NEW YORK–The weigh-in fight was more competitive then the actual fight. Jose Zepeda annihilated Josue Vargas in the opening frame of their junior welterweight fight at The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Zepeda landed a short left to the head that froze Vragas, who immediately fell face first on the canvas. Vargas tried to get up and then crashed into the bottom rope. Vargas did eventually get to his feet but then ate a devastating barrage in the corner and the fight was stopped at 1:45.

Zepeda, 139.6 lbs of Long Beach, CA is 35-2 with 30 knockouts. Vragas, 139 lbs of Bronx, NY is 19-2.

JOSE ZEPEDA

“I was ready. I was 100 percent ready, and I told him in the press conference there’s levels to this. He was the one who wanted to fight me. I just accepted the fight, and it showed today that boxing is not a game in there. There’s levels to this.”

“I told him, and he probably knew I hit hard. I don’t think he recovered after that shot.”

“After the way he went down, I didn’t think {he’d recover}. He probably was going to head up, but he was going to be wobbly on his feet, and that’s what happened and I was able to finish him.”

“I’m 32 years old, and I’m in my prime. I want the WBC world title and all the belts, to be honest. I’m ready for it. I showed today I’m ready for the WBC world title.”

VARGAS

“He caught me with a good left hand, and I tried to recover, but I think I got up too fast. That’s what happened. Overall, I’m OK. I’m good. I’m healthy. We’re not stopping from here. It’s on to the next.”

“I learned from my disqualification loss, and now I learned from my second loss.”

“It’s part of the sport. The greatest athletes in boxing have losses. I’m not ashamed of myself. I’ll be back stronger, for sure.”

Sultan Knocks down Caraballo 4 times; Decisions Caraballo

Jonas Sulton pulled off an upset victory as he dropped previously perfect Carlos Caraballo and won a 10-round unanimous decision in a bantamweight fight.

In round two, Sultan dropped Caraballo with a flurry to the head. In round three, Sultan sent Caraballo to the deck again with a left right to the face. In round four, Caraballo came back to rock Sultan several times.

Sultan came back in round six as he sent Caraballo to the canvas with a left hook. In round eight, Caraballo began to rock Sultan with some hard left hooks and hurt his opponent several times. Sultan began to swell under his right eye, In round nine, Sultan seemed to have sealed the fight when he floored Caraballo with a hard counter right.

Sultan landed 92 of 480 punches; Caraballo was 137 of 352.

Sultan, 117.6 lbs of the Philippines won by scores of 94-93 on all cards and is now 18-5. Caraballo, 117.6 lbs of Puerto Rico is 14-1.

“This is boxing. This is war. And I came to win tonight. Caraballo is a tough man, but I wanted this one,” said Sultan

Carlos Jackson pounded out a eight-round unanimous decision over Jonathan Guzman in a junior featherweight bout.

Jackson landed 79 of 385 punches; Guzman 93 of 352.

Jackson, 123 lbs of Atlanta, GA won by scores of 78-74 and 77-75; Guzman won a card 77-75.

Jackson is now 18-1. Guzman, 123 lbs of Santo Domingo, DR is 24-2.

In a toe-to-toe war, Mathew Gonzalez and Dakota Linger stood chest to chest and wailed away on each other, and the six-round junior welterweight contest ended in a majority draw.

The two landed many hard blows, which included a sixth round that had the crowd on their feet as Linger made a furious stand and took the final round that got him the draw by scores of 58-56 for Gonzalez and 57-57 twice.

Gonzalez landed 150 of 522 punches; Linger was 122 of 509.

Gonzalez, 143 lbs of Ridgewood, NY is 12-0-1. Linger, 141.8 lbs of Buckhannon, WV is 12-5-3.

In a spirited and at times testy six-round welterweight bout, Pablo Valdez remained undefeated with a majority decision over Alejandro Martinez.

Valdez, 148.4 lbs of New York won by scores of 59-55 twice and 57-57 to go to 5-0. Martinez, 148.6 of East Los Angeles is 2-2-1.

