HBO PPV Undercard Results: Gomez Dominates Herrera, Lemieux and Stevens Win by Stoppage
By: William Holmes
The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada held its first ever boxing event as Golden Boy Promotions put on a WBC Middleweight Title bout between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Amir Khan.
Three bouts were on the televised portion of the undercard, and the first fight of the night was between Patrick Teixeira (26-0) and Curtis Stevens (27-5) in the middleweight division.
Teixeira bumped up to the middleweight division from the junior middleweight division for this bout. He intends on going back down to the junior middleweight division.
Teixeira’s height and reach advantage was evident immediately, but Stevens was able to work around that by showing a lot of head movement and being the more active puncher. He was able to hurt Teixeira with a quick jab, and was able to land his left hook several times. Teixeira had to hold on several times and was outworked by the older Stevens.
Teixeira was moved back by a straight right hand from Stevens in the opening seconds of the second round, and Stevens followed it up with a hard left hook. Stevens was able to block most of the punches of Teixeira, and then landed a right hook that sent Teixeira down. Teixeira got back to his feet but was still wobbly, and the referee waived off the bout.
Curtis Stevens wins by TKO at 1:04 of the second round.
After the fight Stevens stated, “The name of the game is to knock people out and that’s what I did tonight. I feel great to get back into the game after my one and a half year break. I really want Lemieux, but I will take whatever I can get. My head is right, and I’m ready to take on whoever.”
The next bout of the night was between Mauricio Herrera (22-5) and Frankie Gomez (20-0) in the welterweight division.
Gomez was the more aggressive boxer in the first round and found a home for his lead left hook several times. Herrera looked a little rusty in the opening round and tied up with Gomez whenever he got in close.
Gomez controlled the action in the second round and was able to land and connect with his punches before Herrera could fire off his. Herrera had a cut under his left eye by the end of the round and Gomez was able to punctuate a strong round with a quick combination.
Herrera looked visibly frustrated at the start of the third round, and he came out more aggressive than the previous rounds and was able to land a few body punches. But, Gomez was sharper with his counter punches and still remained in control.
Gomez’s power punches were landing with regularity in the fourth round, and he had Herrera backing into a corner and taking some hard power shots. Gomez’s aggression continued in the fifth round and he had caused a small mouse to swell up under the right eye of Herrera.
Gomez dominated the sixth and seventh rounds while Herrera was able to offer little offense in return. By the eighth round Herrera looked exhausted and looked defeated in the ring.
Herrera clearly needed a knockout in the final two rounds to win the bout, but that knockout never came.
Frankie Gomez wins a clear decision with scores of 100-90 on all three scorecards.
Afterwards Gomez stated, “It feels good to get this victory. I trained really hard and it paid off. I’m ready to take on my next challenge and take on the best at 140. I want to thank my fans, and I’m glad I was able to put on a good show for them.”
The final bout on the undercard was in the middleweight division between David Lemieux (34-3) and Glen Tapia (23-2).
Glen Tapia bumped up in weight to take on the toughest opponent of his career, and he may have regretted it immediately. Lemieux was banging hard shots to the body and head of Tapia in the opening round and was ripping hard punches into the body of Tapia.
Lemieux had a very strong second round and had Tapia hurt several times. Tapia’s punching power paled in comparison to Lemieux, and Lemieux looked like he was close to scoring a knockdown.
Tapia was able to land a few straight right hands in the third round, but Lemieux still landed the harder shots and his left hook was giving Tapia problems.
Lemieux finally scored a knockdown in the fourth round from a hard left hook followed by a right hand to the top of the head. He was able to beat the count, but Tapia’s corner stopped the fight and did not allow the fight to continue.
Lemieux protested the stoppage, but he was taking a lot of hard shots.
David Lemieux wins by TKO at 0:56 of the fourth round.
Afterwards Lemieux stated, “This victory means the world to me. It proves all the doubters that Lemieux is back. When I first got offered the fight, I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. We made sure to have the best training camp possible and within the first round I knew I was dominating. I knew after the first round that I would knock him out. I’m ready to be among the best in the middleweight division and become a world champion again.”
