Friday Night Fights Quick Pick

Sergio Mora vs. Abie Han: A 12 round main event in the middleweight division between veteran Sergio Mora (27-3-2, 9 KO) and the relatively unknown Abie Han (23-1, 14 KO) was night supposed to be headlining this week's edition of Friday Night Fights on ESPN2.  Instead Mora was supposed to be facing off against Jermain Taylor for Taylor's IBF middleweight title.  However Taylor has serious legal issues stemming from two gun-related charges and was sent to a hospital recently to have a mental evaluation.  So Han took the fight on short notice and will be going up against his toughest opponent since 2013 when he took on Glen Tapia.  Mora on the other hand has faced off against some top level fighters like Shane Mosley and Vernon Forrest and he will need to look good against Han if he wants to get a title shot.  Mora is an orthodox fighter who has a busy jab and he keeps his jab hand very low.  He also likes to fire off a nice straight right hand so look for him to throw a lot of one-twos against Han.  It is actually surprising that Mora is still in title contention considering all he really throws are jabs and straight right hands.  His offensive game is not very versatile and he will only occasionally let a left hook good.  What has kept Mora at this level is the fact that his reflexes haven't yet betrayed him.  He is still a good defense fighter who can make an opponent miss as long as he doesn't get caught going straight back.  Han is also an orthodox fighter but there is where the similarities between he and Mora end.  Han puts more behind his punches and throws a ton of left hooks and crooked right hands.  The problem is that those punches often come in very wild and when he throws his left hook he doesn't protect his chin with his right hand.  Also Han is not good at all on defense on often comes forward behind wild punches.  Mora should be able to dictate the pace of this fight and work his jab and straight right hand to perfect against the wild Han.  Look for Mora to stick and move and stay safe on his way to a unanimous decision win.