By Geno McGahee

ESPN2

Jesse Brinkley, 35-5, 22 KO’s, scored a minor upset over Curtis Stevens, 21-3, 15 KO’s, on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights via wide 12 round unanimous decision by scores of 117-109, 118-108, and 119-107. Prior to the bout, Stevens was very adamant that he was going to score an early knockout and it nearly seemed like a safe bet. Stevens, a massive power-puncher with only one true career loss going into this, appeared to be too much for the former Contender star. The thought was that he’d eventually catch him and most likely, it would come sooner rather than later.

In the first round, Stevens came out of his corner and attacked, landing some very good shots and swelling up the right side of Brinkley’s face with his left hook, but Brinkley remained calm. In the second round, Brinkley found his range and began dodging the shots of Stevens and then quickly countering. It was a trend that went on for the rest of the night. Confused, Stevens stayed on the outside and ate jab after jab and in the sixth round, a right hand hurt him. He backed into the ropes and Brinkley went after him, dropping him from a barrage of punches. He got up and they fought on, having a vicious exchange that continued after the bell. Brinkley’s trainer, Peter Manfredo, SR., ran into the ring and actually shoved Stevens. Manfredo, SR., was removed from the corner immediately afterwards.

The rest of the fight was all Brinkley and he got more confident as the fight went on, exchanging punch for punch with the perceived stronger man. This was Brinkley’s night.

The winner of this fight, Brinkley, is now the #2 super middleweight in the world, and will be in line to take on the current champ, undefeated Lucian Bute. It’s hard to imagine Brinkley pulling off an upset there, but not many gave him a shot here. A very good performance for the former Contender star, and a big disappointment for Stevens.

In a snoozer, welterweight Ray Serrano, 12-0, 6 KO’s, outworked a sleepwalking Ronnie Warrior, JR., 13-3-1, 4 KO’s, over eight rounds, easily taking the decision by scores of 79-73 across the board.

SHOBOX

Bantamweight Chris Avalos, 15-0, 12 KO’s, had no problems with opponent Jose Nieves, 17-1-3, 8 KO’s, dropping him in the second and then stopping him in the fourth round. It was obvious from the opening bell that Avalos was far too strong of a puncher for Nieves and it would only be a matter of time.

Super featherweight Ray Marquez, 9-0, 6 KO’s, out-boxed Derrick Campos, 20-8, 11 KO’s, winning a unanimous eight round decision by scores of 79-72, 80-71, and 77-74. Also on the card, returning heavyweight Maurice Harris, 21-14-2, 10 KO’s, defeated Billy Zumbrun, 23-11-1, 13 KO’s, by unanimous decision. Harris has been in the ring with many of the top heavyweights, defeating Sergei Liakhovich and Jimmy Thunder along the way. Zumbrun had his moment in the sun when he nearly stopped a fat and shot Riddick Bowe.

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