By Keith Idec
NEWARK, N.J. – Vito Mielnicki Jr. made a spectacular professional boxing debut Saturday night.
The strongly supported, 17-year-old high school student knocked Tamarcus Smith unconscious barely a minute into their four-round welterweight fight. The highlight-reel knockout left Smith face-first on the canvas and sent a crowd full of Mielnicki’s supporters into a frenzy at Prudential Center.
A vicious left-right combination by Mielnicki sent Smith crashing to the canvas just over a minute into the first round. Referee Shada Murdaugh immediately stopped the fight, one minute and 16 seconds into it, on the Shakur Stevenson-Alberto Guevara undercard.
“That was crazy,” Mielnicki said. “I’m glad I made it happen like that. … I’m happy my opponent got out of the ring OK and that he’s safe.”
Smith, of Meridian, Mississippi, slipped to 2-3 (2 KOs) and suffered his second straight first-round knockout defeat. The 24-year-old Smith was able to leave the ring on his own.
The 5-feet-11 Mielnicki, of Roseland, New Jersey, won’t start his senior year at West Essex High School in northern New Jersey until later this summer.
He compiled a 147-22 amateur record, won numerous national tournaments and qualified for USA Boxing’s Junior National Team in 2018. After losing a split decision in Spain three months ago, Mielnicki and his father, promoter Vito Mielnicki Sr., became extremely frustrated by the amateur scoring system and decided the time was right to turn pro.
Mielnicki’s team sold more than 1,000 tickets to Saturday’s card.
He became the first New Jersey high school student since Mikey Perez in October 2008 to box professionally in the state of New Jersey. Perez, then an 18-year-old senior at Central High School in Newark, knocked out Leon Williams in the first round that night in Lyndhurst.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
