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Featherweight contender Monty Meza-Clay showed that bigger is not always better as the 5’2” dynamo overwhelmed 5’7” Erik Aiken via 7th round KO on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights. The first minute of the bout was a feeling out process with Clay trying to gauge Aiken. Once Monty had seen what he needed to see he began to come forward with excellent head movement, bobbing and weaving underneath Aiken’s jab’s. Meza-Clay fights kind of like a mini version of late 1970’s heavyweight champion Ken Norton, using subtle old-school defensive moves and well timed body assaults. BodogLife.com had Monty Meza Clay as a -165 boxing betting favorite.  Aiken tried to jab on the move but towards the end of the round Clay began to trap Aiken on the ropes and open up with combinations. In round 3 Clay started giving Aiken some real trouble with his smothering attack, switch hitting from southpaw to orthodox with some great angles. Aiken was taking a beating to the body as Meza-Clay would slip punches then unload a stream of punches downstairs before targeting Aiken’s available cap. Aiken showed little head movement and didn’t display any defense other than covering up when Clay cut off the ring. Aiken was trying to land his signature straight right hand, but with Clay making himself such a small target Aiken’s punches lacked any real pop.
Round 4 saw some good two-way action with Aiken finding a home on his shorter foe with some nice uppercuts. Meza-Clay made effective use of the jab to work his way inside and began to land some big shots off Aiken’s skull towards the end of the round. In round 5 both men were feeling the effects of a tough fight but Meza-Clay was the fresher fighter unloading explosive bursts at every opportunity. Aiken occasionally gained momentary separation and landed a single shot here and there but nothing significant. In round 6 Aiken seemed to be breaking down as he began to have no answer for Meza-Clay’s relentless pursuit. Meza-Clay is a fast twitch fighter and he always seemed to be a couple notches faster than Aiken. Monty really started to pour it on towards the end of the 6th round, pasting Erik with shots with the taller man’s back to the ropes. BodogLife.com had the Over\Under at 8.5 rounds with the OVER at -165 boxing betting odds. In the 7th Meza-Clay sensed weakness and jumped on Aiken immediately. With impressive killer instinct, Meza-Clay backed Aiken to the ropes and overwhelmed him with a barrage of looping shots that had plenty of velocity. Aiken meekly covered up submitting to the assault taking 36 unanswered punches before the referee waved off the bout after 4 particularly hard shots snapped Aiken’s head back. Official time was :39 seconds of the 7th round. The bout was Meza-Clay’s first as a featherweight after mostly campaigning as a lightweight and he looked impressive. Meza-Clay, 27-1, 18 KO’s, lone loss was to Edner Cherry but he looks like a much improved fighter since the loss. Aiken, 16-7-1, 12 KO’s is a decent fighter but against Meza-Clay he looked sluggish and his days of a contender appear to be over. EinsteinPicks's Brad Marchetti has connections in the boxing world. Ride the EinsteinPicks boxing money train that pays out in cold hard cash. Marchetti had a huge GUARANTEED winning play on the ESPN2 brawl between Monty Meza Clay vs Erik Aiken that earned his loyal clients boatloads of Ben Franklin's with his 100 unit maximum reccomendation on the UNDER 8.5 rounds.
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