By Mark Vester
History was made at the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
Well, sort of.
Middleweight Tyrone Brunson (19-0, 19KOs) stopped Francis McKechnai (3-15, 3KOs) in only 72-seconds to break Edwin Valero's record for consecutive first-round knockouts.
Valero stopped his first 18 opponents in the first round, and as bad as some of them were, they don't even compare to the stiffs that grace the resume of Brunson. Unless some of the records are off, and I don't think they are, Brunson has only fought a single fighter with a winning record.
The real sham of the padded record was Brunson trip to New Zealand in 2007, where he fought two stiffs only "four days apart." On June 4, Brunson, then 16-0 with 16KOs, stopped Lee Hunter, who was making his "pro debut." Talk about a mismatch that would never get approved by a single athletic commission within the United States. A few days later, on June 8, he tied Valero's record by stopping Jamie Waru, who was 18-21.
Valero won the WBA super featherweight title by his 20th fight. There should be an asterisk near Brunson's name in the boxing record book.
In the main event, Raul Marquez (41-3, 29KOs) won a ten-round split-decision over Bronco McKart (51-9, 31KOs) in a battle of veteran, former junior middleweight champions. The scores were 97-93 Marquez, 96-94 Marquez, and 96-95 McKart.
Also on the undercard, former lightweight champion Stevie Johnston (42-5-1, 18KOs) won a ten-round decision over Dairo Esalas (30-12, 24KOs). Johnston gets one in the win column after suffering a shock loss to Rolando Reyes last October.
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