Lawlor fight card looks promising

The fighters are in and getting ready for Saturday's professional fight card at Lawlor Events Center in Reno and public workouts begin Wednesday at the Reno Hilton.

Topping the nine-fight card is the scheduled 12-round featherweight fight between Marco Antonio Barrera and Enrique Sanchez.

Barrera (53-3, 38 KOs) is a 12-1 favorite in man-to-man betting over Sanchez (28-1-2, 21 KOs), who holds a win over Barrera when both were amateurs.

The semi-main event features undefeated Vassiliy Jirov (29-0, 26 KOs) defending his IBF cruiserweight title against challenger Julian Letterlough, who is 17-1-1 with 16 KOs. Jirov is a 5-1 favorite in man-to-man betting.

This fight would be a main event fight anywhere else and may even be a better fight than the main event. Both of these boxers can slug, so this may be a fight that's decided by whoever happens to be the last man standing. It should be a war, and I expect both boxers to taste the canvas before all is said and done.

Also on the card is the WBO flyweight title fight between Fernando Montiel (22-0, 17 KOs) and Jose Lopez (24-6-1, 23 KOs) set for 12 rounds.

Prelim fights, which are subject to late changes, feature former Carson City amateur Dwayne Pope making his pro debut against a tough foe in Kelvi Davis, who is undefeated at 4-0 with 4 KOs. It's a tough spot for the local fighter in this scheduled 4-round junior welterweight fight. A win by Dwayne would be a big surprise, I must reluctantly add.

Two scheduled eight rounders, two six rounders and another four-rounder complete the card, which starts at 5:30 p.m.

HBO will telecast the main and semi-main and some prelim fights, depending on how long the top two fights last. The HBO telecast is live to most of the country and on tape delay in our area with a starting time of 11 p.m.

PREDICTIONS - It's hard to pick against Barrera in this spot and he should win by late TKO or decision. Sanchez is capable of winning and a decent bet at the price but I'll stick with Barrera and say he'll stop Sanchez in rounds 10 or 11 or 12.

In the semi-main, Letterlough is also capable of winning, but he must knockout Jirov to do so. The problem is, Letterlough doesn't take very well and even though he may pull the surprise victory out of the bag, I really don't see that happening. I will pick Jirov by knockout in rounds six or seven.

-- The fighters train in the Reno Hilton Sportsbook daily starting Wednesday with Sanchez training from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Barrera trains from 12:15 to 1 p.m. Jirov is up from 1 to 1:30 p.m. Letterlough trains from 1:30 to 2 p.m. Montiel trains from 2 to 2:30 and Lopez from 2:30 to 3 p.m.

Admission is free and workouts are open to the public.

-- Some quick endings for fights over the weekend ... We'll start with the main event on Friday's ESPN2 card.

Teddy Reid (20-4-1, 14 KOs) won the vacant USBA junior welterweight title by knocking Joe Hutchinson (22-4, 9 KOs) down twice in the opening round, the second knockdown ending the fight at the 2:22 mark of round one.

The semi-main saw Jimmy Lange (15-1-1, 13 KOs) dispose of stiff Sam Harvey (12-10, 6 KOs) at the 2:35 mark of round two of their junior middleweight fight in a complete joke-of-a-fight.

They showed three other fights on the live 2Y-hour telecast. This coming Friday, ESPN2 features a card promoted by Sugar Ray Leonard. The main event is for the NABF cruiserweight title and features O'Neil Bell (16-1, 15 KOs) taking on Art Williams (34-5-1, 24 KOs) in a scheduled 12-round fight.

Different starting time this week of 7 p.m., or after the baseball game ends.

-- Saturday night on Showtime, Sacramento's Juan Lazcano improved to 28-2-1 with 21 KOs when he stopped Mexico's Julio Alvarez (24-8-1, 18 KOs) at the 1:00-minute mark of round four of their title fight. Lazcano retained his NABF and IBA titles with the win.

Showtime had three fights on its telecast.

-- Sunday night on "Fight Time on FOX" the main event was heavyweights. Undefeated Fres Oquendo (21-0, 12 KOs) knocked out Obed Sullivan (39-8-2, 28 KOs) 38-seconds into round 11 of their NABF title fight.

If you blinked you missed the semi-main as Chester "Hurricane" Hughes, from Houston, improved to 12-1 with 9 KOs when he flattened Las Vegas fighter Ray Sefo (5-1, 4 KOs) just 44-seconds into round one of their heavyweight fight. They also showed a women's fight that had Olga Vlasova, originally from Siberia, Russia but now living and fighting out of Las Vegas, win a four-round unanimous decision over Florida's Jodi Kombrinck, now 2-2 with 2 KOs. Vlasova is now 2-0 with 1 KO.

-- Another change for promoter Cedric Kushner. Last week we told you he moved his Nov. 30 fight card from the Paris hotel in Las Vegas to the Reno Hilton.

Kushner, the promoter who lost Hasim Rahman to Don King after Rahman knocked out Lennox Lewis, has now moved his Oct. 13 fight card from the Paris Hotel to Caesars Tahoe in Stateline.

The main event on the Caesars Tahoe card has Talmadge Griffis (19-1, 13 KOs) from Colorado Springs fighting Cincinnati's Dale Crowe (21-4-1, 13 KOs) in a 10-round heavyweight fight that might have had some interest to Vegas fans but is of little interest to local fans.

-- It's official ... Don King Productions has requested and will receive the date of Nov. 17 for the heavyweight title fight between Rahman and Lewis at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. They fight for the WBC and IBF titles.

Since King controls the WBA title currently held by John Ruiz and since King also controls Ruiz challenger Evander Holyfield, the "Only In America" man now, once again, controls the heavyweight division ... Ruiz and Holyfield are supposed to fight in China on Nov. 3, but don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

Alan Rogers is the Nevada Appeal boxing writer.