Almost An Oops For Allan Green

In the main event, super-middle superstar Allan Green was matched up with last-minute replacement Donnie McCrary. McCrary accepted the fight on nine days notice, so the expectation was that he would be no serious challenge. I found some clips of his fights on the internet, and I predicted that the much-smaller McCrary would "be a smudge on Green`s gloves by the end of this match". I was right, but it turned out to be quite a ride.

In the first two rounds, Green slowly established his dominance, using his greater speed, reach, and skill to chase McCrary around the ring with jabs and punishment, but McCrary showed a lot of spunk, throwing a few big punches, and fulfilling the role of the "scrappy little guy".

In round three, a left hook to the body dropped McCrary. Green had softened him up with a series of jabs and straight rights, and was looking like a million bucks. After the knockdown, Green opened up, and started to let his hands fly. Teddy Atlas had predicted that, at some point, Green might try to jump in with a lead left hook, and that McCrary could capitalize on this. As is so often the case, Teddy was dead on right, and McCrary`s left hook to the chin almost put Green out on his feet. McCrary followed up and dropped Green with a series of big punches. McCrary didn`t have the gas to follow up with a knock-out, but he had Green fighting for his career in the round`s last minute.

In the fourth, Green came out with his defense picture-perfect. The tongue-lashing that he received in his corner appeared to have been effective, as Green kept his hands up until the final moments of the fight. The fifth frame was more of the same, and Green gradually began to re-establish his dominance with the jab.

The bout`s end came in the sixth round, much later than I had expected. Green, showing his one-punch power, dropped McCrary with a powerful left hook, catching the smaller man stepping away.

I like Green. From several accounts, he is a good guy, and he seems to have a good combination of style and ability. The rumour is that he is to be an upcoming opponent for Joe Calzaghe, who is still basking in the glow of his demolition of Jeff Lacey. I would love to see such a fight, but I am inclined to think that it might still be too early in Green`s career to make such a step up. Green has a great future, but his mistakes in this fight, against bottom-of-the barrel competition, seem to indicate that he still has some growing to do.

On the undercard, Jameel McCline had a thoroughly unimpressive unanimous decision win over game journeyman Rob Calloway. McCline looked to have dramatically improved his conditioning, though he still threw relatively weak arm-punches, and did so in a sloppy matter. If anything, McCline`s stock went down with this uninspiring win.

ESPN2 put together an entertaining fight card, and being free, it was certainly worth the price. I`m looking forward to this week`s installment of Friday Night Fights, which`ll feature Samuel Peter.

Paul Clemmons, RN is a freelance writer who dreams of challenging George Foreman to a pizza eat-off. He is part of the team at Boxingfans.blogspot.com, and writes when he`s not gloating over his undefeated amateur record (1-0-1).