The March 22 edition of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights presented by Corona Extra will feature Middleweight David “The Destroyer” Lopez (41-13, 25 KOs), who once fought for the Junior Middleweight title, and Don “Da Bomb” George (24-3-1, 21 KOs) in the 10-round main event. Friday’s show from the UIC Center in Chicago, will air live at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2 HD, ESPN Deportes and will be available online through WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app. The card is promoted by Warriors Boxing.
Bernardo Osuna (@osunaespn), filling in for Joe Tessitore, will be ringside with Teddy Atlas describing the action for ESPN2 HD, while studio host Todd Grisham (@GrishamESPN) will provide the latest boxing news and highlights. Alex Pombo and Delvin Rodriguez will call the fights for ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates (Friday Night Fights) with Leopoldo Gonzalez and Pablo Viruega in the studio.
Friday’s studio show will discuss last weekend’s title fight between Welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr. and Ruslan Provodnikov. Provodnikov, who has appeared numerous times on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, went the distance with Bradley narrowly losing a 12-round unanimous decision.
Main Event:
Chicago’s George, is looking to build momentum after scoring a first-round knockout win over James Cook in his last fight.
“Don’s a warrior,” George’s father and trainer, Peter George, said. “He’s really preparing hard for this fight and not cutting any corners. He’s training harder than I’ve ever seen him. We know we’ve got a tough guy in front of us and I think he’ll perform impressively on the 22nd. I think he’s going to do very well.”
Mexico’s Lopez is coming off a 10-round unanimous decision win over Julio Garcia and enters Friday’s bout with big fight experience having fought Junior Middleweight titlist Austin Trout.
“Donovan George is a good fighter,” Lopez said. “I cannot take praise away from him. I know I’m going to be fighting the crowd that night as well as George, but George is also going to have a problem – he’s never faced anybody like me. The experience that I’m going to bring is going to make it a very difficult night for him. This fight is going to put me back on track toward my ultimate goal, which is to become world champion.”
Co-Feature:
Friday’s 10-round co-feature will pit former Welterweight titlist Kermit Cintron (33-5-1, 28 KOs) against Adrian “El Tigre” Granados (9-1-1, 5 KOs). Cintron will look to rebound from a fifth-round TKO loss to Junior Middleweight titlist Saul Alvarez while Granados will look to win his fourth fight in a row after a fifth-round TKO win over Antonio Canas.
Follow ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on Twitter @ESPNFNF or like it on Facebook. Follow ESPN Deportes’ Viernes de Combates on Twitter @ESPNBoxeo. Also score the fights round-by-round with the “Live Friday Night Fights Facebook Voting App,” an application on the ESPN FNF Facebook page that allows viewers to score the fight round-by-round.