Jahi Tucker stopped Jorge Rodrigo Sosa in round two of their scheduled six-round welterweight bout.

Tucker hurt Sosa several times during the fight and finished off with a hard combination in the corner that forced referee Shawn Clark to stop the bout at 2:18.

Tucker, 147.6 lbs of Deer Park, NY is 5-0 with three knockouts. Sosa, 145.2 lbs is 3-3.

Ray Cuadrado won a four-round unanimous decision over Michael Land in a junior lightweight contest.

Cuadrado, 129.6 lbs of Ridgewood, NY won by scores of 49=0-36 and 39-37 and is now 2-0. Land, 129.4 lbs of Dallas, TX is 1-4-1.

Kasir Goldston remained undefeated with a four-round unanimous decision over Marc Misiura in a junior welterweight fight.

In the final round, Misiura was docked a point for an intentional headbutt to the mouth.

Goldston, 142 lbs of Albany, NY won by scores of 40-35 on all cards and is now 4-0. Mislura, 142.2 lbs of Scranton, PA is 2-2.

NOTES—During the Caraballo-Sultan fight, the roof of the Hulu Theater began to shake due to a sold out concert featuring Harry Styles that was playing in the big room at Madison Square Garden.

PHILADELPHIA (APRIL 8, 2021)–This past Saturday night, popular heavyweight Joey Dawejko knocked out Joe Jones in the opening round of their scheduled eight-round heavyweight bout at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.

The bout headlined a card promoted by RDR Promotions.

Dawejko was dominant in dropping Jones twice, with the final punch coming from a big left hook, and the fight was halted at 2:50.

Dawejko of Philadelphia improved his record to 21-8-4 with 12 knockouts. Jones falls to 11-4.

In the co-feature, surging lightweight Nahir Albright notched his third consecutive stoppage victory by stopping Dante Cox in round three of their scheduled six-round bout.

Albright dropped Cox twice in round two, and finished him off at 2:13 of the third frame.

Albright of Sicklerville, NJ is now 11-1 with five knockouts. Cox of Glen Burnie, MD is 6-2.

Former National Golden Gloves champion Mike Hilton shrugged off a knockdown to win a six-round unanimous decision over Twon Smith in a cruiserweight fight.

Smith put Hilton down for a flash knockdown in round three from a left. That was sandwiched around Hilton outboxing Smith, and Hilton took all three cards by 58-55 scores.

Hilton of Trenton, NJ is 11-0. Smith falls to 3-5.

Afunwa King scored a mild upset by taking a six-round majority decision over previously undefeated Benny Sinakin in a light heavyweight bout.

King took two cards by 58-56 tallies, while a third card read even at 57-57.

King is now 3-1. Sinakin of Philadelphia is 6-1.

Matthew Gonzalez of Brooklyn, New York remained undefeated by taking out Luis Eduardo Florez in round five of a scheduled six-round junior welterweight bout.

The time of the stoppage was 2:13 for Gonzalez, who is now 12-0 with eight knockouts. Florez is now 25-19.

Rasheen Brown stopped late-replacement Christopher Nelson in round three of their four-round featherweight fight.

Brown dominated with body shots, and the fight was stopped at 1:50 of round three. A West Philadelphia native, Brown is 7-0 with four knockouts. Nelson is 3-18.

Tahmir Smalls remained undefeated by winning a four-round unanimous decision over Andres Abarca in a welterweight bout.

Scores were 40-34 twice and 39-35 for Smalls, who is now 3-0. Abarca,is 2-4.

Jahdon Ervin made a successful pro debut by taking a four-round unanimous decision over Kareem Gladney in a middleweight fight.

Ervin of St. Clair, PA is 1-0. Gladney is 0-4.

A limited number of seats were available due to Covid restrictions, and were filled to that limited capacity. The fights were streamed worldwide on BXNGTV.com

RDR PROMOTIONS WILL BE BACK AT 2300 ARENA ON SATURDAY, MAY 8TH.