By Keith Idec
Antoine Douglas delivered Friday night.
The undefeated Douglas dropped Hungary’s Istvan Szili three times and produced a third-round technical knockout in the main event of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” quadrupleheader from Sands Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The 22-year-old Douglas improved to 18-0-1 and recorded his 12th knockout in a scheduled 10-rounder that cemented his transition from middleweight prospect to contender.
The previously unbeaten Szili slipped to 18-1-2 (8 KOs).
Douglas’ right hand sent Szili to the canvas for the first time right near the end of the second round Friday night. Szili answered referee Gary Rosato’s count and the bell sounded soon thereafter to end the second round.
Douglas didn’t waste any time pouncing on Szili once the third round started, though. The Burke, Virginia resident dropped his 32-year-old opponent with another short right hand very early in the third round. Szili again got up, but another Douglas right left him flat on his face and forced Rosato to wave an end to the bout 29 seconds into the third round.
Douglas’ dominant win came nearly a year after he fought to a 10-round majority draw with France’s Michel Soro (27-1-1, 17 KOs) in another “ShoBox” main event last July 25 in Verona, N.Y.
Prior to Douglas defeating Szili, Russian super middleweight Arif Magomedov remained unbeaten by scoring a unanimous-decision victory over previously undefeated Derrick Webster in a 10-round fight. The shorter, busier Magomedov (16-0, 9 KOs) was the aggressor throughout their fight, while Webster spent virtually all of it moving backward, without fully committing to his punches.
A right hand by Magomedov knocked down Webster (19-1, 10 KOs), of Glassboro, New Jersey, with less than 20 seconds left in the bout and punctuated his decisive victory. Magomedov was a winner by the same large margin, 99-89, on all three scorecards.
Before the Webster-Magomedov match, San Antonio super bantamweight Adam Lopez (13-0, 6 KOs) dropped the Dominican Republic’s Eliezer Aquino (17-1-1, 11 KOs) with a right hand in the first round and boxed effectively enough for the duration of their 10-rounder to win a majority decision.
Lopez, 24, had to respect the aggressive Aquino’s power throughout the bout, but displayed toughness and skill on his way to winning on the scorecards of judges David Braslow (96-93) and Kevin Morgan (96-93). The third judge, Steve Weisfeld, scored the closely contested bout even (95-95).
In the first fight Showtime televised Friday night, Samuel Clarkson (15-3, 9 KOs), a light heavyweight from Cedar Hill, Texas, dropped favored Jerry Odom three times and produced a third-round technical knockout upset in a fight scheduled for eight rounds.
Odom (13-2, 12 KOs, 1 NC), of Washington, D.C., suffered the first true defeat of a once-promising pro career that began in October 2012. The 22-year-old Odom’s lone previous loss was a disqualification defeat to Andrew Hernandez, whom Odom hit after the bell in the fourth round of a scheduled six-rounder Jan. 9 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Odom avenged that defeat by knocking out Phoenix’s Hernandez (9-1-1, 1 KO, 1 NC) in the first round March 13 in Westbury, N.Y.
He had no such success against the determined, 24-year-old Clarkson, who floored Odom once late in the second round and twice early in the third before referee Shawn Clark stopped their fight at 1:15 of the third round, with Odom still on his feet. Clark halted the action after Clarkson landed an array of power punches to Odom’s head. Much of Clarkson’s success was the product of his crushing right uppercuts, which he used to knock down Odom late in the second round and early in the third.
Odom has fought at or near the super middleweight throughout his career. Clarkson came in four pounds overweight on Thursday (172¼ pounds), but Odom fought him anyway.
Clarkson has now defeated Odom and light heavyweight contender Cedric Agnew (27-2, 14 KOs) in two of his three fights this year.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.