Impressive in the desert: Jacobs stops Walton in eight

TUCSON – If you’re going to make your living as a New York middleweight fighting in the west, you’d better be special. Daniel “Golden Child” Jacobs indeed appears to be special.

Friday night at Desert Diamond Casino, Jacobs (17-0, 15 KOs) made the most impressive showing of his blossoming career as he stopped fellow New Yorker George Walton (20-4, 12 KOs) with a sustained assault that forced referee Bobby Ferrara’s hand at 1:59 of the eighth round.

After showing remarkable poise and relaxation during Walton’s early, forward-pressing assault, Jacobs settled into a right-uppercut clinic to which Walton just couldn’t adjust.

“His composure!” Walton said afterwards, when asked for what impressed him most about Jacobs.

Questioned about the origin of said composure, Jacobs bypassed intellect, conditioning and personality type, attributing his calm instead to “my swagger.”

Jacobs also spoke about Peter Manfredo, Jr. as a good future opponent.

Presiding at ringside, the Golden Boy, promoter Oscar De La Hoya, had this to say about the Golden Child’s showing: “I thought it was a beautiful performance.”

JERMELL CHARLO VS. FEDERICO FLORES
Light-hitting or otherwise, Jermell Charlo’s got class. Charlo (8-0, 4 KOs), a Houston junior middleweight, successfully passed the sternest test of his young career by repeatedly catching Michigan’s Federico Flores (6-3, 2 KOs) with right-hand counters, en route to a stoppage win at 0:42 of the eighth round.

Charlo began with electricity, and then continuously zapped the charging Flores while withstanding a number of hard left hooks to his body. Flores repeatedly disrespected Charlo’s power, leaping in with right hands of his own and generally keeping his guard low. Over time, though, Charlo’s power was not to be disrespected – at least not by a fighter of Flores’ caliber.

DEONTAY WILDER VS. KELSEY ARNOLD
The Crimson Tide wasn’t the only thing that rolled at Desert Diamond Casino, Friday, when Tuscaloosa heavyweight Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (6-0, 6 KOs) went to work. Seventy-three seconds in, Tennessee’s Kelsey Arnold (1-3-2) moved round the blue mat like a log for an 11 count – ensuring Wilder’s sixth knockout win.

The only member of Team USA to win a medal at the 2008 Olympics, Wilder has taken a somewhat limited amount of talent and a lot of charisma and leveraged his bronze medal into bronze-highlighted trunks, a bronze-inspired cognomen and a ringside presence guaranteed to sell tickets. Time will tell if his development can keep pace with his promotion.

UNDERCARD
The evening began at 6:30 local time with a welterweight matchup between Floridian Keith “One Time” Thurman (9-0, 9 KOs) and Tennessee’s Marteze Logan 26-37-2 (6 KOs). Game like a 65-fight professional should be, Logan did all he could to make a scrap of it, but youth and class told quickly, and Thurman collected his ninth knockout victory in as many tries.

The undercard match that received the warmest welcome from the Tucson fans, though, was a six-round junior featherweight tilt between Glendale, Ariz.’s Robert Guillen (4-2-3) and Tucson’s Isaac Hidalgo (4-4-1, 1 KO). In a fight the judges saw as a majority draw – by scores of 56-56, 56-56 and 57-55 – Guillen and Hidalgo thoroughly entertained their respective hometown crowds, with each man hitting the deck once.

But the undercard’s best fight belonged to two female junior featherweights, Tucson’s Annette Agredano (4-0) and New Mexico’s Jessica Sanchez (0-1-1). Trading hundreds of punches each round and showing more technical proficiency than most of their male counterparts, Agredano and Sanchez fought to a wonderfully entertaining conclusion all three judges saw 39-37 in Agredano’s favor.

In other action, Houstonian Hylon Williams (10-0, 3 KOs) stayed undefeated with a unanimous decision over California junior lightweight Khadaphi Proctor (4-4-1). And Maryland’s Seth Mitchell (12-0-1, 7 KOs) also stayed undefeated, winning a six-round heavyweight match by three scores of 60-54.

Attendance in the Diamond Center exceeded 2,000 yet again for Golden Boy Promotions.