Salisbury, Maryland- ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” featured an action packed card that resulted in Yusaf Mack (27-2-2, 16 KOs) picking up the NABF light heavyweight title with a split decision victory over Chris Henry (23-2, 18 KOs). While local Fernando Guerrero (13-0, 11 KOs) and Akron’s Shawn Porter (5-0, 4 KOs) picked up tougher than expected wins in front of 6000 rabid fans at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center.
The last time a boxing match came to Salisbury, ShoBox commentators Nick Charles and Steve Farhood were impressed with the “championship atmosphere” provided by the crowd. This time the fans were no less passionate booing loudly as Gabriel Rosado (10-3, 6 KOs) made his ring entry on his way to attempt an upset of their favorite son. In contrast, when Guerrero began his walk toward the ring with country song “This is My Town” by Montgomery Gentry booming (when is the last time you heard a Latino fighting as a co-feature enter the ring to a country song?), the place exploded in cheers. The small city of about 25,000, surrounded by farmland and country music fans chanted Fer-nan-do several times as the action heated up and they hung on every Rosado successful connect as if feeling his effective right hand.
Much to the crowd’s dismay Gabriel Rosado began the fight connecting with the right and countering off of Guerrero’s jab. The hometown kid with the 1,000 watt smile was tentative and paid for by dropping the first round. In the second his jab start finding its mark and the southpaw’s effectiveness started showing as Rosado’s left eye began swelling. Gabriel Rosado appeared to catch Guerrero in between steps in the third and notched a knockdown. ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas thought the fall should have been ruled a slip. Nevertheless the round went down as 10-8 on the scorecards and for the first time in his professional career Fernando “The Salisbury Sensation” Guerrero was behind on the cards by 2 points with a live opponent in front of him and the fight nearly half over. For this portion of his career, the third round and how he responded would speak volumes as to what kind of boxer the up-and-comer is becoming. He responded by winning every round hence. That is not to imply that Gabriel Rosado suddenly let up on the gas, because he didn’t. He fought back in every round in spite of a left eye that puffed up huge and began closing. By the eighth and final round both men appeared winded and Guerrero began showboating and playing to the crowd to the delight of many and the ire of some. In the end Rosado had a great chance to for an upset victory, but Guerrero’s effective straight left and late upper cuts were enough to overcome Rosado’s right hand and late bodywork. The official scores read 76-75, 77-74, 77-74, while I scored it 77-74.
In the main event Yusaf Mack and Chris Henry fought a tough, close match with both connecting on bombs that would do in a mere mortal. In my pre-fight article I gave an edge to Mack, albeit a thin one. If Mack does have a razor thin advantage over Henry he needed every bit of it to overcome him and take his NABF title.
The first round was punctuated in the last minute by hard right hands from both men. This accuracy took a vacation to begin the second as both slung wild rights that missed their mark. In the third Henry found gold with two hard rights to the head and some body work, while Mack landed a nice uppercut. Both men were tangled up in the forth with Henry going down in what appeared to be a flash knockdown, but it was correctly ruled a slip. The fifth is the round Yusaf Mack began to turn the bout in his favor decisively, landing thudding shots that had the arena gasping. Henry seemed to have no answer for Mack’s looping, over-the-top right and took several of them to the dome in the next few rounds. Lucky for him, by the end of the sixth Mack’s punches seemed to be losing their pop. As both men started to lose energy the fight turned into a grueling match with each landing hard shots. The official scorecards read 116-112, 115-112 Yusaf Mack, 115-113 Chris Henry.
Olympian Shawn Porter (5-0, 4 KOs) was finally pushed to a decision by Cory Jones (4-4, 1 KO). In the first Porter was his usual fast, dynamic self scoring two knockdowns. Jones put up some fight, but clinched often and seemed more concerned with safety than offense, which turned a potentially good fight into a dud. Jones held so much that the referee took a point from him in the fourth round (on a side note, where was this referee when I was covering the title reign of John Ruiz?) The word that kept circling around the press area was “survivor” as it appeared Jones just wanted to last all four rounds and end up on his feet. Afterward Porter’s father, Ken, said, “we’ll have to learn how to deal with those survivors out there”. The good news for the Porter camp is Jones’ strategy gave Porter something to learn and will help his growth, which is what preliminary boxing matches are all about for high level prospects. The cards read 40-33, 40-33 and inexplicably 39-35 (with a 10-7 round and a point deducted from Jones for holding in the forth?). I had it 40-33 in a fight that was very easy to score.
After the cameras were turned off and only the hardcore fans remained, Philadephia’s Farah Ennis (9-0, 4 KOs) overwhelmed Chris Archer (10-6, 6 KOs). Ennis looked good in picking up a unanimous decision, winning ever round over the clearly overmatched Archer. Keep your eyes on Ennis. He isn’t getting any press, but is steadily improving as a young, tough, skilled boxer.
In the walkout bout Harrison Cuello (16-8-2, 13 KOs) scored a fourth round TKO over Daniel Gonzalez (9-22-3, 3 KOs). Gonzalez looks like a guy that has too much heart and nowhere near enough talent to compete with good club fighters. The doctor had to stop this fight after more than three rounds of taking a beating caused a huge gash to open up over his eye. I hope he takes some time to contemplate retirement as he was totally outclassed by Cuello, whose skills were limited as well.
USA Olympic team member Dominic Wade was supposed to make his professional debut against Troy Nelson (0-2) of Columbus, Ohio. The fight was scratched. Fights get scratched all the time, but I count this as Wade’s third time being scratched from his pro debut. He was supposed to fight in Tunica, Mississippi in November, then it was reported he would fight in late December, but Wade was ill. Though members of the press asked why Dominic Wade was unable to go we didn’t receive an answer. There was no post-fight press conference, but no one came to the press area to give us the information and the people members of press row requested the information from didn’t know why the fight was scratched. Wade’s penchant for not making his pro debut is making my eye brows go up in a questioning way. Time will tell if there is anything substantive to the story, but for now it appears something might be amiss with Team Wade.