In a crowd pleasing fight, Amir Khan made his case for a September fight with Floyd Mayweather by winning a 12-round unanimous decision over Chris Algieri in a battle of former world champions at Barclays Center.
The fight was a back and forth fight early as surprisingly Algieri fought out of his norm as was the stalker. He has some solid success as he landed some hard rights and left hooks in between Khan’s flurries. The bout seemned even at the halfway point.
Khan started taking over and winning very competitive rounds. In round 10, Khan buckled Algieri with a solid right. The fought hard down the stretch with each gave giving it all as the final bell sounded.
Khan, 146.4 lbs of Bolton, England win by scores of 115-113 and 117-111 twice to raise his mark to 31-3. Algieri, 146.2 lbs of Huntington, NY is now 20-2.
AMIR KHAN
“I thought I worked well inside. I’ve never done a lot of work in the pocket like that and I plan to do more of that in the future.
“I give Chris a lot of credit. He came forward a lot more than we thought he would and he had a big chin tonight.
“Chris gave it his all tonight. This is the best Algieri we’ve seen in a long time, and if he’d have fought Manny (Pacquiao) that way he might have won.
“Everyone knows I want Floyd (Mayweather) next after all the talk about it, but when you wait and hope for something for this long it can set you back. I don’t want to overlook any other fighters, including Chris.
“My first show with PBC has been great. The New York crowd was awesome and really got into it. The promotion was excellent and I’m proud to be a part of this team.”
CHRIS ALGIERI
“I thought I pressured Khan well and got my touches. He definitely didn’t like it when I got into his body.
“I thought I hurt him several times, but Khan’s a cagey fighter and he spins off. I guess the judges liked that tonight. I would think the cleaner, harder shots would get a little more respect.
“I think PBC is fantastic. The focus is on the fighters, not the politics or the promoters. This is helping bring the sport back to boxing’s glory days of primetime events for the fans.
“I haven’t thought much about after this fight. I’m disappointed, but I’ll watch the film from this fight and we’ll go from there.”
Javier Fortune won the WBA Super Featherweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Bryan Vasquez.
It was an entertaining fight with Fortuna looking to land the home run blow while Vasquez used his unortodox style was able to get through with some solid punches.
Fortuna, 130 lbs of La Romana, Dominican Republic won by scores of 117-111 twice and 116-112 to raise his mark to 28-0-1. Vasquez, 129 lbs of San Jose, Costa Rica is now 34-2.
JAVIER FORTUNA
“I’m very surprised that the fight went the distance. Vasquez is a strong fighter. After the fifth round, I was boxing to score points.
“I was never really hurt by Vasquez, but I hurt my own hand on his head.
“Vasquez didn’t really affect me throughout the fight. The swelling on my eye is from a headbutt.
“The biggest key to my success tonight was my training. Before this I didn’t have the stamina that I needed. However, after my work with Hector Bermudez leading up to this fight I was more than ready.
“Becoming a champion here in New York is huge for me. I’m very proud of my performance tonight.”
BRYAN VASQUEZ
“My style is to box and then move. Fortuna fought a smart fight tonight. He wouldn’t engage me and fight.
“Fortuna used his head and elbows a lot tonight, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse. I tried telling the referee, but nothing was done.
“I worked very hard for three months of training to get to this fight. I hope I won over some fans today because I fight to please them.
“Hopefully I get a rematch because this is not the end of my career, and I’d love the chance to take that belt from Fortuna.
“I want to thank PBC for this opportunity. It was great being a part of this show and I hope they’ll think of me again in the future.”
2012 U.S. Olympian Marcus Browne remained perfect by winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Cornelius White in a Light Heavyweight bout.
Browne, 175.2 lbs of Staten Island, NY won by scores of 99-91 twice and 98-92 and is now 15-0. White, 175 lbs of Houston, TX is now 21-4.
Keith Tapia scored an explosive 8th round stoppage over Leo Pia in the final round of their Heavyweight bout.
There was some solid action throughout until Tapia leveled Pia with a crunching left the plummeted Pia to the canvas and the fight was stopped instantly at 2:42 of round eight.
Tapia, 200.2 lbs od Santurce, PR is now 15-0 with 10 knockouts. Pia, 199 lbs of Wichita, KS is now 5-5-2.
Local favorite as usual was in an exciting fight and remained undefeated by winning a 8-round split decision over Noemi Bosques in a Featherweight bout.
Hardy won on two cards by scores of 79-73 and 77-75. Bosques won a card 77-75.
Hardy, 122.8 lbs of Brooklyn is now 13-0. Bosquez, 122.8 lbs of St. Petersburg, FL is now 8-3-2.
Wesley Ferrer slid by by winning a 6-round majority decision over Jose Miguel Castro in a Lightweight bout.
Ferrer dropped Castro in round one but Castro fought back and dropped Ferrer in the fifth. It was Ferrer;s work rate that won him the bout by scores of 58-54, 57-55 and 56-56.
Ferrer, 134.8 lbs of Brooklyn, NY is now 9-0. Castro, 134.4 lbs of Carolina, PR is now 4-4.
Chris Colbert made a successful pro debut by stopping Marquis Pierce in round two of their scheduled 4-round Featherweight bout.
Colbert registered a knockdown in the first round and pounded hard shots until the ref stopped the bout at 1:31 of round two.
Colbert, 122.6 lbs of Brooklyn is 1-0 with 1 knockouts. Pierce, 122.4 lbs of Newark, NJ is now 1-6.
Luis Franco scored a fifth round stoppage over Guillermo Sanchez in a scheduled 8-round Lightweight bout.
The time of the stoppage was 1:51 of round five for Franco, 130.8 lbs of Miami who improves to 13-1-1 with 9 knockouts. Sanchez, 132.6 lbs of Buffalo is now 15-16-1.
