By: William Holmes
HBO Boxing After Dark series was broadcast from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada and featured title fights in the light heavyweight and lightweight divisions. Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman, and Andre Ward served as the commentators for tonight’s broadcast.
The first fight of the night was between Yuriorkis Gamboa (22-0) and Darleys Perez (28-0) for the WBA Interim Lightweight title. Perez represented Columbia in the 2008 Olympics and this represented a big step up in competition for him.
Photo: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Gamboa was the second fighter to walk into the ring and he was accompanied by boxing promoter and music superstar 50 Cent. Gamboa is still dealing with the fallout from the Biogenesis scandal that is also engulfing major league baseball.
Like most fights in Montreal this fight appeared to be well attended. Gamboa opened up the first round by using his hand speed advantage to crack Perez with a quick check left hook and followed it up later in the round with a two punch combination that knocked Perez down.
In the second round Gamboa began to work on the body of Perez and his hand speed was too much for Perez. Perez’s left hook however began to land in the third round but he was not pressing the action enough to win some of the early rounds.
Gamboa appeared to take off in round five and Perez seemed to have solved the range of Gamboa’s punches and was beginning to do a better job of avoiding his punches. Perez’s left hook was landing and his best round of the night was the eight round.
Most of the later rounds were close and could have been scored for either fighter and Perez was probably robbed of a knockdown in the eleventh round when the referee ruled it a slip. This was a rather dull and uninspiring fight and the crowd booed at the end of the last round.
The judges scored it 116-111, 116-111, and 115-112 for Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Adonis Stevenson (20-1) and Chad Dawson (31-2) met in the main event for the WBC Light Heavyweight title. Stevenson was fighting in front of his home town and this was Dawson’s first fight since losing to Andre Ward in a super middleweight matchup.
Stevenson was greeted warmly by the Montreal crowd and Chad Dawson walked into the ring second.
The crowd was singing loudly at the start of the fight and Dawson landed two early jabs. Steven circled his opponent and then landed a vicious overhand left that send Dawson down hard. He was able to beat the count but his legs were still wobbly and he had a glassy look on his eyes.
The referee waived off the fight and the crowd went wild. Stevenson collapsed in the middle of the ring and began shedding tears of joy.
Adonis Stevenson won a tremendous upset with a first round knockout at 1:16.
Adonis Stevenson has blown open the light heavyweight division and some intriguing light heavyweight matchups are on the horizon.
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