It was a solid night of boxing at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center Saturday night. A crowd of several hundred, which included champs Lamont Peterson and Adrien Broner, were treated to a roster of up-and-comers looking to make a statement. Even Virginia’s governor, Terri McAuliffe, seemed to be having a good time as the fights progressed.
Some hard-and-fast action was seen in the featured bouts of the night, which began with Demond Nicholson’s one round destruction of Jose Valderrama. Despite chants of “Puerto Rico” from some in the crowd, Valderrama found himself quickly out of his depth as a left hook floored him for good at a minute and forty-six seconds.
Next up came rising talent Mykal Fox (8-0, 2KOs) from Forestville, Md., who found himself in a real test against Brazilian Claudinei Lacerda. Both fighters started pensive and tense, trying to find openings on the other. Midway into the first round, Fox seemed to drop Lacerda with a straight, but referee Brent Bovell saw it as a slip. From there, Lacerda swung looping hard shots that mostly missed the mark while Fox kept pumping his right into Lacerda’s face.
During the fight, Lacerda managed several solid left hooks behind Fox’s ear, but it did little to stop his advance. Fox showed all the focus of a prospect on the move. Round three proved more of the same as Fox first forced Lacerda to chase him, then unloaded on him as he leapt in again and again. In round four, Fox kept unloading while Lecerda kept grinning defiance, and so it unraveled into a flat-out brawl as the round progressed. Lacerda proved very durable, and managed to go the distance despite a very determined effort from Fox. The final judge’s scorecards were 59-55 once and 60-54 twice in Fox’s favor.
Finally, came the headliner and local favorite Ty Barnett (22-4-1, 14KOs) against the durable veteran Daniel “The Prophet” Attah. Like the Fox fight, the first round was rather pensive. Unlike the Fox fight, Attah was less willing to engage as Lacerda had done. Thankfully, by round four, Barnett was unloading on Attah and forcing him to fight back.
Attah managed to land some left hands as they traded, but it was Attah who took the heavier damage with each exchange. By round five, Attah was lunging for body shots, and Barnett was happy to counter on almost every occasion. In round six, Barnett finally caught his man against the ropes with a series of looping shots that had Attah sliding from the ropes to the canvas. Not willing to let his quarry go, Barnett went on full assault as the two traded furiously around the ring. By the final round, both fighters seemed spent, but Barnett kept landing the cleaner shots until Attah was knocked down twice and referee Joseph Cooper was forced to wave it off just seconds before the final bell.
All in all, it was great second-tier fight card fit for a king…or at least a governor.
Results for the rest of the card:
Antonio Magruder UD Terrell James
Jordan Shimmell DQ4 Willis Lockett
Patrick Harris KO1 Christopher Russell
Luther Smith TKO2 Charlemagne Jones
Wesley Triplett SD Alando Pugh