Friday Night Fights Quick Picks

Josesito Lopez vs. Aaron Martinez: This weeks edition of Friday Night Fights will be an unusual one.  That is because the fights will not be taking place on Friday, instead they will be held a day earlier on Thursday.  The main event of this special Thursday edition of Friday Night Fights will be a bout between fan favorite Josesito Lopez (31-6, 18 KO) and Aaron Martinez (19-2-1, 4 KO).  The fight is scheduled to go 10 rounds in the junior welterweight division which is Lopez's natural weight class but one he hasn't fought in much recently.  Recently Lopez has fought as a welterweight against Victor Ortiz, as a junior middleweight against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, and then once again at welterweight against Marcos Maidana so he should be happy to be back at junior welterweight against a fighter who isn't a power puncher.  Lopez is a fan favorite because he typically makes for a good action fight and also doesn't care who he has to step in the ring against.  Lopez doesn't mind standing at trading punches in the center of the ring and he uses a good jab along with a nice left hook to inflict damage.  Unfortunately his right hand isn't as good as his left and he tends to fall in with his punches from time to time which leaves him open to get dropped.  Lopez does have six losses which is a lot and two of them have come by knockout so his chin has been questioned, especially after he was dropped by Mike Arnaoutis in his last fight.  However the two knockouts came against the much bigger Alvarez and the monster punching Maidana.  Lopez hasn't been at his best of late going 2-3 in his last five fights and hopes a win against Martinez will once again elevate him from ESPN fighter to a premium cable one.  Martinez isn't a big puncher and usually looks to control the action from the outside with a very good jab when he is fighting a bigger puncher.  However Martinez can be very good on the inside where he really digs hard to the body and ties up to avoid taking a lot of return fire.  Defensively Martinez is solid and has never been down as a pro.  He has however been cut many times, something that could play a big role in this fight.  Fans know what Lopez will look to do in this fight, get inside and trade punches.  The wild card is Martinez who may choose to stay on the outside or could decide he has what it takes to trade on the inside against Lopez.  Hopefully for the enjoyment of fans Martinez does stay in the pocket which should make for a good action fight.  This is a pretty even fight however Lopez has fought the better opposition and is the younger fighter who has been busier of late.  I think in their current form Lopez is the better fighter and will win a good action fight by the way of split decision.

Thomas Williams Jr. vs. Enrique Ornelas: The co-feature on Thursday's card will be a fight between rising prospect Thomas Williams Jr. (16-0, 11 KO) and experienced veteran Enrique Ornelas (34-8, 22 KO) as they square off in a 10 round bout in the light heavyweight division.  Williams Jr. is still climbing the ladder and has only recently stepped up his level of competition, fighting Yusaf Mack and Cornelius White in his last two bouts.  Ornelas is on the other end of the spectrum, he is 33 years old and looking to stay relevant.  While Williams Jr. has only fought two noteworthy fighters Ornelas has fought many including Marco Antonio Rubio, Bernard Hopkins, Robert Stieglitz, and Beibut Shumenov so he has a big advantage in the experience department even though he lost all of those bouts.  Williams was very impressive in his last bout although it did also raise some questions about his chin as he was dropped in the 1st round.  Still he was able to get up off the canvass and dropped White twice in the 1st round on his way to a knockout win.  Williams Jr. is a southpaw with a good jab and a very good and dangerous right hook.  However it is his left hand that is his best weapon and even when he doesn't land it flush it does damage.  Williams Jr. is still raw and will need to flash a lot of his power early in order to get some respect from the veteran Ornelas.  One thing Ornelas does very well that could frustrate Williams Jr.  is cut off the ring.  The problem is that even if Ornelas does a good job of cutting off the ring and keeping Williams Jr. trapped in the corners Williams Jr. is still dangerous because of his power.  Ornelas also isn't a very aggressive fighter and tends to be backed up fairly easily once the punches start landing.  Defensively he has only been knocked out once in eight losses but he has tasted the canvas on a few occassion so Williams Jr. will be looking for the home run punch.  Ornelas who is an orthodox fighter has a good jab but can sometimes seem reluctant to throw punches.  This fight could come down to whether or not Ornelas comes into the ring to win the fight or just act as the opponent.  If Ornelas comes to win fans may see him stick and move but throw very few punches in order not to get touched up by Williams Jr.  On the other hand if he comes to win and starts trading with Williams Jr. there is a good chance he will get knocked out.  Ornelas may know a lot of veteran tricks that Williams Jr. has never seen before but that won't be enough to win this fight.  I expect Williams Jr. to look strong in this fight once he starts to catch Ornelas with his power punches and win this fight via 8th round knockout.