By Thomas Gerbasi
BROOKLYN - British welterweight contender Amir Khan kept his hopes of a fight with Floyd Mayweather alive Friday night at Barclays Center, but he had to hold off the charge of a fired-up Chris Algieri to do it, taking a unanimous decision that some ringside observers believed could have gone the other way.
Scores were 115-113 and 117-111 twice in a fight that was a lot closer than the latter two scores would indicate, with Algieri putting together a stellar effort in his first bout since a lopsided loss to Manny Pacquiao last November.
There was plenty of solid action in the opening frame, though it was surprising to see Algieri – who was in his first fight with new trainer John David Jackson - try to take the fight to Khan at close range, given his height and reach advantages. This sat just fine with Khan, and though Algieri may have landed the best punch of the round when he scored with a hard right, it was Khan who delivered the combinations back that showed the Brit to be unbothered by the blow.
The stalking Algieri continued to have success against Khan in the second, with the Bolton native’s work rate steadily dropping as the round progressed, and while the New Yorker kept impressing in the third, Khan was getting in more than his share of shots, with a couple of the head-snapping variety drawing a roar from the crowd.
The fourth was all Algieri, with several hard shots tagging Khan, who was increasingly doing more moving than sticking. Khan settled down in rounds five and six, tagging Algieri with several hard blows, and in the seventh he began potshotting the Long Islander and even had success at close quarters against the ropes as Algieri’s workrate slipped.
Algieri got Khan’s attention early in round eight with a flush right hand that sent sweat flying into the crowd, but the Brit took it well, and the rest of the frame was tough to call, with both fighters getting in their share of hard blows. The ninth was close as well, Algieri being busier but Khan rallying down the stretch.
Khan had an impressive tenth round, drilling Algieri, whose left eye was closing, with flush shots both at long range and in the trenches, but the gritty New Yorker wasn’t giving in, as he put together a solid final two rounds that left Khan knowing that he was in a fight.
With the win, Khan improves to 31-3 with 19 KOs; Algieri falls to 20-2 with 8 KOs.
ON THE UNDERCARD
The Dominican Republic’s Javier Fortuna became a world champion for a second time in the co-main event, winning a 12-round unanimous decision over Bryan Vasquez to earn the vacant WBA junior lightweight title.
Scores were 116-112 and 117-111 twice for the 25-year-old Fortuna, who briefly held the interim WBA featherweight crown in 2012-13 before losing the belt on the scales before a bout against Miguel Zamudio.
In pre-fight interviews, both 130-pounders promised a bout to remember, and they did the best to live up to those words as soon as the action commenced, thrilling the crowd with several heated and even exchanges, with Fortuna eventually pulling ahead late in the opening round.
The exchanges were less frenetic in the second, but once each fighter got in a telling blow, they proceeded to showboat and call for more. The third and fourth rounds saw the pace pick up once more, and they were almost carbon copies of the opening frame, with solid back-and-forth action followed by strong finishes from Fortuna.
By the fifth, Fortuna was loose and beginning to impose his will more on Vasquez, who got a tongue-lashing from his corner after the round, and the Costa Rican fighter responded with a solid sixth frame where he nullified some of Fortuna’s attacks by making it ugly on the inside.
As the fight entered its second half, Fortuna appeared to be slowing down a bit as Vasquez did good work when pinning his foe to the ropes, but in the final minute, the La Romana native turned it up a notch with several effective flurries, and the pattern continued in round eight.
The diminished pace of the ninth round seemed to favor Fortuna, though some late flurries from Vasquez may have allowed him to steal the frame. Fortuna closed out the fight by taking the last three rounds though, making sure that his opponent’s success would be short-lived and non-fight altering.
With the win, Fortuna improves to 28-0-1 with 20 KOs; Vasquez, who saw a five-fight winning streak snapped, falls to 34-2 with 18 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.