Fernando Guerrero Cruises To UD On FNF

It's bigtime stepup time for Fernando Guerrero, who coasted to a drama-free unanimous decision win over Derrick Findley in the main event at the Wicomico Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland on Friday Night Fights.

The lefty Guerrero doesn't have glaring deficiencies, and I'd be eager to see him up the competition level, up a notch from a survivor type that is Findley, who has losses to Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell on his resume. After ten rounds, the judges congratulated the Salisbury resident, who has actually beaten better men than Findley, in Ishe Smith and Ossie Duran, by scores of 99-91, 99-91, 100-90.

The NABF middleweight champ Guerrero (from  the Dominican Republic; 20-0 entering with 16 KOs) was 157 1/2 pounds, while Findley (from Indiana; entering at 17-4) was 162 pounds on Thursday.

The show ran in 3D, to be enjoyed by those viewing a television equipped to render the technology.

In the first, the lefty Guerrero snapped the jab. He went with combos right away, not needing to get his joints lubed for too long. He likes to work from a distance, generally, get off and stay out of range, so as not to make himself an easy target to counter. In the second, the bulky Findley tried to land a straight right. He stays squared up, so he ate more than he served. In the third, Guerrero got even more comfortable. He tripled up the left a few times. In the fourth, Guerrero craftily continued to work the downstairs so he could get a good look at the noggin. Findley looked weary by the end of the round, a rough one for him.

In the fifth, Findley had better luck. He worked on moving forward, trying to get Guerrero backing up some. But all too often, he had his gloves glued to the front of his face, in a defensive posture. After a slower round, Guerrero worked harder to start the sixth. He couldn't however take too much starch out of the resolute Findley. The outsider to his credit marched forward in the seventh, and again had Guerrero in retreat at times. Guerrero was throwing 100 punches a round, and in the eighth, he still had a full tank of gas.

In the TV opener, Shawn Porter of Ohio stayed unbeaten, running his record to 18-0 with a UD8 over Anges Adjaho of Africa, who slipped to 25-5. This was the fourth straight loss for the loser, but don't be thinking he just showed up to lay down. His right hand counters, thrown not often enough, did touch Porter and tell him he wasn't going to waltz to an easy W. Porter was fighting as a light junior middleweight but has dropped down to welterweight. Adjaho sometimes fights at 135, but his body didn't look puffed up with flab.

Porter, said Joe Tess, has been working with his dad-trainer on staying calm, breathing, not getting ahead of himself. We saw that for the most part. He got angles smartly, mixes his hands and his placement, and got good work in. Adjaho simply doesn't throw often enough. If he did,  he would've gotten over the hump in some of those stepup fights he's lost.

Atlas saw it 99-91, while the real deal arbiters saw it 99-91, 99-91, 97-93, for Porter.

Marylander Dominic Wade raised his record to 11-0 with a UD4 over Tennessean Grover Young in a super middle tiff. Wade is trained by the Peterson Brothers guy, Barry Hunter. Wade exited with the win by scores of 40-36.

SPEEDBAG Atlas told viewers he likes Donaire in the marquee Saturday night bantamweight clash. He cited his youth, and said Montiel might be bigger, but won't have an easy time getting inside on Donaire.

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