Trout, Dawson to Meet on ESPN Friday Night Fights and Noche de Combates Season Finale Noche de Combates In-Studio Guest: Former Three-Division Titlist Abner Mares Former Junior Middleweight titleholder Austin “No Doubt” Trout (26-2, 14 KOs, ESPN.com No. 6 ranked Junior Middleweight) will meet former Junior Middleweight title challenger Daniel “Awesome” Dawson (40-3-1, 26 KOs) Friday, August 22, in the 10-round main event on the season finale of ESPN Friday Night Fights presented by Corona Extra and ESPN Deportes’ Noche de Combates presentado por Corona Extra. Friday’s show from the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif., will air live at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2, broadband Spanish-language ESPN Deportes+ and WatchESPN. ESPN Deportes will air the fights on Saturday, August 23, at 5:50 p.m. The card is promoted by Goossen Promotions. Commentators: Todd Grisham will be ringside with analyst Teddy Atlas describing the action for ESPN2, while studio host Doug Kezirian will provide all the latest boxing news and highlights. Pablo Viruega and analyst Delvin Rodríguez will call the fights for Noche de Combates on ESPN Deportes and ESPN Deportes+, while Claudia Trejosand Leopoldo González will anchor the studio.
In-Studio Guest: Former Three-Division Titlist Abner Mares: Former three-division titleholder and 2004 Mexican Olympian Abner Mares will join Trejos and González as a special guest on Noche de Combates. Main Event: Mexico’s Trout, a veteran of six world title fights, is looking to get back to the top following a 12-round unanimous decision loss to defending Jr. Middleweight titlist Erislandy Lara and a 12-round unanimous decision loss to former titlist Canelo Alvarez. Australia’s Dawson, who is undefeated in his last seven fights, is coming off a 12-round unanimous decision win over Alex Bunema.
“I’ve been watching videos of Daniel Dawson,” Trout said. “He has a few losses; two of them have been against former world champs. He gave Daniel Geale one hell of a fight – losing a very controversial decision. We know he’s a tough cookie. He also has a lot of experience – he has 40-plus fights, and he’s a former Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion…I feel like when I’m on top of my game, nobody can beat me. I’m ready to get back on top.”
Dawson said, “Austin Trout is a fantastic fighter, one of the best boxers in the division. I’ve got nothing but praise for him; he’s done great in his career. It’s very exciting to be matched up to show what I can do against a fighter the caliber of him.”
Co-Feature:Friday’s 10-round Jr. Welterweight co-feature will pit Eric Boné (14-1, 8 KOs) of New York against Mexico’s Mahonri “Rusito” Montes (28-3-1, 20 KOs). In his last outing, Boné scored a fifth-round TKO over Frankie Figueroa. Montes is looking to score another win following an eight-round unanimous decision win over Jesus Valenzuela.
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As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
