By: William Holmes
Golden Boy Promotions presented their latest edition of Golden Boy Live from the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts in front of a sold out crowd and featured undefeated junior middleweight contender and Philadelphia native Julian Williams in the main event against rugged veteran Freddy Hernandez.
The first bout of the night was between Jamie Kavanagh (15-1-1) and Andres Navarro (9-4-1) in the lightweight division. Kavanagh was coming off a loss, but was five years younger and had a two inch height advantage over his opponent. He also recently switched trainers and is now training with well-known trainer Joel Diaz.
Kavanagh was catching Diaz early with left hook counters and was more active than Diaz. He caught Diaz with a good three punch combination in the second round and continued to land his left hand repeatedly. Kavanagh began to switch to the body in the third round and also landed straight right hands.
The damage Kavanagh was doing on Navarro was increasing in damage as the bout wore on, and he had a very strong fifth round and had Navarro hurt several times. Navarro remained game throughout and fought back, but it was Kavanagh who was landing the harder and crisper punches.
Navarro somehow made it to the end of the fight, but lost a wide decision to Kavanagh with scores of 80-72, 79-73, and 79-73.
The second bout of the night was between Irishman John Joe Nevin (0-0) and Alberto Candelaria (3-0) in the lightweight division. Nevin was a silver medalist in the 2012 Olympics and he was making his professional debut.
On paper, it looked like a tough professional debut for the ex Olympian. Candelaria was undefeated and he had a six inch reach advantage on over Nevin, but when you have Olympic experience you’re well tested when you step into the ring as a professional.
Nevin dominated the bout from the first round to the last, and at times Candelaria looked more like a punching bag than a formidable and viable opponent. Nevin landed hard body shots in the opening rounds, and began to open up near the late to middle rounds with punches upstairs. Candelaria was hurt several times in the third, fifth, and last round. The bout realistically could have been stopped in the fifth or sixth round, but Candelaria was allowed to go out on his shield. The punch stats were 126-86 in favor of Nevin.
Nevin won the decision with scores of 59-55 on all three scorecards.
Alexis Santos (12-0) and Sylvester Barron (8-3) met in the heavyweight division. Santos had a chiseled physique and had an impressive ten stoppages to his record. Barron was fifteen years older than Santos but he was taller than the young bull.
Santos did fight like a bull, he attacked Barron right away and appeared to be a little reckless, but he did hurt Baron with a straight right hand near the end of the first round. Santos focused on the body of Barron in the second round, but smothered his own punches by getting in just a half step to close to Barron.
Barron started off the third round well with a combination on Santos by the corner, but Santos later changed positions and landed heavy shots of his own on Barron by the corner. Barron resorted to holding on but still wound up being the victim to some vicious right hands.
The end came in the fifth round when Santos wobbled Barron and then knocked him out with a multi punch combination. Barron appeared to be knocked out as he was slowly falling down, but Santos was able to land two more punches and ended the fight.
Santos won by KO at 2:08 of the fifth round.
The main event of the night was between Julian Williams (14-0) and Freddy Hernandez (30-6) in the junior middleweight division. Julian Williams is a high level prospect from Philadelphia, and this was bout was a good test for Williams.
Williams was eleven years younger than Santos and he landed a quick 11 second knockdown in the first round with a straight counter right hand. Hernandez was able to settle down and avoided more damage in the first round.
Williams looked composed and calm, and was winning the exchanges on the inside with Hernandez in the second round. He was mixing up his combinations well and highlighted his the second round with two quick counter left hooks.
The end came in the third round when Williams landed a short left hand on Hernandez that sent him crashing down to the canvas. Williams was unable to beat the referee’s count and the fight was waived off.
Julian Williams remained undefeated with a knockout at 0:35 of the third round.
