ishe Smith.
Its no secret or maybe it is that Ishe Smith counts as his advisor G. Leon, editor of boxing site BoxingTalk.com. Thru the site, Smith released the following statement:
Does ESPN Stand for Exclusively Spanish Pugilistic Network?
Boxingtalk has learned that ESPN Programming Director Doug Loughrey approved Carlos Molina over Ishe Smith. Molina, a welterweight will now step in to face Danny Perez for the NABO junior middleweight title instead of Smith, a proven junior middleweight, who was in the gym and capable of making the 154 lb weight limit. Smith was first denied by ESPN earlier in the year when Golden Boy Promotions was attempting to have him step in to face David Lopez on short notice. ESPN instead chose Ossie Duran who hadn’t won a fight since early 2007. There are rumblings that Smith is considering legally changing his last name to Ramirez, Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Santana, Molina, Duran, Perez or Morales in order to become approvable by ESPN’s standards. Full interview with Smith to follow.
The claim that ESPN favors fighters with hispanic last names is, in my opinion, unfounded. According to ESPN’s schedule for this months upcoming telecasts there is three main events coming up. Out of the six fighters participating, one is of Mexican descent, Robert Guerrero. One is a Mexican national, Fernando Beltran Jr and one is half of Mexican descent, Monty Meza-Clay.
More than likely, when Team Perez was giving options of who to defend his WBO NABO title against, more than likely their first choice was not Ishe Smith. Although Ishe Smith has left much to be desired since he came into national prominence since The Contender, he is the tougher of the two fighters.
The 30-year-old Las Vegas fighter has only lost three times and to name opponents such as Sergio Mora, Sechew Powell and Joel Julio. Despite having a reputation of not committing to his fights at 100% inside the ring, Smith has had some success inside the squared circle as his defeat of Randall Bailey proved back in ’04 and taking the “0” from up and comers David Estrada and more recently Pawel Wolak.
So maybe not all the blame falls on ESPN.
Or maybe I’m wrong.
But Ishe Smith should would like to know.
See what happens Perez. You should have stayed away from Molina and thought about asking for Smith. Molina is a late sub killer and brought it more in this fight.
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