NEW YORK – Lani Daniels ended a two-fight losing streak with the biggest win of her career Friday, stopping Shadasia Green in the ninth round to win the IBF and WBO super middleweight titles at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Daniels, 12-4-2 (1 KO), scored her first win outside of her native New Zealand, making her a three-division champion, after she previously reigned as an IBF titleholder at both light heavyweight and heavyweight.
Green, now 16-2 (11 KOs), of Paterson, New Jersey, lost for just the second time as a pro, following three straight wins. She was removed from the ring on a stretcher, but according to an update on the ESPN broadcast, Green was breathing, conscious and speaking.
The 10-round fight was the co-main event in Most Valuable Promotions’ first US card, part of its new ESPN broadcast deal.
From the opening round, it was clear this fight was going to be an entertaining one.
Both Green and Daniels landed big rights early on, with Daniels punctuating the round with a right hand at the bell. Daniels started the second strongly by forcing Green to the ropes and landing with both hands. Green closed the round with right hands of her own, then controlled the third by getting space to land her rights.
The fourth and fifth rounds had similar patterns, as Green used her superior jab to get the advantage early before Daniels’ sheer pressure allowed her to land rights as Green backed straight out of exchanges and put herself on the ropes. Although the first five rounds were essentially toss-ups, Daniels assumed control of the fight in the sixth and seventh, as her subtle movement in close enabled her to get superior punching angles on Green, turning her repeatedly and poking holes in Green’s defense to land clean shots with the right.
Daniels’ dominance continued in the eighth round as Green’s jab disappeared, enabling Daniels to walk her down and dominate from bell to bell. Referee Eric Dali escorted Green to her corner at the end of the round, a visual confirmation of the direction the fight was taking. Daniels picked up on the desperation Green was in and pressed the action, opening the ninth with a nonstop assault that Green never answered, prompting the ref to halt the bout at the 32-second mark.
Daniels, 37, of Pipiwai, New Zealand, was coming off consecutive unanimous decision losses to Claressa Shields and Sarah Scheurich.
Earlier on the card, Krystal Rosado, a bantamweight prospect from Puerto Rico, scored her second straight win after her first career defeat, inflicting the first loss on Fernanda Reyes’ record with a unanimous decision by scores of 80-72, 78-74 and 79-73.
Rosado, 8-1 (2 KOs), used sharp counterpunching and movement to offset the aggression of the now 8-1 Reyes, who was fighting for the first time outside of her native Mexico.
Kicking off the televised portion of the card, Natalie Dove was pushed to the limit in her first eight-round bout, barely scraping by former title challenger Maria Micheo by split decision to remain undefeated. One judge had it 77-75 for Guatemala’s Micheo, 14-7 (8 KOs), while the other two had it the same score for Dove, 8-0-1 (2 KOs), of Philadelphia.
Micheo, who is 16 years her opponent’s senior at 40, used her quicker hands to overwhelm Dove in the final two rounds, while the longer Dove had the advantage early on by establishing her range and landing with her jab and right hand.
On the undercard, Jahmal Harvey, 3-0 (2 KOs), remained undefeated in his early career, scoring a fifth-round stoppage of Daniel Lugo in their six-round lightweight fight. Harvey, a 2024 U.S. Olympian from Oxon Hill, Maryland, dropped Lugo, 6-5 (2 KOs), of Tucson, Arizona, prompting an immediate stoppage at the 1:32 mark. Harvey, 23, was fighting for the third time in a six-rounder, having skipped the four-round level.
Raquel Miller, 14-0 (6 KOs), ended a three-year layoff by getting off the canvas to defeat Brazil’s Adriana Dos Santos Araujo, 6-4 (1 KO), in a six-round unanimous decision in a super middleweight fight. The scores were 57-56 on two cards and 58-55 on the third.
Elon Dejesus, 12-1-2 (8 KOs), of Orlando, Florida, scored his seventh straight victory, defeating England's Connor Adaway, 10-3-1 (4 KOs), by unanimous decision. The scores were 78-73 on two cards and 80-71 on the third.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
