Chris "The Hitman" Avalos Ready for Drian Francisco on ESPN Friday Night Fights
By Carlos Costa
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 09 Jul 2013
Super bantamweight rising star Chris "Hitman" Avalos (21-2, 16 KOs) of Lancaster, California, is set to battle tough Filipino Drian Francisco (24-1-1, 19 KOs) in the 10-rounder non-title main event of this Friday's "ESPN Friday Night Fights" at Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas, where the young Mexican-American should be the crowd favorite.
Seven years younger than his opponent, the 23 year-old Chris Avalos has been preparing since May under the guidance of his father and trainer Felipe Avalos with valuable training out at the popular Oxnard Gym of Trainer of the Year Robert Garcia.
Instructions from the talented trainer Robert Garcia have been extremely useful to the world-rated Chris Avalos, as well as his sparring sessions with Russian IBF Featherweight World Champion Evgeny Gradovich (16-0, 8 KOs).
The promising "Hitman" Avalos, currently rated WBO #5 WBA #11, aims at scoring an exciting win for the large ESPN audience to advance his standing in the talent-rich 122 pound division, the competitive weight class where the unified WBO/WBA king is Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KOs).
Top photo: Chris Avalos (R) poses with trainer Robert Garcia.
Chris Avalos.
FNF Avalos-Francisco ticker.
Likewise, Drian Francisco, who has been somewhat bothered by a contractual disagreement related to his split from his former promoter, needs a huge victory to reassert relevance in the super bantamweight division and improve his position in the world ranking.
The 30 year-old Francisco - currently WBA #9, IBF #9, WBO # 9 - has been training at Fortune Gym, a 1950's style boxing gym in the heart of Hollywood run by former Australian heavyweight fighter Justin Fortune.
In the exciting co-main event, "The Jersey Boy" Glen Tapia (18-0, 10 KOs) of Passaic, NJ and tough 28-year-old Abraham (19-0, 12 KOs) of El Paso, Texas, will exchange huge bombs in a 10-rounder non title jr. middleweight clash.
The fight event at Texas Station Casino is a promotion of Top Rank aired live on ESPN 2 on Friday at 10pm ET in the United States (Saturday July 13 at 10am in the Philippines).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Carlos Costa.
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