By Jeff Sorby: Using his 5’11” height, WBA lightweight champion Richar Abril (18-3-1, 8 KO’s) defeated Sharif Bogere (23-1, 15 KO’s) on Saturday night by a 12 round unanimous decision in a physical at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
At times, the fight looked more like an MMA type of fight than actual boxing match, as Bogere often charged forward with his head lowered like a little ram. Abril was cut over his right eye, as well as his left from impacts from Bogere’s head.
The judges’ scored the fight 115-111, 116-110, 116-110.
By Jeff Sorby: Unbeaten Evgeny Gradovich (16-0, 8 KO’s) unseated IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib (35-2, 21 KO’s) on Friday night in beating him by a 12 round split decision on Friday Night Fights at the Foxwoods Resort, in Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA.
The judges had it scored 114-112 and 114-112 for Gradovich, and 114-112 for Dib. Gradovich took the action to Dib, backing him up constantly throughout the fight, and hitting him nonstop. The fight likely would have been a lot more one-sided than it already was had the referee not broken up the action quite so often.
It was like watching a replay of the Marcos Maidana vs. Amir Khan fight where the referee kept pulling Maidana off Khan while he was trying to finish off Khan on the inside.
Top Welterweight Prospect, Dusty Hernandez-Harrison of Washington, D.C., kept his undefeated record intact scoring a six-round unanimous decision win over cagey veteran Aaron “Showtime” Anderson in the co-main event Saturday at Resorts Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.
Hernandez-Harrison is a fan favorite in the Tunica region since making his pro debut in 2011 at the age of 17. The crowd was cheering wildly throughout the bout as the 18-year old fighter controlled the action with his superior hand speed, boxing ability and defense. In the sixth and final round, the sold out crowd was on their feet when Hernandez-Harrison appeared on the verge of stopping the wily 21-fight veteran. With the dominating 60-54 shutout victory, Hernandez-Harrison improves his record to 13-0, with 8 KOs.
By Jeff Sorby: Former 2000 Olympic gold medalist Audley Harrison (31-6, 22 KO’s) found the fountain of youth tonight in winning the heavyweight Prizefighter tournament by stopping American Derric Rossy (27-6, 14 KO’s) in the 2nd round at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London, United Kingdom.
Harrison stopped Rossy in the 2nd round after drilling him with a left hand that put him down in a delayed reaction. Rossy was also dropped in the 1st round by a left hand from Harrison. Before making it to the finals, Rossy had beaten Ian Lewison and Travis Walker by close three round decisions by landing shots and then smothering them so that they couldn’t get their own shots off. But against Harrison, Rossy was out of his element due to Harrison’s accurate left hand punching.
He wasn’t bothered by Rossy’s head movement, crouching style or his attempts to come forward to clinch and throw punches. Harrison was able to catch Rossy over and over again with lefts when he would try to initiate.
In Harrison’s other two fights in the tourney, he stopped Claus Bertino in the 1st with a hard left hand, and he beat Martin Rogan by a lopsided three round decision.
By Kevin Chittenden: British heavyweight David Price’s once promising career is in tatters tonight after he was stopped in the 2nd round by 41-year-old Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) in Liverpool, England.
This was a fight that the 6’8” Price was supposed to win with ease, but instead he ended up getting clipped by a right hand by Thompson and put down on the canvas in the 2nd round. Price got up but his legs failed him as he walked around on Bambi legs while the referee checked him over.
The referee stopped the fight without letting Price get a chance to see if he could survive the round. While some boxing fans might feel that Price deserved a chance, the truth it he wouldn’t have lasted more long with Thompson teeing off on him.
By Michael Collins: American heavyweight Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) ended the David Price (15-1, 13 KO’s) hype machine by taking him out in a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The win for Thompson affirmed in the minds of some fans that the 29-year-old Price simply doesn’t have the chin to succeed at the highest levels in the pro game.
Up until this fight, Price had been carefully matched by his promoter Frank Maloney against weak opposition without a punch. Even Thompson isn’t what you would call a puncher, but he definitely was a step up from the guys that Price had been fighting, and Price failed the test miserably.
By Bill Phanco: In an impressive performance, IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 18 KO’s) retained his IBF title on Friday night in stopping Kendall Holt (28-6, 16 KO’s) in the 8th round at the DC Armory, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
Referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight after Peterson unloaded with a storm of shots while Holt stood helpless against the ropes futilely trying to block the nonstop rain of shots. The official stoppage was at 1:42 of the round. Peterson put Holt down in the 4th and 6th rounds, and had him hurt in every round from the 4th on.
by Paul Strauss:: Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. Adrien “The Problem” Broner 26-0-0 (22 KOs) surprised no one by scoring a punishing win over the much smaller and out-gunned Gavin Rees 37-2-1 (18 KOs). Not many people gave Rees the proverbial “snowball’s chance in hell”. In fact, HBO’s Max Kellerman stated Rees was an 80 to 1 underdog. To Rees’ credit, though, he tried like hell to make a fight of it, but he just did not have the size, necessary skill or power to be a serious threat to Broner. Initially, Rees made a pest out of himself by shrinking his already short 5’4″ stature to about 3’6″, trying to get under Broner’s shots, so he could get close enough to land some of his own. He managed to get through with some pretty good left hooks to the body. He tried to follow those with clubbing rights to the side and top of Broner’s head, but the angle, due to Broner’s shoulder roll, proved to be a difficult one. Rees just couldn’t get any zip on those shots. Despite that, the referee warned him about the location of his punches?
The only redeeming factor in the bout was Rees’ display of heart and courage. Even though he was totally outsized and outclassed, he fought on hoping for a miracle. It was not to be. Broner did as expected. He started slowly, timing Rees, waiting for his countering opportunities. Early on Rees was able to block Broner’s check hooks, but before too long a couple got across. Those hard shots immediately made Rees less mobile. All of a sudden, his head became more stationary, and although he was bent over, his body was there to be hit as well.
By Bill Phanco: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) was just too strong for challenger Gavin Rees (37-2-1, 18 KO’s) tonight in beating Rees by a 5th round TKO victory at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Broner put Rees down twice, and stopped him shortly after dropping him with a left to the body in the 5th. Broner was hammering away on Rees after he got up, and this led to Rees’ trainer Gary Lockett throwing in the towel to stop the punishment.
The knockdown in the 5th came when the two fighters were in close, and Rees seemed to be confused, as if he thought the referee was going to break them because they had stopped punching. Broner used the opportunity to hit Rees with a crunching left to the body that put Rees down on the canvas.
By Jeff Sorby: After a shaky start in the first three rounds tonight, Carl Frampton (16-0, 11 KO’s) came on strong to dominate and stop EBU super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (27-4, 19 KO’s) by a 9th round TKO at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Martinez ran into a right hand from Frampton in the 9th that put him down. The fight was then halted after Martinez got back to his feet but was too hurt to continue. Frampton spent much of the fight moving around the ring, clinching, ducking below the waist, and trying to avoid the pressure from Martinez.