By Tyson Bruce
The season finale of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights got off to a booming start when Egyptian light heavyweight prospect Ahmed Elbiali, 6-0-0-(6) absolutely starched Dwayne Williams, 5-4-0-(4), with a brutal overhand right. Williams, who has been knocked out in four of his five loses, threw a lazy left jab and was promptly countered with an overhand right that landed square on the temple of Williams. Williams crashed face first onto the canvas, causing the referee to immediately halt the bout. Official time was 1:51 of the first round.
In a highly entertaining bout, up and coming welterweight prospect Erick Bone, 14-1-0-(8), scored a clear-cut unanimous decision over Mexican Mahonri Montes, 28-4-1-(20). Bone was the much faster boxer and used precision counter punches to frustrate the aggressive Montes. Montes showed an incredible chin by taking a number of flush punches from the classy Bone. Bone limited Montes power punching with an effective and consistent body attack. Final scores were 100-98 and 97-93 (twice) over ten rounds.
Former Junior Middleweight champion Austin Trout, 27-2-0-(14), had to overcome two knockdowns to defeat the thirty-six year old Australian Daniel Dawson, 40-4-1-(26). Dawson came in an astounding 25:1 underdog but proved to be a game challenger, probably sensing that it was his last chance to break into the upper-echelon of the division.
Trout looked rusty in the early going but managed to win the first two rounds with his massive speed advantage. To the shock (and perhaps horror) of the California audience Dawson caught Trout with a flush right hand in the third, that sent him tumbling to the canvas. Any notion of it being a flash knockdown was quickly dispelled when another right hand counter punch sent the overeager Trout for a second trip to the canvas.
To the surprise of many Dawson didn’t go for the finish but rather looked as surprised as everyone else at his stunning success. Trout gradually got back into the fight, finding his boxing groove by being more patient. Trout started to bust Dawson up by the mid-late stages of the fight and dropped him with a beautiful overhand left in the eighth round. Trout beat Dawson mercilessly until the final bell but failed to stop the durable Aussie. Final scores were 97-90 on all three judges cards.