By Mike Sloan ringside in Las Vegas:
ESPN’s Friday Night Fights series returned toSinCity, this time off the Strip inside the Texas Station casino. The card overall was solid, with Isaac Chilemba leading the way with a moderately surprising decision victory over the popular and always dangerous Edison Miranda. Chilemba utilized deft boxing skills and sneaky counters to keep “Pantera” at bay throughout and coasted to a near lopsided win, thanks in most part to a nasty cut on Miranda’s left eye.
Miranda tried to land his vaunted punches throughout the contest, but with his vision impaired and fighting against a constantly moving target, the duel against Chilemba was much harder than anticipated. Chilemba (19-1-1, 9KOs) peppered the hard-charging Miranda with stiff jabs and slick hooks on the inside en route to the victory via tallies of 97-91 and 96-92 (twice). Miranda’s laceration came in the third courtesy of an accidental clash of heads and as his vision worsened, Chilemba opened his attacks more and more. Chilemba landed a series of hard right hands in the seventh, the only round where Miranda (35-7, 30KOs) found himself in real peril. Both fighters had points taken away in the fifth for repeated punches to the back of the head.
In the opening bout of the telecast, unbeaten lightweight prospect Rances Barthelemy dominated highly-touted prospect Hylon Williams Jr., who also entered the ring without a loss. Barthelemy, a former Cuban amateur champion, seized control and took apart the American piece by piece; his size, length and speed were simply far too much for Williams to handle. Barthelemy (15-0, 11KOs) coasted to the victory with scores of 79-73 (twice) and 80-72. Williams fell to 15-1 with 3KOs.
In heavyweight action, Russian prospect Magomed Abdusalamov tore apart the grossly overweight Pedro Rodriguez and stopped him in the second. An onslaught of punches that were largely blocked after a left hand hurt Rodriguez sealed the deal. Rodriguez was trapped along the ropes and eventually fell to his knees, just as referee Russell Mora rushed in and stopped it. The official time of the blowout came at 1:04 of the stanza to allow Abdusalamov to improve to 13-0 with 13KOs. Rodriguez dropped to 8-1.
Local junior welterweight Jesus Gutierrez toppled Cameron Kreal via four round unanimous decision. The scores were 40-36 and 39-37 (twice) in favor of Gutierrez, who bolstered his pro ledger to 2-0. Kreal dipped to 0-1-2.
And finally, super middleweight Roberto Acevedo (3-0, 2KOs) stopped Velvet Malone at 1:44 of the fourth round. Acevedo swarmed Malone after he hurt him a minute into the round and teed off until it was stopped. Malone fell to 0-4.
You can also contact Mike Sloan at www.facebook.com/mikesloan19 or follow him on Twitter @mikesloan19
msloan@sherdog.com
