Sundance Square, Ft. Worth, 05/08/09 - Brian Vera (l) & Craig McEwan (r) size each other up.

ESPN
ESPN's Friday Fights covered most of the card nationally. This brought Teddy Atlas and Joe Tesatore to the event. Joe looked like he is a good customer of Friday Night Fights' sponsor Just for Men Hair color. I had a quick chat with Teddy Atlas; he is the warm, classy guy you see on TV. Other attendees included Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach who is the trainer of main event fighter Craig McEwan.

Sites and Sounds
There was a good, somewhat packed audience. The crowd was somewhat quiet until the main event. It was mostly tough blinged guys, some had their bored girlfriends. I was surprised to see young parents with small kids, even babies; plus there were other babes [in the crowd] too. The ring girls weren't bad either. They wore red, Daisy Duke type outfits with strange, black bunny tails. Baby rattles and a loud, rumbling, group of motorcycles supplemented the sounds of the fights.

Tecate Beer was one of the event's sponsors. We are talking $4.50 for a beer. One consolation was they were handing out promotional items; small sets of plastic maracas. Not every bout was spellbinding. At one point, I wanted to turn around and interview the hotties that were sitting behind me cheering on Vera. (They brought their own plastic maracas.)

The Card
The main event was somewhat predictable. Freddie Roach's Craig McEwan took on tough local fighter [now making Austin his home] Brian Vera. My scorecard of the 10 round fight showed seven rounds to three for McEwan. Several rounds could have gone either way. Brian has nothing to be ashamed of, he had another competitive showing on national television. He is a born fighter, he smiles when he mixes things up like Ronald “Winky” Wright. I was not that impressed with McEwan. Roach has spoon fed him predictable techniques...counter a right cross with a right upper cut to the solar plexus, measured pacing, three punch combinations, etc.

After the fight, McEwan's wife handed him their 8-month-old baby to parade around the ring. I think fighters do this to make sure that their opponents know the fight is over. At least I think it was their baby.

The co-feature had Adrien Broner against Fernando Quintero. Broner was larger and a bit of a showboat. He won a decision against the raw Quintero despite consistently dropping his left hand, lack of head movement, and bodywork. Adrien needs to get back to fundamentals and get tougher opposition.

Dallas’ own Charles Hatly made another impressive outing. He is strong, has a good defense, and another first round KO in the win column. He is ready for tougher opposition.

When the main event ended there was a mass exodus and that's was too bad because the subsequent fight was good. Denton's Pedro Dominquez took on Gerardo Dominquez. I was impressed with Pedro. He's tall, lean, strong, fast, mobile and has a cracking left hook to the body. He somewhat reminds me of the late, great Salvador Sanchez. This site has results of all the bouts.

[Marcellus Silva
North Texas Boxing introduces our newest writer, Marcellus Silva. Mr. Silva has had a life long passion for boxing. He and his promoter father spent years in the gym. Silva also has trained / coached fighters. As an information technology consultant Silva travels the world and uses the opportunity to trade ideas with fighters and trainers. His interests have drawn him to the local boxing scene. He can be reached at masilva9@hotmail.com. Great job Marcellus.]