In progress: Khalid Yafai vs. Norbelto Jimenez, 12 round, for Yafai’s WBA junior bantamweight title
Jones II shuts out Arriagada
Lightweight prospect Otha Jones III (3-0, 1 KO), 19, of Toledo, Ohio, won a shutout decision — 60-54 on all three scorecards — against Matias Agustin Arriagada (6-5, 3 KOs), 30, of Argentina. Jones looked like he might get a knockout early in the fight but Arriagada sopped a lot of punishment and hung in there. He had some moments later in the fight as he landed some stinging punches on Jones, but the outcome was never in trouble. Jones was fighting for the second time in a week after knocking out Michael Horabin in 100 seconds last Saturday in London.
“He gave me a challenge. Taught me to not go in there in the first round looking for a knockout,” Jones said. “He made me adjust. I give myself a B tonight, not a B+, just a B. I need to sit down more on my punches, placing my shots right. Then I can go from there.”
Also on the undercard
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Middleweight Mark DeLuca (24-1, 13 KOs), 31, of Whitman, Massachusetts, and Canada’s Brandon Brewer (23-1-1, 11 KOs), 34, of Canada, waged an all-out bloody slugfest although DeLuca was the clear winner by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93. They traded toe to toe for virtually the entire fight and the crowd rewarded them with a standing ovation at the final bell. DeLuca, who took the fight on two weeks’ notice, looked like he might stop Brewer early and cut him over the left eye in the second round and over the right eye in the fourth. But Brewer was game and never stopped trying, landing many of his own shots and cutting DeLuca over the right eye in the third round.
“I felt like I could box Brandon. I wanted to box but I got caught up. I said we were going to steal the show so going into the fight, that’s what I had in mind,” DeLuca said. “I saw he was bleeding and that turned me on. He saw me bleeding, and that turned the crowd on. So we went for it.”
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Super middleweight Alexis Espino (3-0, 2 KO), 19, of Las Vegas, destroyed Kirby St. Juste (0-1), 24, of Trenton, New Jersey, in the second round. Espino was credited with a first-round knockdown when the ropes kept St. Juste upright and then dropped him extremely hard with a left hook in the second round. St. Juste surprisingly beat the count but when Espino, who is trained by Robert Garcia, dropped him again with a right hand, referee Eddie Claudio waved it off at 1 minute, 49 seconds.
“It felt good getting those knockdowns. I didn’t like my last performance, so I was trying to make up for it,” Espino said. “I have been sparring Vergil Ortiz, I have been sparring nothing but dogs at Robert Garcia’s academy. It’s crazy. I have three fights now, but I have just learned so much during those three fights.”
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Featherweight Raymond Ford (3-0, 1 KOs), 20, of Camden, New Jersey, scored the first knockout of his pro career, ending the night for Isidro Figueroa (1-1, 0 KOs), 20, of Mexico, in the first round. Ford took him out with a sharp right hand to the body. Figueroa went down to one knee and took the full count from referee Claudio at 1 minute, 28 seconds.
“I knew I was going to get him out of there. He came up to me last night and asked me for a picture, today he asked me for a shirt. I knew that he wasn’t ready,” Ford said. “I give my performance a B though. I’ve been working on my left hook to the body. It’s going to my money punch. It’s been getting stronger. His body looked soft so that was the game plan, get to the body.”
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In what she said would be her final fight, junior lightweight Shelly Vincent (25-2, 1 KO), 40, of Providence, closed her eight-year career with a clear unanimous decision win against Simone Da Silva (16-13, 6 KOs), 35, of Brazil. Vincent was the aggressor throughout the fight and won by scores of 79-73, 78-74 and 78-74.
Afterward, she thanked her fans for turning out and reiterated her decision. “This is my last fight,” she said. “I’m getting old.”Vincent won her second fight in a row since losing a decision to Heather Hardy for a vacant featherweight world title in their rematch in October.
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Providence middleweight Anthony Concepcion (4-0, 4 KOs), 28, knocked out Yasmani Pedroso (2-6, 1 KO), 30, with a right hand to the body in the first round. The shot dropped Pedroso to all fours, where he was counted out by referee Danny Schiavone at 2 minutes, 2 seconds.
Still to come:
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Joseph Parker vs. Alex Leapai, 12 rounds, heavyweights
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Title fight: Khalid Yafai vs. Norbelto Jimenez, 12 round, for Yafai’s WBA junior bantamweight title
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Anthony Marsella Jr. vs. Jose Aubel, 6 rounds, junior welterweights