By Tom Donelson

 

In the last edition of ESPN's Friday Night Fights, two junior middleweight contenders were given a shot to showcase their talents before a large television audience.

Cornelius "K-9" Bundrage (25-2, 14KOs) looks like a typical European fighter, depending upon a left jab followed by a solid right hand from a stand up position. The Contender Series made K-9 a star with his compelling life story and of all the Contender fighters, he appeared to have the most upside. 

Going into the series, his biggest fight was a loss to Sechew Powell by way of a first round knockout. During the Contender, Bundrage won two close victories over Michael Clark and Walter Wright before losing a tough match to Steve Forbes.

He came back to knock out Norberto Bravo in the seventh round and established himself as a TV star. The Contender series builds not just interest in boxing, but creates new stars. The stars of Contender season one, Peter Manfredo, Jr. and Sergio Mora, are crowd pleasing fighters that have made names for themselves outside of the series.  The jury is still out on whether either of these fighters are actually championship material, but for the moment, they attract a lot of interest and sell plenty of tickets in arenas.

Bundrage is now hoping that lightening strikes for him with the same kind of luck that came to Manfredo and Mora. For his first post-Contender bout, he took on Chris “the Mechanic” Smith.  Once a leading contender himself, Smith was fighting just to keep his career alive. Smith's moniker of the “The Mechanic” came from his ability to fight on the inside and in Bundrage; he was fighting an an opponent who is excellent on the outside, but has limited skills when fighting inside.

Being the smaller fighter, Smith wanted the inside territory and for the first two rounds, but K-9 was able to pump his jab to keep Smith off-balance. Smith made some headway in the third round, but the fourth round was a repeat of the first two rounds.  Bundrage's jab and right hand kept the distance between and his opponent. 

In the fifth round, Smith's inside attack began to take it's toll as his body shots slowed Bundrage down as he began to close the distance. During the sixth, Smith’s attack nearly ended the fight as accurate punches sent Bundrage reeling to the rope.  Bundrage was nearly counted out, but he managed to survive the round.

There are times that a fighter needs to adjust to what is in front of him and Bundrage did just that. With fight looking pretty even, he began to move as he forced Smith to reach for him. Using an effective jab and countering with his right hand, Bundrage took the lead.  His mobility allowed him to survive and build up a lead on two of the judges’ scorecard, but the last round saw Smith returning to his sixth round form. 

With a minute left, Smith took advantage of K-9 keeping his hand down and again had Bundrage in trouble.

Bundrage showed one strength, the ability to adjust his game plan but he also showed his biggest weakness, his inability to fight on the inside. A fighter needs more than a jab or right hand to win.  Bundrage does not have the complete package yet. At 33, he doesn’t have enough time to change, or add new winkles to his current style.

In the co-feature, Seattle's Walter “2 Guns” Wright (13-2, 7 KOs), another alumni of "The Contender" series, looked to show off his boxing talents. Williams does have the talent, and is young enough at 25, to step up his game even further.  While he did lose two of his first fifteen, he has a wider variety of punches when comparing him to Bundrage.

Wright' punches are accurate and he has good boxing skills; skills he showed in spades against the undefeated Dan Wallace.  Wallace's strategy was to throw punches in bunches and hope that something hit the target.  While Wallace showed more activity, he rarely hit his opponent whereas Wright hit Wallace at will.

The difference in skill level was obvious as Wright rarely wasted punches, while Wallace was in front to be hit. A blind man could have seen a stoppage in Wallace's future, and that future became a reality when Wright stopped him in the eight round, cracking his undefeated 8-0 streak.  

Wright's biggest flaw is that he may not have the power to hurt the elite fighters, but he does have solid boxing skills that will serve him well as he moves up.

When Bundrage and Wright met on The Contender, Bundrage came out on top, but Wright still wants a rematch to gain his revenge.

"I want K9 again. 'The Contender' people say we are on the same team now. I don't care, promotional stablemates can fight each other," Wright said.