By Cliff Rold

In a low contact engagement that brought out the boo birds in spots, 33-year old Jr. lightweight Edner Cherry (35-7-2, 19 KO), 131 ¾, of Wauchula, Florida, won a debatable and oddly wide unanimous ten-round decision over 28-year old Lydell Rhodes (23-2-1, 11 KO), 133, of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the main event Tuesday night at the Sands Bethlehem Events Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The referee was Gary Rosato. 

Cherry struggled with the approach of Rhodes throughout whose game plan was to limit Cherry’s opportunities while landing sneaky counters. The fight was largely fought at Rhodes’ pace but it was Cherry attempting the bigger shots on the heels of his own controversial loss last year to IBF titlist Jose Pedraza. Scores came in at 98-92 and 97-93 twice, keeping Cherry’s hopes for a Pedraza rematch alive.

In swing bout action, 23-year old bantamweight Antonio Russell (7-0, 5 KO), 117 ¼, of Washington, DC, won an easy decision over six rounds against 33-year old Rudolph Hedge (10-4-3, 4 KO), 119 ¼, of Kingston, Jamaica. There were no knockdowns in the bout though Russell appeared on the verge a few times as he dished out the punishment. Scores came in at 60-54 and 59-55 twice. The referee was Gary Rosato. Russell is the younger brother of current featherweight titlist Gary Russell Jr.

The televised opener saw a promising Jr. lightweight get some valuable, competitive rounds.

25-year old Omar Douglas (17-0, 12 KO), 128 ¼, of Wilmington, Delaware, slowly broke down and beat back a game 28-year old Cuban Alexei Collado (19-2, 17 KO) of Miami, Florida, for a seventh round stoppage. Under steady fire, a final left uppercut sent Collado to a knee. He never got up, referee Shawn Clark counting him out at 2:51 of round seven.

It was Douglas’s first knockout since April 2015 having gone ten full rounds in each of his last two outings. It was Collado’s first knockout loss.

The card was televised on FS1 as part of the Premiere Boxing Champions series.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com