Breidis Prescott isn’t very fast or remotely technically astute, but he looked it Friday on ESPN2 in comparison to the other junior welterweight in the ring. He got a lot of help from Bayan Jargal, the erratic Mongolian who barely could bring himself to throw punches, and when he did they were slow and ineffective. Jargal alternates between “pretty good” and “how did he end up with a draw against THAT bum?” and the latter version was in the ring on Friday Night Fights. Prescott dominated from the 1st round, when he hurt Jargal and outworked and outboxed his slower, strangely reluctant foe, although Prescott’s speed and counter shots contributed to Jargal’s reluctance. In the 5th, Jargal only threw 13 punches. He only really began to turn up the heat in the 8th, and when he did, he scored — but it still wasn’t enough, and toughness propelled him forward to the final bell on his feet and with his eyes badly swollen (I didn’t see his corner use an endswell at all). Besides Jargal’s toughness, Prescott’s illusory power played a role in Jargal standing at the end of 10. Prescott can’t punch. The Amir Khan KO was a fluke. The best he can hope for is to keep fighting on Friday Night Fights, which has taken a strange shine to him, and hope Khan one day decides to avenge his loss when he needs an easy night in the office.
On the undercard, junior middleweight Demetrius Andrade looked a tad better fighting for the first time without his dad as his trainer, although I never caught who his new trainer was — you’d think the most celebrated prospect of the 2008 Olympians could get someone worth mentioning. Andrade has come under significant fire for not only failing to live up to his hype, but also looking like he was barely a prospect at all. He scored a 2nd round knockout against the ultra-skittish Omar Bell, who played keep away then refused to get up after getting knocked down. Also, Kevin Rooney, Jr. (yes, he’s related) made his pro debut, knocking down a game David Navarro twice in the first two rounds and getting caught clean in the 3rd and 4th while standing upright and squared up, indicating he’s got a long way to go if this is going to be much more than a fun experiment and sideline to his gig as a publicist for Star Boxing. But he didn’t have an amateur career to speak of, according to ESPN2’s Teddy Atlas, so that’s to be expected, and his age, ethnicity and an aggressive style could make him a nice undercard staple while he tries to figure it all out.
