The Bell Centre in Montreal played host to ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights this evening, and the home country’s showcased fighters prevailed. With Jean Pascal ringside, happy to have his rematch with Bernard Hopkins squared away, his countrymen did him and the fans in attendance proud. Both welterweights, Canadian prospects Jo Jo Dan and Antonin Decarie scored wins over their American counterparts to continue advancing up the ladder.
In the opening bout of the televised cart, Jo Jo Dan won a Technical Decision over Steve Forbes. Dan had been in firm control of the bout when the two had a violent clash of heads in the sixth round. The headbutt left a massive gash over the left eye of Forbes, and the doctor immediately halted the action. The bout went to the scorecards, and Dan took home the unanimous TD.
Dan is now 28 (15) – 1, with his only loss being a disputed decision in Turkey to Turkish fighter Selcuk Aydin. Forbes drops to 35 (11) – 9.
Later on, the main event saw Antonin Decarie facing off against Shamone Alvarez. Decarie, with only 7 knockouts on his ledger, proved to be the crisper, harder puncher. He was able to score several knockdowns against Alvarez throughout the second half of the fight, and took home a lopsided UD after 10 rounds. Alvarez was never badly hurt, although certainly shaken at times, but was not able to find a way to keep Decarie from getting off. Decarie began to find a home for his straight right midway through the bout, and continued to deck Alvarez with it, occasionally following up with a left hook for good measure.
Decarie improves to 25 (7) – 1, while Alvarez, a former highly touted prospect, is 21 (12) -4, and at 34 years old, one has to wonder how much of a window he has left to try to make a real run to a title shot.
