By Thomas Gerbasi

Barclays Center, Brooklyn - The final bout of the evening saw Ireland native Noel Murphy move to 2-0 as a pro with a fourth-round knockout of Michael Black in a sloppy welterweight matchup.

Murphy dropped Hudson, New York’s Black (0-2) once in the third and twice in the fourth. The time of the stoppage was 2:12.

In the first of two walkout bouts, popular Brooklyn heavyweight Adam Kownacki had a raucous cheering section on hand to push him to the first decision win of his career, a dominant eight-round unanimous nod over Ecuador’s Ytalo Perea.

There were no knockdowns in the bout, which was won by Kownacki (10-0, 9 KOs) via scores of 80-72 and 79-73 twice. Perea falls to 6-2-1 with 4 KOs.

2012 United States Olympian Marcus Browne remained unbeaten in light heavyweight action, taking a clear-cut unanimous decision win over Houston veteran Cornelius White.

Scores were 98-92 and 99-91 twice for Staten Island's Browne, now 15-0 with 11 KOs; White, most recently remembered for a 2013 loss to Sergey Kovalev, falls to 21-4 with 16 KOs.

In control from the start, Browne would turn up the heat at times in an attempt to get White - who was fighting for the first time since a 2014 loss to Thomas Williams Jr. - out of there, but the resilient Texan wouldn't go, aided by a couple breaks due to a low blow and a hit on the break by Browne.

The New Yorker wasn't threatened seriously though, only getting rattled briefly by White in the ninth round before shaking off the shot immediately and riding out the lopsided win.

You might have expected that an unbeaten cruiserweight from the Bronx by way of Puerto Rico would have won over the Barclays Center crowd from the opening bell, but instead it was Wichita journeyman Leo Pla who had the fans behind him throughout his eight rounder with Keith Tapia until Tapia ended the bout emphatically in the final round with two vicious left hooks.

Up until the finish, Pla impressed with his toughness and willingness to walk through fire against the fast-handed Tapia, who was clearly in the lead throughout, but the Puerto Rican didn’t let Pla finish on his feet, with the end coming at 2:42 of the eighth. After a brief stay on the canvas, Pla left the ring on his own power.

With the win, Tapia moves to 15-0 with 10 KOs; Pla falls to 5-5 with 2 KOs.

Heather Hardy just doesn't get tired. And while she can get sloppy and take too many flush punches, when the popular Brooklyn featherweight gets in an opponent's face and keeps throwing, it's hard to beat her, and that was the case against Noemi Bosques, as she pounded out an eight-round split decision victory.

Hardy started out fast and just kept going throughout, delivering punches and punches against a foe in Florida’s Bosques who was willing to stand in the pocket with her, even though that wasn't the best strategy for victory. What did work for Bosques was using her movement and potshotting Hardy during her defensive lapses, but those attacks came too sporadically to make a difference on the scorecards, which read 77-75, 79-73 and 75-77 for “The Heat,” now 13-0 with 2 KOs. Boesques falls to 8-3-2 with 2 KOs.

Brooklyn’s Wesley Ferrer got a tough go from Jose Miguel Castro in their featherweight bout, with Ferrer rising from the deck to get a hard-earned six-round majority decision win.

Scores were 58-54, 57-55 and 56-56 for Ferrer, now 9-0 with 5 KOs; Castro falls to 4-4 with 2 KOs.

Ferrer looked like he was on his way to an early night, as he dropped Castro in the first round, but the Carolina, Puerto Rico product bounced up and got back into the fray. Things didn’t improve for him on the scorecards for a while, as Ferrer’s patient attack to the body and head piled up the points, but in the fifth, Castro dropped the unbeaten Brooklynite, changing the complexion of the bout for the moment. Ferrer showed some impressive poise in the final frame though, wrapping up the bout with a strong finish.

With zebra print trunks and neon green shoes, debuting featherweight Chris Colbert was flashy enough with his attire, but the Brooklynite brought the excitement with his fists as well, stopping Newark, New Jersey’s Marquis Pierce (1-6) in the second round. After scoring a first-round knockdown, Colbert finished the job in round two with a straight right bringing in referee Arthur Mercante Jr. to halt the bout at 1:31 of the frame.

In the lightweight opener at Barclays Center, Miami’s Luis Franco improved to 13-1-1 (9 KOs) with a fifth-round stoppage of Buffalo journeyman Guillermo Sanchez (15-16-1, 6 KOs). The end came at the 1:51 mark.