Screen shots by Round By Round Boxing
ESPN‘s Friday Night Fights premiered its 17th season with a controversial Junior Lightweight title-fight.
Rances Barthelemy (20-0, 13 KOs) defeated Argenis Mendez (21-3-1, 11 KOs) to win the IBF Junior Lightweight crown. The fight was marred in controversy after Barthelemy’s fight-ending punches were thrown after the concluding bell of the second round.
Barthelemy managed to score a knockdown before winning the fight. He landed a sneaky left hook that went right through Mendez’s gloves.
After Mendez struggled to get back to his feet, Barthelemy landed another barrage that included the controversial post-round knockout. It was the referee’s job to stop Barthelemy from punching as the bell rung, but he was just not in place to stop the action.
The knockout punch clearly landed after the bell, and Mendez’s team is appealing the fight’s conclusion. Mendez’s team will likely seek for a rematch but, nevertheless, it was clear that Barthelemy was on his way to dominating and winning the fight.
In the first of the two televised fights, perennial gatekeeper Ossie Duran (28-11-3, 11 KOs) took what was supposed to be a manageable fight and made it into a long night for Caleb Truax (23-1-2, 14 KOs).
Duran used his jab and prevented Truax from landing significant punches. Duran made the fight closer than what many believed it would be, as Truax had only been defeated once in his previous 25 fights.
The judges declared the fight a draw and unanimously scored it 95-95.
The second fight featured future prospect Erikson Lubin (2-0, 2 KOs) taking on Luis Santiago (4-1, 1 KOs), who was coming off a two-year layoff. Lubin’s promoter asked for this fight to be presented on television, and it did its job by giving Lubin an easy knockout win.
Lubin was already scheduled for a February fight in Chicago, and this was more of quick workout than a tough fight.
The night ended with a four-round Junior Middleweight bout between Javontae Sparks(8-0, 5 KOs) and Limberth Ponce (6-0, 4 KOs).
Sparks easily controlled the fight and even managed to knock Ponce down with a check hook while Ponce was coming in. Unfortunately, the judges gave Sparks the split decision when he clearly deserved a unanimous decision.
