Showtime Results: “K9” Bundrage Stops Cory Spinks; Lara, Russell, Also Victorious

By: William Holmes

June has been an incredibly busy month for boxing, and Cornelius “K9” Bundrage and Cory Spinks closed it out with an IBF Junior Middleweight Title bout on Showtime. The junior middleweight division has been on fire as boxing money makers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Canelo Alvarez both fight in the division and are currently without dance partners.

The first bout of the night was between Erislandy Lara (16-1-1) and Freddy Hernandez (30-2) in the junior middleweight division. The southpaw Lara is a tricky fighter with a deep Cuban amateur boxing background, and his experience shone in his bout with Hernandez. Lara was able to use effective counters and two-punch combinations to keep Hernandez at bay. Hernandez was pressing forward and was able to make the bout more competitive than what the scores indicated, but by the end of the fight his face was covered in cuts and bruises.

The final scores were 98-91, 99-90, and 95-94 for Erislandy Lara.

The next bout was between Gary Russell Jr. (19-0) and Christopher Perez (23-2) in the featherweight division. The fight started off slowly, but it was obvious that Russell had a big technical advantage on Perez. Perez suffered a knockdown in the second round, but was able to survive the round. He went down again in the third round three more times and had no answer for the hand speed of Russell. The fourth knockdown of the night forced the referee to stop it at 1:41 of the third round.

The main event was between the 39-year-old Cornelius “K9” Bundrage (31-4) and former welterweight titlist Cory Spinks (39-6). It was a sloppy bout that was controlled by Bundrage for most of the fight. He was able to knock Spinks down in the first round with a right hand and established early on that he was the more powerful puncher. Spinks was effective at times with his jab and clinch game plan, but he never had Bundrage in serious trouble.

Bundrage closed out the fight in the seventh round when he decked Spinks with a looping right hand that landed flush on his jaw. Spinks was able to beat the count but was clearly on wobbly legs and went down again soon after. The referee probably could have called a stoppage to the fight at this point, but let Spinks continue fighting. Bundrage, however, did not let Spinks stay on his feet for long. He continued his attack on Spinks and knocked him down again, and the referee finally called a stop to the fight at 2:32 of the seventh round.

Afterwards, Bundrage called out Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for September 15th. Bundrage easily out-powered Spinks, but he’ll have a far more difficult time with Canelo.