Mike Jones got off to a bit of a slow start but turned up the offense to cruise to a unanimous decision over Henry Brusles in a ten round Welterweight fight in front of a sold out crowd at Ballys in Atlantic City.
It was Bruseles who came out and boxed well in round one as he moved in and out and landed a couple shots to Jones’ 5’11” body. Jones started to get things going a little bit in round two when Jones started to land some quick shots inside. Over the next couple rounds, each man took turns controlling the action with Jones winning his round with the more emphatic punching while Bruseles would squeak by with by getting through using angles and pot shotting.
The fight clearly turned in round seven with Jones landing some quick lefts and then rocking Bruseles with a hard three punch combination. Over the final part of the fight, Jones was in control as he started pumping the jab two and three times to set up quick one-two combination’s and he began to pull away on the cards. Jones was very solid in the fight but probably wasn’t the dominating performance that many of the sold out crowd came to see.
Nonetheless, Jones won by scores of 98-92, 98-92 and 97-93 (same as the 15rounds.com/gofightlive.tv ringside card).
Jones, 146 ¾ lbs of Philadelphia is now 20-0. Bruseles, 147 lbs of Guarbo, Puerto Rico is now 28-4-1.
In the television co-feature, Gabriel Rosado and Saul Roman hooked up in an entertaining ten round Jr. Middleweight clash.
Rosado and Roman fought very hard with Roman coming forward for most of the bout and Rosado doing a tremendous job of countering with the right hand.
The action really picked up over the last half of the fight with Rosado firing off right hands that caused a stream of blood from around the left eye of Roman. For his trouble, Rosado was cut from the forehead. This was a battle of geography as Roman wanted to make this an inside tussle while Rosado wanted and most of the time successfully had his way at distance. In round eight, Rosado landed countless counters to offset a big left hand that Roman got through at the beginning of the round.
The last two rounds did not provide as much action as the previous entertaining eight frames but Rosado’s out was more than enough for Rosado who won the bout by split decision.
Scores were 96-94 on two cards for Rosado (15rounds.com/gofightlive.tv liked the counterpunching Rosado to the tune of 99-91) while a third card read 97-93 for Roman.
Rosado, 155 ½ lbs of Philadelphia is now 14-4. Roman, 155 lbs of Tijuana, Mexico is now 32-6.
The opening bout of the night could have been the end of the line for former WBO Jr. Welterweight champion Kendall Holy as Kaiser Mabuza bludgeoned him over six rounds of their scheduled twelve round IBF Jr. Welterweight elimination bout.
Holt actually had a decent first round as he landed some body shots and combinations. After that it was a downhill freefall for Holt as Mabuza would just walk Holt down and pound away on the ropes for the next five rounds. Holt began to bleed from the nose in round three. If one saw round two, then he saw all rounds after that as Holt did next to nothing basically let Mabuza have his way. The sixth round was a bad round for Holt as he spent nearly the whole round eating punches and swelling around the left eye was starting to form.
Holt’s corner decided to save their man from any more damage and called a halt to the action before round seven could commence.
Mabuza, 140 lbs of Johannesburg, South Africa now awaits the winner of next Saturday’s Juan Urango – Devon Alexander unification battle with a record of 23-6-3 with fourteen knockouts. Holt, 139 ½ lbs of Paterson, NJ is now 25-3.
Ariel Espinal landed two big rights in round three to drop Anthony Pietrantonio and in round four Espinal finished the job by landing four big head shots that forced referee Benji Estevez to call a halt to the action at 1:38 of round four of their scheduled six round Light Heavyweight bout.
Espinal, 181 lbs of Brooklyn, NY is now 7-12-3 with three knockouts. Pietrantonio, 171 lbs of Youngstown, OH is now 6-5.
Local favorite (and 15rounds.com blogger) Troy Maxwell made his large local throng of fans happy by scoring a four round unanimous decision over Todd Erkisson in a Super Middleweight bout.
Maxwell landed some big right hands and kept Eriksson at bay to cruise to the decision via 39-37 on all cards.
Maxwell, 168 lbs of Galloway, NJ is now 2-0. Eriksson, 166 ½ lbs of Dover, NJ is 0-3-1.
Good looking nineteen year-old prospect Glen Tapia scored a vicious knockdown just seconds into his scheduled four round Jr. Middleweight bout with Tyrone Miles and finished him off with a series of power punches that forced Esteves to stop bout just seconds into the fight.
Tapia, 152 lbs of Passaic, NJ is now 4-0 with three knockouts. Miles, 153 lbs of Camden, NJ is now 1-3.
Rugged vet, Ossie Duran scored a four round unanimous decision over Jamaal Davis in a Jr. Middleweight bout.
Scores were 40-36 on all cards for Duran, 155 lbs of Paterson, NJ and is now 24-8-2. Davis, 156 ½ lbs of Philadelphia is now 11-6.
Photos by Tom Brigila/ Top Rank
