Main Events thought they had gotten Karl Dargan to the precipice of an HBO date. Friday night on ESPN2, Tony Luis killed that notion.
Dargan, a lightweight with some serious speed, was coming off a sensational knockout as the last “project” of Main Events on NBC Sports. Luis was a potentially tough test and proved more than that. Dargan won the first couple rounds, and then Luis started outworking Dargan, backing him up and even knocking him down twice — including in the final round — although only one of the knockdowns, the second, was scored as such. Luis took advantage of a nice opportunity against an opponent who couldn’t deal with his aggression and angles. Good for him for notching the upset unanimous decision.
Perhaps Dargan’s upset loss was the result of bad karma for Main Events putting on one of the undercard bouts. No way should Jeff Lacy be in the ring, let alone on TV, and yet here he was, in against light heavyweight Sullivan Barrera on Friday Night Fights. The thing is, there was nothing for Main Events to gain here. If he knocked out the extra-shot Lacy, it’s because he should’ve, everyone’s bitter that he even fought him. If he takes four rounds to do so after dropping him in the 1st round and wobbling him in every other round, the performance makes him look bad. This was as shameful a bout as could appear on TV.
At least everybody got something good out of the middleweight match-up between middleweights Thomas Falowo and Russell Lamour. While your correspondent missed the early rounds, it was all action from the midway point on (and word has it, throughout). Falowo walked away with the unanimous decision victory.
