By John G. Thompson: ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights broadcast from the Wicomico Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland featured Salisbury local (originally from the Dominican Republic) Fernando Guerrero 21-0 (16 KO’s) against Derrick “Superman” Findley 17-5 (11 KO’s) in a middleweight main event. Also, welterweights Shawn “Showtime” Porter 18-0 (13 KO’s) squared off against Anges Adjaho 25-5 (14 KO’s).
Adjaho had lost three straight prior to this bout, including a ten round unanimous decision to undefeated Brad Solomon and a ninth round stoppage to once beaten Antonio DeMarco. ESPN2 actually made a mistake, listing Adjaho’s record as 17-4 (9 KO’s) – the record of Derrick Findley in the main event, prior to his loss.
Porter was the faster man from the start; however, Adjaho attempted to play the role of the counter puncher throughout the fight. In some ways this approach slowed the action in that Adjaho did not throw a lot of punches, but those punches he threw were meaningful. On a number of occasions he would counter Porter’s jab with an effective overhand right, leading Porter to be cautious. The action heated up a bit by the end of the fifth, when Adjaho repeatedly punched Porter in the back of the head during a clench.
Adjaho picked up the pace in the sixth, coming forward and initiating exchanges at times, though Porter might have stolen the round by backing Adjaho into the ropes and letting his hands go, even if his punches did not land cleanly. Porter boxed superbly in the seventh, with one glaring mistake when he lunged in from way outside and Adjaho landed a great right uppercut to the jaw.
Adjaho came forward in the tenth looking like he was going to go for the knockout, but failed to pull the trigger. This was his problem throughout the fight – that even as an aggressor, he would not throw first, but wait for a counter punching opportunity. Porter, sensing his opponent’s lack of offence, threw combinations with one minute left in the match, backing Adjaho into a corner. Adjaho came back with a solid counter left and followed it up with an overhand right, but by then Porter was moving to safety. Adjaho came forward again, but failed to do enough work to force exchanges, even if it looked as though Porter was game for a fight. Two of the judges scored the bout 99-91 and the other 97-93.
Fernando Guerrero completely dominated his opponent from start to finish. He averaged over one hundred punches a round, throwing them from all angles. Guerrero looked like a cross between Kassim Ouma and Winky Wright; at times coming forward throwing everything in the arsenal and at other times blocking all of Findley’s shots with a tight shell defense. The only thing lacking was a knockout, and Findley had been stopped before (albeit by Andre Dirrell at super middleweight). Two judges scored the match 99-1 and the other 100-90 all for Guerrero.
Also televised, Dominic “The Blade” Wade 11-0 (8 KO’s) of Washington, D.C. thoroughly outworked Grover Young 4-1 (2 KO’s) of Memphis, Tennessee, handing him his first loss. Wade threw one hundred and twenty-six punches in the second round alone. All three judges scored the four round bout 40-36 for Wade.