Friday Night Fights Quick Picks

Argenis Mendez vs. Rances Barthelemy: Big time boxing fans rejoice, ESPN's Friday Night Fights is back with a brand new season.  Their first card of the year is a good one with the main event being a 12 round fight for Argenis Mendez's (21-2-1, 11 KO) IBF junior lightweight title.  His challenger will be the undefeated Rances Barthelemy (19-0, 12 KO) who is a slick Cuban boxer.  It is an old adage that styles make fights and with the two styles of these fighters this bout should be more of a chess match than brawl.  Mendez is a defense first boxer who is incredibly hard to hit but often forgets about his offense and doesn't throw enough fire power in return.  In a close fight that lack of offensive output can hurt him in the judges eyes and he should look to be more active than usual against Barthelemy.  The Cuban fighter, Barthelemy is also very hard to hit, partly because of his good defense, and partly due to the fact that he is 5'11'' which is unusually tall for the division.  Barthelemy doesn't move around the ring as much as Mendez and instead likes to slowly come forward behind a good jab.  Both fighters have had recent bouts against Arash Usmanee with Mendez fighting to a draw and Barthelemy winning a unanimous decision.  The reason those two fights went the way they did is the same reason this fight will.  Mendez will look good defensively but won't be active enough on offense to put rounds in the bank while Barthelemy will do just enough to win rounds and while he may not land as many fast combinations he will land the heavier punches.  I expect Barthelemy to squeak out a close win via unanimous decision and start of 2014 by staying perfect.

Caleb Truax vs. Ossie Duran: The other notable fight on this Friday's fight card features a boxer who was in the running for 2013 Prospect of the Year, Caleb Truax (23-1-1, 14 KO).  Truax will test his skills against a tough veteran out of Ghana, Ossie Duran (28-11-2, 11 KO).  Truax has a classic style, he fights with his hands in perfect position to block punches and fire them in return and he goes well to the body and upstairs.  2014 should be a big year for Truax and at 30 years old he needs to impress against lesser opposition and take a step up in talent level the second half of the year.  That may be one reason Truax is taking on Duran.  Duran is a physical presence in the ring however he doesn't have very heavy hands and he isn't particularly active as far as punching.  One thing Duran does have going in his favor is his chin.  He has lost eleven fights but has only been knocked out once and his overall defense is better than it looks.  Duran does a good job of catching punches with his gloves and not taking a lot of punishment even when he isn't moving away from his opponents attack.  This should be a great test for Truax to see if he can break down the bigger Duran and impress fans against a fighter who isn't easy to look great against.  Truax may have a hard time landing clean punches early in the fight but things will open up in the middle rounds, especially to the body.  If Truax can go to the body frequently early on it should pay dividends later in the fight and I predict that Truax will get the win via unanimous decision.