Boxing
St. Patrick's fight card at the Roxy: McBride defends title

18.03 - It was not the artistic success that Kevin McBride may have wanted but Monday night's victory over Brockton's Najee Shaheed enabled the heavyweight to do two things, defend his IBC American heavyweight title and look forward to the future knowing a step up in competition lies ahead.

McBride was able to defend his title when Shaheed did not answer the bell at the start of round eight in the main event in the Mohegan Sun Fight Night Series produced by Cappiello Promotions of Brockton at the Roxy on Monday night.

McBride was methodical at the beginning of the fight but began to show signs he was ready to take over the fight in the fourth round when he landed three solid blows. It was more of the same in the fifth round and McBride had Shaheed on the ropes at the end of the sixth round. Shaheed, who hurt his hand earlier in the fight knew if he was going to be successful, he needed to end the fight quickly. He began the seventh with three blows to McBride's face but the IBC champion was unfazed and McBride made a strong comeback, ending the round with a flurry of his own. It was at this point that Shaheed realized the fight had to be stopped.

"I tried to work through (the injury) but he just kept coming at me," said Shaheed. "He was just a better fighter."

McBride, although happy with the win, knows he waited too long before finding his groove.

"I should have stepped it up quicker," said McBride who trains under the watchful eye of Good Petronelli. "I have to get quicker with my hands. Najee moved around a lot in the ring but in the end, he could run but he could not hide."

McBride is hoping his first defense of his IBC Americas belt will lead to an upgrade in opponents. He is hoping to land in the top 20 heavyweights in any of the three divisions because of the win over Shaheed.

"I want a crack at one of the big guys," said McBride. "I know I have to take it one step at a time but I want to fight someone who is an established boxer so I show people what I really have."

The most controversial decision of the came in the battle for the Massachusetts Junior welterweight title, otherwise known as the battle of South Boston as Kevin Watts escaped with an eighth round knockout of fellow South Boston native Jimmy LeBlanc.

The fight was stopped 16 seconds into the eighth round when Watts hit LeBlanc with a shot to the head that opened a cut over LeBlanc's right eye that could not be stitched. LeBlanc claimed the "shot" was actually a head butt but could not convince the referee. At the time, LeBlanc was ahead on two judges' scorecards 68-64 and was tied on the third, 66-66.

Ian Gardner of Brockton was impressive in his third round knockout of Joe Lorenzi of Minnesota. Gardner improved to 9-1 after he sent Lorenzi to the canvas twice in the second round before ending the fight for good in the third round with a right to the midsection.

William Gibbs of Brockton had a difficult time dealing with the lefthanded offerings of Dave Hadden for five rounds but his confusion disappeared in the sixth round as Gibbs hit Hadden with a right-left combination that ended the fight at 2:55 of the sixth round.

Two other Brockton-area fighters were not as successful. Former Pembroke resident Eddie McAloney lost an unanimous six-round decision to Martin Moore of Ireland. McAloney was never in the contest in losing to Moore for the second time in his career.

Brockton heavyweight Dan Veskovic was entertaining for the capacity crowd at the Roxy but was no match for James Clancy of Brookline via Ireland. Clancy won in a second round knockout.

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