JUAN URANGO vs RANDALL BAILEY

Sharing the spotlight with the Cloud-Woods light-heavy title bout, Juan Urango defends his IBF junior welter title against former WBO champion Randall Bailey in the excellent season-closing show on Friday Night Fights.

It’s a shame the FNF’s boxing season extends only until August, but these days fans have to be glad for whatever they can get, and this double-header is a particularly compelling one.

Urango against Bailey is an intriguing clash of styles. In the Colombian Urango we have a strong southpaw who hits hard but who can be outboxed, while the veteran Bailey is a boxer-puncher with one of the best right hands in boxing but who has shown vulnerability.

Bailey was WBO champion a decade ago but at 34 he is still very much a force, with 11 wins in his last 12 fights — and his only loss in this sequence was a debatable one, to Herman Ngoudjo in Montreal, when both men were down.

Urango fought as a welterweight in his last fight when he was predictably outpointed by Andre Berto. He was winging and missing for most of the fight, but Berto is a faster, slicker fighter than Bailey, who likes to hold the centre of the ring and drop in the big right hand behind the jab.

Bailey is now being trained by the excellent John David Jackson, and he has been looking poised and powerful. He let the fight with Ngoudjo get away from him by not throwing enough punches, but he made no mistake in his IBF eliminator against Francisco Figueroa in April, flattening his opponent with a perfect right hand after going down himself in what seemed like a flash knockdown when he was caught high on the head and lost his balance.

That right hand through the middle from Bailey is going to be a real threat to Urango all through the fight. Urango is quite heavy handed, but Bailey has superior snap on his shots and to me is clearly the puncher in the fight. Urango, though, must be considered the more durable of the two. He has never been stopped or dropped, although he did wobble alarmingly against the 38-year-old Kenyan Nasser Athumani, when it seemed he was hit by a hard shot to the temple area that momentarily robbed him of his equilibrium. Urango surged back, though, and battered the Kenyan out of the fight in the fourth round.

Tough as Urango is, though, he cannot afford to take too many flush right hands — or left hooks for that matter — from the seemingly rejuvenated Bailey.

For Urango, I think that attack is his best form of defence in this fight. He must fight the way he did when he defeated Ngoudjo in Montreal, moving in with gloves up and trying to keep his head moving, pushing his opponent back and keeping the punches flowing. I think it is also important that he attacks the body. Some feel that Bailey’s chin is suspect, but it was body punches that caved him in against Disobelys Hurtado and Miguel Cotto in his only inside-schedule defeats.

If Bailey is allowed to settle, to hold his position and get the right hand on target, he will be very hard to beat. Urango can win, though, with pressure and body punches from his southpaw style.

This is one of those fights where anything can happen and one would not be surprised whoever won. Bailey is going to be extremely dangerous early, but the longer the fight lasts the more it should favour the younger Urango.

I lean towards Urango. I have a feeling that his strength will tell in the later rounds, but the Colombian fighter is likely to have some shaky moments.