It was a mauling 12 round fight between featherweights Billy Dib and Evgeny Gradovich; ending with Gradovich taking a split verdict over the more well known Dib. Gradovich often was able to get the best of the exchanges; typified in round 5 which he stunned Dib with a hard left hook. Dib recovered and had his moments throughout the 12 rounds, but the tone of the fight was set. Despite Dib’s aggression, Gradovich was the one to consistently land the harder and cleaner shots. Gradovich was deducted a point in round 8 for holding but Dib was dealt the same; also losing a point in the same round for holding. Despite his best efforts, Dib was unable to break the pattern throughout the fight. Gradovich was simply the harder and cleaner puncher throughout and it earned him a split decision victory by scores of 114-112 (twice) to 112-114 for Dib. Both fighters gave their all and neither backed down so perhaps a rematch is in order. Gradovich improves to 16-0 (8kos) while Dib drops to 35-2 (21kos).
For junior middleweight Wille Nelson, only one round of the scheduled 10 was necessary for victory. Nelson blitzed foe Michael Medina in only 2 minutes, dropping him once with a counter right hand along the ropes and finishing with a right hand, left hook combo. It was a quick and brutal finish, and referee Arthur Mercante Jr. was wise to stop the bout at 2 minutes of round 1. Nelson improves his record to 20-1-1 (12kos) while Medina drops to 26-4-2 (19 kos.) Scores were 36-40 across the board.
Making his pro debut, light welterweight Luis Olivera blitzed through his opponent Rafael Munoz with ease. Olivera knocked Munoz down with a beautiful lead left hook early in round one and didn’t let up. After Munoz rose and was cleared to continue, Olivera jumped on him and stunned him with another lead left. As Munoz backpedaled toward the ropes, Olivera caught him for a third time with the left and finished with a flurry, dumping Munoz to the canvas and forcing referee Johnny Callas to call the fight. Time of the stoppage was 1:38 of round one. Olivera notches his first win and stands at 1-0 (1ko) while Munoz drops to 1-2.
Welterweight Jimmy Williams outworked Ray Younger over 4 rounds to earn himself a unanimous decision. Williams scored far more often with his jab and body attack and limited Younger to an ineffective defense of potshotting and moving. The fight played out mainly the same over the 4 rounds and Williams picked up an easy win, improving to 2-0 (1ko) while Younger dropped to 0-2.
