By Cliff Rold
MORE LIVE RESULTS TO COME.............
Local welterweight Mike Reed got the ovation of the night on the untelevised undercard, proving the value of a man who can sell tickets near a venue.
The 24-year old Reed (22-0, 12 KO), 141 ¼, of Waldorf, Maryland, gave his cheering section what they came to see, boxing off the back foot and countering 31-year old Reyes Sanchez (26-10-2, 15 KO), 141 ¼, of Mexico City, Mexico, for most of ten steady if not necessarily thrilling rounds.
Sanchez brought the fight to Reed but could rarely put together a combination. The judges scores were a reasonable 99-91 across the board. The referee was Harvey Dock.
27-year old super middleweight Jessie Hart (22-0, 18 KO), 168, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, took another step towards a title shot with a fifth round stoppage of 25-year old Alan Campa (16-3, 11 KO), 165 ½, of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.
Campa started off giving Hart some good looks, pressing and getting to the body. It didn’t take long for the 6’3 Philadelphian to take over and begin to erode his man. A right uppercut in the fifth had Campa in tremendous trouble and, before Hart could pile up the punishment, the towel flew in from Campa’s corner. Referee Brent Bovell signaled the end at 1:44 of round five.
Hart entered the contest rated #4 at 168 lbs. by the IBF. The current IBF titlist is 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist James DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KO) of the UK.
In eight round lightweight action, 22-year old Patrick Harris (11-0, 7 KO), 136, of Hyattsville, Maryland, got to show off his ample body attack and stinging southpaw left plenty, winning a unanimous decision at shutout scores of 80-72 across the board. It was a fight that felt longer than its rounds with 33-year old Omar Garcia (6-7, 1 KO), 136 ½, of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, deciding early on to offer little more than token offense while aiming to hear the finishing bell. It was Garcia’s fourth loss in a row. The referee was Bill Clancy.
The non-televised undercard began in the welterweight division.
28-year old Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas (16-0, 13 KO), 148 ½, of Oxnard, California, dropped 27-year old Ramses Agaton (18-6-3, 10 KO), 147, of Mexico City, Mexico twice in round three and once in the fourth en route to a fourth round stoppage win. The pair of knockdowns in round three came with Kavaliauskas stunning Agaton and then driving him down with a barrage of offense. In the fourth, it was a single right hand that sent Agaton hard to the floor. Referee Brent Bovell counted him out at 2:58 of round four.
Kavaliauskas had been setting up the shot all night. “I kept looking to get that straight right hand in. It was really solid. It felt great.” The loss was Agaton’s fifth, second by stoppage, in his last seven fights. All of those losses have come to undefeated fighters.
The card was televised in the US on HBO as part of the World Championship Boxing series, promoted by Top Rank.
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
