Friday Night Fight Quick Pick

Elvir Muriqi vs. Blake Caparello: When the Super Bowl comes to town other events are bound to pop up in the area.  One event that is sure to bring the action will be this weeks edition of ESPN2's Friday Night Fights coming from West Orange, New Jersey.  This will be a rare triple-header for Friday Night Fights with many exciting prospects and local talent.  However only one fight will be 10 rounds and that is the main event between Elvir Muriqi (40-5, 24 KO) who was once trained by Friday Night Fights own Teddy Atlas, and Blake Caparello (18-0-1, 6 KO) in the light heavyweight division.  Muriqi who was born in Kosovo has long been fighting out of New York City and is really just a club fighter, meaning he usually only fights in his local area.  However that doesn't mean he is a pushover.  Muriqi is tough as they come and always gives every opponent a tough test.  Out of his 5 losses only 1 has been by knockout and that was back in 2004.  At this point in his career Muriqi is a tough test for young prospects looking to turn into contenders.  Muriqi likes to fight on the inside which allows him to smother his opponents punchers allowing him to focus on his offense and not worry too much about return fire.  He has good power but not so much power that fighters won't engage with him so he is usually in good fights.  His most glaring bad habit is that he telegraphs his punches and doesn't have fast hands however he does change up very well going from the head to the body.  He certainly represents one of the toughest challenges for the young Caparello, who at 27 years old will be making his U.S. debut.  Caparello isn't as aggressive as Muriqi and likes to fight from the outside.  His bad habit is that he keeps his right hand very low, but his defense and distance usually keep him safe from taking big punches.  Caparello won't be as busy as Muriqi but his defense will be much better and he should be able to control the pace and distance of the fight.  Even though Caparello took this fight on only 3 weeks notice he fought four times in 2013 the last of which was just three months ago so he should be sharp and in good shape.  Because he is the slicker boxer I expect Caparello to win this fight via unanimous decision.