|
‘Bravo’ Brant Stops Fitzpatrick in Three, Continues March to Middleweight Title Shot
Current WBO NABO and WBA NABA Middleweight Champion and WBA #4- and WBO #7-rated middleweight Rob “Zoo ua” Brant (21-0, 14 Kos) of Saint Paul, Minnesota, kept his momentum plowing forward and continued to impress tonight with a one-sided beatdown of Chris “The Irish Ghost” Fitzpatrick (15-5, 6 Kos) ntawm Cleveland.
Fighting in the 10-round main event of CBS Sports Network Championship Boxing from the Grand Ballroom of the Pechanga Resort & Twv txiaj yuam pov nyob rau hauv Temecula, California, Brant had too many weapons for the game Fitzpatrick.
Cov kev tshwm sim, a televised quadrupleheader, was Presented by Greg Cohen Promotions in association with the International Championship Boxing League (ICBL), Ringside Ticket Inc., and David Schuster’s Winner Take All Productions.
Brant moved smoothly around the ring, landing at will. He dropped Fitzpatrick with an uppercut in round two (Fitzpatrick nearly fell out of the ring) and finished it with another knockdown at 1:18 ntawm puag ncig peb.
Typically candid, Brant said the game plan was to not let Fitzpatrick get a toe hold in the fight. “He’s the type of guy, if you let him hang in there, he’ll hang for a number of rounds,” said Brant, post-sib ntaus. “I wanted to make an example of him and make sure I put him down.”
The future looks bright for the red-hot Brant, who seems to tighten up his game with every performance. “Under the tutelage of Derrick James, I’ve learned to sit down on my punches and stay defensively sound at the same time,” he continued, “but now it’s time to step up the level of competition. As nice as it is to get these kinds of win, it’s a lot nicer to get them up a level.”
Nyob rau hauv lub co-ntsiab kev tshwm sim, Fort Worth, Texas, slugger “No Surrender” Skender Halili made quick work of Silver Springs, Maryland, veteran Ben Odamattey.
Halili, nrog ib cov ntaub ntawv ntawm 11-1, 11 Kos, caught Odamattey with his proven power early and it quickly became apparent he couldn’t handle it. Odamattey tried bravely to keep his feet under the hell fire. He rose from a knockdown but was quickly under siege again and with Odamattey’s legs betraying him, Referee Ray Corona waved it off at 1:17 ntawm cov thawj.
Odamattey slips to 16-15-3, 9 Kos. Halili, never in a bad fight, is becoming “must see TV” with his action-packed way of doing things.
Undefeated middleweight Cem “The Champ” Killic (6-0, 3 Kos) did what he was supposed to do in his tryout fight for GCP, by tearing through debuting Vegas fighter Jerhed Fenderson (0-1).
Fenderson looked to have some skills and fought evenly with Killic in the first round.
Txawm li cas los, Killic, of Frankfurt, Lub teb chaws yelemees, now residing in Sherman Oaks, California, took over in round two, clubbing a tiring Fenderson against the ropes with heavy shots until dropping him hard to get the stoppage.
Qhov kawg tuaj ntawm 1:50 ntawm round ob.
To start the televised bouts, Baltimore, Maryland welterweight Malik “Ice Man” Hawkins had to work all four rounds to move his record to 9-0, 7 KOs against a surprisingly determined Sean “The Beast of War” Gee (3-4) of Portland, Oregon.
Hawkins had too much speed and skill for the brawling Gee, but Gee kept it interesting with his wild swings and willingness to exchange. Hawkins’ brilliance carried the night though as he was given a unanimous decision (40-36 x 3).
In the night’s opening bout, Detroit’s Jarico “Great Lakes King” O’Quinn (3-0, 2 Kos) survived a scare from nearby Oceanside California’s Jonathon Quiroz (6-3, 1 KO) in their bantamweight four-rounder.
O’Quinn came out firing in the first, as expected, but Quiroz figured out how to time him with looping shots in the second. He rocked O’Quinn to his boots with a right but wasn’t able to finish.
O’Quinn did a little more in the final two rounds, but credit the California judges for not playing home favorites. The scores, met with booing, twb 39-37 thoob plaws lub Rooj Tswjhwm Saib.
“It was a good step up for me, being 2-0, fighting someone with nine fights,” said O’Quinn. “I learned that not everybody is going to lay down and that’s exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want a cake-walk.
What was supposed to be a routine dual-pro-debut for two unknowns quickly turned into an epic war for ages, raws li “Slick” Will Davis finally managed to stop a wild-swinging Erick Fowler in four rounds.
A classic “skill vs. yuav” match-up, Davis would land his sharp, educated combinations only to be answered every time by the clubbing shots of the iron-chinned Fowler.
With momentum swinging back-and-forth every few seconds, Davis dropped Fowler in the second. Fowler returned the favor in the third.
By the fourth round even the crowd was exhausted, as Davis landed a barrage of unanswered shots that finished things at the :39 seconds mark of round four.
Local super flyweight product Danny Andujo (1-0, 1 KO) turned professional with a quick stoppage of San Jose’s Israel Hernandez, tam sim no 1-3-1, 1 KO.
Andujo swarmed, landing hard shots against the outgunned Hernandez, who took the 10 count at :55 ntawm cov thawj puag ncig.
And finally, undefeated Temecula featherweight Robert Meza (3-0-0, 1 KO) cruised to a dominant four-round decision over brave, but crude Jose Fabian Naranjo (3-3-1, 1 KO)
of Baja California, Mexico.
Cov paj xyeem tau 40-36 x 3.
|
Vasyl Lomachenko (R) – 2017 Nplhaib 8 
