By Keith Idec
Leduan Barthelemy beat the bravado out of Reynaldo Blanco on Tuesday night.
The Las Vegas-based Cuban southpaw stopped Blanco in the ninth round of a scheduled 10-round super featherweight fight in Nice, California. Barthelemy boxed well for much of the bout before dropping Blanco in the ninth round, when Blanco’s trainer threw in the towel at the Robinson Rancheria Resort & Casino.
The 27-year-old Barthelemy improved to 13-0 and recorded his seventh knockout. The 6-foot Barthelemy, unusually tall for the 130-pound division, is the younger brother of undefeated former IBF world lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy (25-0, 13 KOs, 1 NC).
The Dominican Republic’s Blanco was animated in most of the fight and never stopped trying to land bombs against a much better boxer, but it wasn’t enough to beat Barthelemy. The 29-year-old Blanco slipped to 14-4 (8 KOs).
The Barthelemy-Blanco bout was the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions “Toe-To-Toe Tuesdays” telecast on FS1.
A left hand by Barthelemy hurt Blanco with 2:11 to go in the ninth round. Barthelemy blasted Blanco with two right uppercuts a few seconds later and Blanco took a knee.
He continued to box for about 30 seconds after he got up, but his trainer had seen enough, stepped up on the ring apron and threw in the towel with 1:30 to go in the ninth round.
Blanco went down in a corner early in the eighth round, but referee Edward Collantes ruled that Barthelemy stepped on Blanco’s foot to send him to the canvas.
Barthelemy landed a short left hook near the end of a sixth round that had been competitive. Barthelemy boxed most of the fifth round from a distance that favored him and landed several solid left hands.
Blanco blasted Barthelemy with several punches in the final minute of the fourth round, including a left hook that started his flurry. Barthelemy felt those punches, but he got Blanco’s attention with a right hook of his own just before the end of the fourth round.
Barthelemy unloaded power punches on Blanco near a corner early in the third round. Blanco blocked many of those punches, though, waved Barthelemy forward and went on the offensive himself. Blanco landed a solid right hand with just over a minute to go in the third, but Barthelemy took it well.
In the co-featured fight Tuesday night, Kyrone Davis overcame a debatable point deduction during the seventh round to beat previously undefeated junior middleweight prospect Marcos Hernandez in a 10-round fight.
The 22-year-old Davis (12-1, 5 KOs), of Wilmington, Delaware, won the entertaining battle on the scorecards of judges Bruce Rasmussen (96-93) and Marshall Walker (96-33). The 23-year-old Hernandez (9-1, 2 KOs), of Fresno, California, won on judge Kermit Bayless’ scorecard thanks to the aforementioned point deduction (95-94).
Both boxers went 10 rounds for the first time in their respective careers.
Davis and Hernandez fought from close distances throughout the bout, which consistently featured Davis doing solid body work.
Hernandez appeared to stun Davis with a right hand in a corner early in the 10th round, but Davis continued to come forward. Later in the 10th, Hernandez landed a hard left hook that buzzed Davis in the center of the ring as well.
Referee Dan Stell strangely deducted a point from Davis in the seventh round for landing a hard body shot that dropped Hernandez to one knee. Davis’ left hand connected slightly below Hernandez’s belt, but the punch wasn’t excessively low and Stell hadn’t warned Davis about low blows before deducting that point.
Despite the point deduction, Davis’ activity and persistent pressure impressed two of the judges enough for him to win the fight.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
