It was a windy night at the Boulevard Pool at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, but the only thunder was coming from the combatants in the ring on Friday Night. As the sun set the temperature got colder, leaving much of the audience looking for any way to keep warm, but Carlos Molina didn’t let that deter him en route to a 7th round TKO victory over Allen Conyers.

Both fighters in the main event of ESPN 2’s Friday Night Fights recently had their best performances in their last fights, and with a win in this one, things were surely looking up. Conyers was coming off a dominating performance in a lopsided unanimous decision victory over previously undefeated James De la Rosa, while Molina earned a draw with red-hot prospect Erislandy Lara this March, also at The Cosmopolitan.

Only Molina’s success would continue, as he put on a dominating performance in dismantling the tough Conyers. Molina set the tone for the fight in the first round, by displaying accurate punching, rarely missing Conyers, who kept his hands low most of the match. With Conyers coming forward, Molina landed three straight left hooks in a matter of seconds, though it would be the right hand that caused Conyers that most problems as the fight went forward.

In the second round, Molina became even more of the aggressor. Conyers spent the majority of this round, and most of the remaining rounds of the fight, with his back on the ropes, more or less making him a sitting duck.

In the beginning of the third round, the fighters appeared to clash heads, with Conyers getting the worst of it. At first it appeared Conyers just had bruising, but by the end of the round he was bleeding. At the end of the round Molina landed a big right hand that that brought more blood from Conyers, which got caught up in the wind and landed on a member of press row at least 20 feet away.

Conyers’ eye was certainly bothering him, but nothing should be taken away from Molina’s performance, which was impressive the entire night. In the 4th, 5th, and 6th rounds, Molina continued his dominating ways, landing the right hand mostly at will. The fourth round did see Conyers score the very definition of a flash knockdown over Molina, but it did very little to deter Molina, perhaps making him angrier. In each of these rounds, Conyers’ activity lessened, while the blows he was receiving to his head grew. Referee Tony Weeks seemed to grow more and more concerned as the fight went on, while the doctor’s visits in Conyers corner became more frequent.

With just about one minute to go in the 7th round, Molina landed a big right hand that staggered Conyers across the ring. Before Conyers could regain his balance, Weeks had stepped in to stop the fight. With the victory, Molina improves his record to 18-4-2 (6 KO’s), while Conyers dropped to 12-5 (9 KO’s), losing his fourth fight within the distance.

With the victory Molina will continue to rise in the junior middleweight division. With the assistance of ESPN2 television, Molina could find himself in a big fight soon.
 

In the co-feature Hylon Williams Jr. completed his second fight since a year-plus layoff with an eight round unanimous decision over Marco Herrera. Herrera was game the entire fight, but the speed and defense of Williams was too much for him. Williams Jr. improved to 14-0 (3 KO’s) by scoring a 79-73, 79-73, and 77-75 unanimous decision over victory of Herrera, now 6-5-1 (2 KO’s).
 

In the final televised fight of the night, Cuban heavyweight prospect Glendy Hernandez defeated Canada’s Ken Frank, by four round unanimous decision. Hernandez landed most of the big shots in the fight, but Frank and his chin were never in serious trouble. Hernandez, who didn’t appear particularly happy with his performance after the fight, improved to 7-0 (3 KO’s) while Frank move to 4-2-1 (2 KO’s).

Off-TV Portion –

The main feature for the off-TV portion of the fights was Tim Coleman versus Sergio Rivera. Many pundits were surprised Coleman would take a tough fight like this with a welterweight title fight looming. Rivera was game, but Coleman’s speed and ability to land his right hand when he wanted to gave him the win in a fairly comfortable fashion. The final tally of the eight round fight was 80-72, 79-72, and 78-74. Coleman improved to 19-1-1 (5 KO’s) while Rivera, whose record is somewhat unclear, fell to a reported 16-7-2 (10 KO’s) according to the official bout sheet handed to press row, prior to the fight.

Cuban Super Featherweight Rances Barthelemy had the most impressive win of the night, stopping Las Vegas local Rynell Griffin in just two rounds. The stoppage came after Barthelemy threw a barrage of 20-30 unanswered punches, prompting the referee to save Griffin. Barthelemy, who seems ready for a bigger fight, moved to 12-0 (10 KO’s) while Griffin goes back to the drawing board after falling to 6-5-1 (2 KO’s).

Russian Featherweight Evgeny Gradovich improved to 10-0 with 7 KO’s with a six round unanimous decision over Aalan Martinez, who suffered his first career loss, dropping to 9-1-1 (5 KO’s), scores were 59-55 (twice), and 58-56.