Fox Sports 1 Quick Picks

Alan Sanchez vs. Jorge Silva: This Friday will be a particularly busy night for the sweet science.  There will be fight cards on three separate channels so the fighters will really have to put on a good show in order to stand out.  The two fighters who really need to stand are Alan Sanchez (12-3-1, 6 KO) and Jorge Silva (20-5-2, 16 KO).  They will face off against each other in a 10 round main event in the welterweight division on Fox Sports 1.  Neither fighter has been impressive of late with Sanchez losing his last bout against Luis Collazo and Silva going 1-3-1 in his last five bouts.  Whoever wins on Friday will remain relevant for at least another fight while the loser would have a long road back to relevance.  Sanchez is a skilled fighter with good hand speed but doesn't always make for exciting fights.  He isn't very aggressive and doesn't mind fighting off his back foot.  He puts his punches together very well with his quick hands but he often times throws his right hand very wide.  Sanchez is a good defensive fighter but he doesn't exactly make it look pretty.  Often times it seems Sanchez doesn't have a great idea of what he wants to do in the ring, something that has hurt his fan appeal.  While Sanchez does have fast hands and a solid jab with an above average straight right hand he tends to head hunt and should go to the body more often than he typically does.  If Sanchez, who doesn't have great power, focused more of his attack on his opponents body he might be able to break them down and see his knockout numbers rise.  Silva is a much different type of fighter most notably because he has the power that Sanchez doesn't.  Another difference is that Silva isn't very slick on defense and tends to take a lot of punishment which his three knockouts in five losses will attest to.  Silva's hands are very fast and he likes to pick his spots to land power punches and has a good left hook.  Silva also throws his uppercuts with a lot of success and while his hands aren't fast he does throw short punches when he is on the inside which allow them to reach their target quicker.  If this fight takes place in a phone booth it will be the short powerful punches of Silva that should control the action.  However I expect Sanchez to be able to stick and move successfully on the slower Silva on his way to a majority decision win.

Errol Spence Jr. vs. Raymond Charles: Perhaps the best fighter going on Friday night is Errol Spence Jr. (11-0, 9 KO) who represented the U.S. in the 2012 London Olympics.  The 24 year old Spence Jr. will be challenged by 34 year old Raymond Charles (12-2-2, 5 KO) in a 10 round welterweight bout.  Spence Jr. seems to be a star in the making and also seems to have every weapon a fighter could want, fast hands, good defense, and power.  Spence Jr. is a southpaw with a very good jab and a ton of power behind it.  He switches up his punches from the head to the body extremely well and has a deadly left hand.  Spence Jr. never seems to get flustered in the ring and does a good job of catching his opponents punches with his gloves.  Spence Jr. has been brought along at a measure pace.  While his resume doesn't have many impressive names on it the fighters mostly have winning records and he blows through them all.  This will be Spence Jr.'s first 10 round fight which usually would spell trouble if it went to the deep rounds but his opponent Charles has also never gone past 8 rounds and he only went 8 once.  While Spence Jr.'s wins have come against relative no names with winning records Charles wins have also come against no names but with horrendous records.  In his last fight Charles lost to a fighter by the name of Steve Trumble with a record of 12-26.  There isn't much that needs to be said about Charles, he took the fight on very short notice and is really only in the ring to make Spence Jr. look good and give him a few rounds.  Charles doesn't have any power to speak of and his chin isn't very good either.  For fans who haven't yet seen Spence Jr. fight make sure you don't get up to grab a beer during the action because it could be over very quickly.  In Spence Jr.'s eleven fights six of them have been over in the 1st round.  I doubt Charles will be able to give Spence Jr. any kind of a challenge and Spence Jr. should easily win this fight by the way of 3rd round stoppage.

Raul Martinez vs. Sergio Perales: The opening bout of this card could prove to be the most competitive.  That fight will be a 10 round lightweight bout between Raul Martinez (30-3, 18 KO) and Sergio Perales (23-2, 15 KO).  Both fighters are 3-2 in their past five fights so both will be looking to turn things around and string a few wins together.  Martinez is a fighter with fast hands who can sharp shoot effectively at times but who also takes a lot of clean punches, especially upstairs.  He has been knocked out once but typically takes a good punch and his lone knockout loss came against knockout machine Nonito Donaire back in 2009.  While Martinez can be effective on the inside his accurate punching will be better served if he fought from the outside more often.  While he shouldn't abandon his inside game he would be better off getting inside, landing a few quick punches and then moving back out of danger instead of standing a trading.  Perales also has fast hands but he doesn't go to the body quite as often as Martinez does and isn't as accurate.  Perales can have trouble finding the range for his punches and often times lunges forward from the outside only to swing and miss.  Perales has also only been knocked out once but he doesn't seem to absorb punches as well as Martinez does and can be backed up fairly easily.  Perales isn't an aggressive fighter and doesn't like to fight at close range.  Martinez who would be better off getting in and getting out should feel comfortable staying in the pocket and trading with Perales who doesn't work very well on the inside.  While Perales is still young at 26 years old Martinez is already 32 so his window of opportunity is as open as his younger foe.  That means Martinez will have to get things going quickly and look impressive during this televised fight.  I think the ability to take a punch better and the accurate punching of Martinez will serve him well and allow him to win this fight via unanimous decision.