DANIEL JIMENEZ vs MARCOS JIMENEZ

Two fighters from the Dominican Republic but now living in Puerto Rico meet in an interesting fight on Friday when the more experienced Daniel Jimenez faces hard punching Marcos Jimenez in a junior lightweight 12-rounder. At one time we might have seen this sort of fight on Telefutura, but those days are a fading memory after the network’s decision to drop boxing.

When I first saw Marcos Jimenez on Telefutura I thought he was an exciting prospect. He blazed through his early opponents and looked like a fast, dangerous fighter. Things went wrong, though, when he faced the Mexican veteran Edel Ruiz on a PPV show two years ago. He dropped Ruiz with a body blow in th second round but the older man fought back and Jimenez, cut badly over the left eye, wilted under pressure and was overwhelmed in the fifth round.

I think that Jimenez’s cut played a big part in his defeat. He had never been in this sort of situation before and his form just fell apart in a fight he looked sure to win. In a rematch, Jimenez did manage to beat Ruiz, but only by split decision. Jimenez has won his last five fights, four by KO, but clearly he isn’t the red-hot prospect he once seemed to be.

Daniel Jimenez is the more experienced of the two Dominican fighters and has fought at a much higher level. He narrowly outscored U.S. Olympic representative Vicente Escobedo on his opponent’s home ground in Sacramento, even scoring a knockdown in that fight.

In his biggest fight, Jimenez fought with skill and courage but was worn down and stopped in the last round by Roman “Rocky” Martinez in a tremendous fight.

I wondered if Jimenez could be quite the same after this, because he was allowed to take too many punches for comfort.

Jimenez did, not surprisingly, look a little tentative in the early rounds against ex-champ Jesus Chavez in his next fight, but he was coming on strongly at the end, and he won the last two rounds on two judges’ cards. The fight with Chavez was just too tough a match for Jimenez in his first bout after the war with Martinez, but he won his last fight in good style, pounding out a unanimous decision over slippery southpaw Shamir Reyes, so perhaps he is boxing at his best again, or at least close to it.

Friday’s fight will see one of the Dominicans move forward, while the other will slip back. I would think that each man will feel he has something to prove, and this sort of fight, what they would call a “local derby” in Britain, is usually competitive and exciting.

I think there is a good chance that these fighters will be getting involved quite early as each tends to be aggressive. Marcos seems the better puncher but Daniel probably has the better chin. I will be astonished if the fight goes 12 rounds. My guess is that there will be two-way action until one or the other gets hurt by a decisive blow. I see this fight ending somewhere around the ninth round, and I think Daniel Jimenez, with his greater seasoning against a higher standard of opposition, will be the one who comes out as the winner.