Throne Boxing on BET Results: Hernandez-Harrison Gets a Lucky Draw, Del Valle and Rock Win
By: William Holmes
Dusty Hernandez-Harrison fought in his home town of Washington, D.C. for a Roc Nation Throne Boxing event live on the BET network. The D.C. Armory was the host site for tonight.
The first fight of the night was between Orlando Del Valle (20-2) and Thomas Snow (18-2) in the featherweight division.
The opening round was a slow one, with Del Valle trying to press the pace but Snow kept him at bay with an occasional counter. Del Valle was missing most of his shots, but he finally connected with a clean straight right hand in the second round that hurt Snow and sent him to the mat. Del Valle tried to swarm Snow when he got back to his feet, but Snow was able to survive.
Del Valle started off the third round aggressively and connected with a hard left hook to the temple of Snow that sent him down for the second time of the night. Snow got back to his feet again, but took hard shots to the body from Del Valle and tried to tie up to slow down the assaults of Del Valle.
Snow was able to avoid another knockdown in the fourth round and fifth rounds as the action had slowed down, but it was Del Valle who had the rounds won comfortably.
Snow’s best round came in the seventh round when he momentarily hurt Del Valle with a crisp straight left hand, but he wasn’t able to capitalize on it with a knockdown.
The fight went the full twelve rounds all three judges scored it 76-74 for Orlando Del Valle.
The next bout of the night was between Darmani Rock (0-0) and Carlos Black (1-3) in the heavyweight division.
Rock is considered by many to be a high ceiling prospect, and the Philadelphia native wasted little time in showing that he is worth the hype.
Black was able to touch Rock with a few jabs in the first round, but when Rock’s first left hook connected he had Black backing up and he followed it with another hard left hook followed by a straight right left hook combination that sent Rock to the floor.
Rock’s eyes are glassy and he was stumbling when he got back to his feet and the referee wisely stopped the fight.
Darmani Rocks wins by TKO at 1:54 of the first round.
Dusty Hernandez-Harrison (29-0) and Michael Dallas Jr. (21-3) met in the main event of the evening in the welterweight division.
Dallas had been in the ring with some good boxers before and he did not look intimidated at the sight of Hernandez-Harrison. He was active with his jab in the opening frame and clearly outworked the patient Hernandez-Harrison.
Dallas’ hustle continued in the second round and he constantly kept a fist in the body and head of Hernandez-Harrison, who seemed hesitant to let his hands go.
Dallas began to throw some power behind his punches in the third round and he had bruised up the left eye of Hernandez-Harrison. Dallas is consistently the first person to throw a punch whenever they are within range of each other.
Hernandez-Harrison tried to pick up the pressure in the fourth round, but Dallas’ faster hands continued to give him problems and Dallas was more accurate with his high volume of punches.
Hernandez-Harrison fought with more urgency in the fifth round and he had a decent round as he was able to land a few good right hands to the body and head, but Dallas fired back whenever he was punched. During one exchange Hernandez-Harrison was cracked with a hard right hand to his chin and he went to the floor. He got up at the count of eight, but looked like he was still hurt when he got back to his feet.
Dallas opened up the sixth round by throwing very hard shots to the head and body of Hernandez-Harrison and was connecting. Hernandez-Harrison could not keep up with the activity of Dallas and the power edge that Hernandez-Harrison showed that he had in some earlier exchanges had disappeared.
Despite keeping a high work rate, Dallas still looked fresh by the seventh round and was able to rip some hard digging shots to the body of Hernandez-Harrison. Hernandez-Harrison frustration began to show by the end of the seventh round and landed shots to the liver and threw a punch after being told by the referee to separate.
Hernandez-Harrison seemed to be way behind on the scorecards of most observers, but he scored a questionable knockdown in the eighth round when he struck Dallas with a low blow which forced him to take a knee. Dallas however, won the remainder of the round by landing looping hooks and short shots to the body.
Dallas looked like he was tiring by the ninth round but he was still winning the rounds and outworking Hernandez-Harrison. It looked to many that Hernandez-Harrison needed a knockout in the final round to win the bout, but that knockout never came despite the fact Hernandez-Harrison probably won the final round.
Despite the fact Dallas outworked Hernandez-Harrison for a majority of the fight, the judges wrongly scored the fight 96-92 Dallas Jr., 95-94 Hernandez-Harrison, 94-94 for a draw.