URBANO ANTILLON vs TYRONE HARRIS

Urbano Antillon has lately been storming through everyone put in front of him, with eight stoppage wins in a row as he moves up the lightweight ladder. The exciting Mexican fighter from Maywood, CA, should get a stiff test on Friday, though, when he tops the bill at the Hard Rock casino hotel in Las Vegas against Tyrone Harris, with Azteca America televising.

Harris is a classy southpaw from Lansing, MI, who scored his best win in his last fight when he hammered Damian Fuller into defeat in the ninth round of an all-Michigan showdown. A national Golden Gloves champion, Harris has lost only twice in the last three years, decision defeats against ex-champion Stevie Johnston and the tough and gritty Josesito Lopez — and the fight with Johnston was one round on one card from being a draw.

A problem with Harris is that, while he is a skilled boxer with good hand speed, he has lost against the higher grade of opponent, with the exception being his win over Fuller.

When Harris meets the lower level type of fighter he can look dazzling, as he showed when outclassing Rafael Ortiz on Friday Night Fights in August 2007. Some people whose opinion I respect gave the rugged and willing Ortiz a great chance of scoring a big upset, but Harris was far superior.

Harris, 28, apparently looked highly impressive in the win over Fuller. Perhaps he is poised to turn the corner in his career. A win over Antillon would be a huge achievement for him. I can’t see it happening, however.

Antillon has improved greatly over the past couple of years, fighting with intensity and self-belief. He puts pressure on his opponents from the start and he is a hurtful body puncher. Antillon isn’t just a walk-in slugger, though. He keeps his hands up, uses the jab and shows some head movement — and he, too, was a Golden Gloves champion.

Harris is not going to be easily overcome, but Antillon has momentum going for him and he is the undefeated fighter being steered towards big things. Harris’s southpaw style and sharp punching will have to be dealt with, but Antillon blew right through the southpaw Daniel Attah, while he easily landed his left hook in a one-round blowout over another left-handed fighter, Adrian Valdez — and Bobby Pacquiao, a cruder type of left-hander, also didn't make it out of the first round.

Antillon has been surprising me a little because he has been stopping respectable opponents several rounds sooner than I would have expected. I think he will be too strong for Harris and that his pressure will start to wear down his opponent by the middle rounds. Harris isn’t the type who runs all around the ring. From what I have seen of him, he usually tries to hold his ground, blocking, making opponents miss with his upper-body movement and then getting off with his sharp punches. He will be competitive but I can see him getting hit by hooks and body punches and I don’t think he can keep Antillon contained for the full 10 rounds.

At some point I am expecting Antillon to make a major breakthrough in the fight and then overpower Harris — I’m thinking somewhere around the ninth round.