The evening of fights which aired on SHOWTIME® took place at UIC Pavilion and was co-promoted by DiBella Entertainment and Eight Count Productions.
Johnson (19-0, 14 KOs) of Houston, Texas, controlled the fight from round one remaining active and cutting off Edwards’ angles. Johnson pressed the pace and by the eighth round Edwards (25-1, 13 KOs) of Winston-Salem, N.C., was clearly running out of steam. Both fighters rallied for an exciting finish but Johnson was granted the unanimous decision with two of the judges scoring the fight 98-92 and a third seeing it 97-93..
George (20-0-1, 17 KOs) and Adama (17-2, 13 KOs) of Acra, Ghana, delivered the night’s most captivating performance. In front of his hometown crowd, George endured Adama’s rapid fire combinations through the fight’s early rounds before knocking down Adama in the seventh round on his way to a unanimous decision. After eight thrilling rounds the judges scored the bout 79-72, 76-75 and 77-74.
In the telecast’s opening bout, Rodriguez (14-0, 10 KOs) of Worcester, Mass., landed shots at will to the body and head of Engel (17-3, 14 KOs) of St. Louis, Mo., for five straight rounds. In the sixth round Rodriguez landed a paralyzing right to the body that sent Engel to the canvas unable to beat the count. Referee John O’Brien declared Rodriguez the winner by KO at 2:35 of the sixth round.
The fights will re-air as follows.
DAY CHANNEL
Monday, May 3, at 10 p.m. ET/PT SHO 2
Friday’s fights will be available ON DEMAND beginning on Wednesday, May 5.
Nick Charles called the action from ringside with Steve Farhood and Antonio Tarver serving as expert analysts. The executive producer of ShoBox is Gordon Hall with Richard Gaughan producing and Bob Dunphy directing.
For information on SHOWTIME Sports Programming, including exclusive behind-the-scenes video and photo galleries, complete telecast information and more, please go the SHOWTIME Sports website at http://www.sho.com/sports.
About ShoBox: The New Generation
Since its inception in July 2001, the critically acclaimed SHOWTIME boxing series, ShoBox: The New Generation has featured young talent matched tough. The ShoBox philosophy is to televise exciting, crowd-pleasing and competitive matches while providing a proving ground for willing prospects determined to fight for a world title. The growing list of fighters who have appeared on ShoBox and advanced to garner world titles includes: Leonard Dorin, Scott Harrison, Juan Diaz, Jeff Lacy, Ricky Hatton, Joan Guzman, Juan Urango, David Diaz, Robert Guerrero, Kelly Pavlik, Paul Malignaggi, Kendall Holt, Timothy Bradley, Bernard Dunne, Yonnhy Perez, Yuri Foreman and Andre Ward.
About Showtime Networks Inc.
Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ and FLIX®, as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME 2™, SHOWTIME® SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME®, SHOWTIME BEYOND®, SHOWTIME NEXT®, SHOWTIME WOMEN®, SHOWTIME FAMILY ZONE® and THE MOVIE CHANNEL® XTRA. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HD®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ HD, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND® and THE MOVIE CHANNEL® ON DEMAND. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution. All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME