By: William Holmes
HBO televised three fights on their Boxing After Dark program tonight, two in the middleweight division and one fight in the junior welterweight division.
Surprisingly, every fight on the undercard except for one went the distance. 6,532 people were in attendance for tonight’s card.
The first televised bout of the night was between Philadelphia native “Hammering” Hank Lundy (25-3-1) and Thomas Dulorme (21-1) for the vacant NABF and NABA junior welterweight world title.
Lundy was giving up both height and size to Dulorme and it was readily apparent when the fight started. Lundy was active with his jab in the first round but he did get tagged with a good left hook body head combination from Dulorme. Lundy didn’t seem to have the snap in his jab that Dulorme had early on and went down from an over the top right hand that caught Lundy by surprise. Lundy wasn’t badly phased from the first round knockdown and willingly exchanged with Dulorme as the round cacme to an end.
Dulorme looked focused in the second round and Lundy switched to a southpaw stance. Dulorme’s right hand was crisp and mixed up his combinations to the body and head in the second. The third round featured an exchange in the middle of the ring in which Lundy appeared to get the better of Dulorme. Lundy was the more reckless fighter in the third while Dulorme was fighting at a more measured pace.
Lundy’s left hook was starting to land in the fourth round with increasing regularity, but Dulorme had Lundy in trouble by the ropes as the round came to an end. The fifth round was highlighted by a vicious straight right hand from Dulorme to Lundy’s chin.
Lundy appeared to take over the fight in the sixth round when he figured out Dulorme couldn’t hurt him with his power shots and he just walked Dulorme down from corner to corner. Dulorme appeared to be slowing down and tried to keep Lundy at bay with his jab, but Lundy would walk through Dulorme’s best shots and had him fighting on his back foot.
Lundy was able to land his left hook whenever he got in tight and was fighting like he wanted the win more than Dulorme in the final two rounds. Dulorme was able to land a few good shots, but likely lost the later rounds due to Lundy being way more aggressive.
The judges scored it 96-93 Lundy, 96-93 Dulorme, and 97-92 Dulorme in a close split decision. Dulorme clearly won the early rounds and Lundy clearly won the later rounds, but the knockdown may have been the difference.
The next bout of the night was between Huge Centeno Jr. (21-0) and James De La Rosa (23-2) in the middleweight division. Centeno was taller and longer than De La Rosa, and used that reach to effectively drop De La Rosa with a sharp jab in the first round.
Centeno continued to use his jab in the second round and fired it to the head and body of De La Rosa. De La Rosa seemed unable to solve the length and reach advantage of Centeno and got tagged several times with the check left hook by Centeno.
De La Rosa was short with his punches in the third round while Centeno was connecting with his over the top right. De La Rosa was doing better at finding his range in the fourth round, but it was Centeno was still outboxing his opponent.
The end came at 2:20 of the fifth round when Centeno ducked under a jab from De La Rosa and landed a picture perfect straight left hand to the chin of De La Rosa that caused him to fall to the mat face first. The referee immediately waived off the fight as soon as De La Rosa hit the mat.
The main event of the night was for the NABF Middleweight title between “King” Gabriel Rosado (21-8) and David Lemieux (32-2).
Both boxers fought out of an orthodox and Rosado looked like he might be the slightly bigger fighter. Lemieux landed an early over the top right hand two hard left hooks, but Rosado took the punches well and answered with a left uppercut straight right combination. Rosado was sharp with his jab in the first while Lemieux was looking for the knockout punch.
Rosado continued to throw solid combinations in the second round, but it was Lemieux who was landing the heavier and more eye opening punches. At one point Lemieux had Rosado trapped near the corner with heavy body shots but Rosado was able to spin out of the way of danger.
Rosado was landing clean counter right uppercuts on Lemieux when he came forward, but Lemieux finally landed a clean left hook to Rosado’s eye that forced him to take one knee in the third round. Rosado got back to his feet, but got battered by Lemieux for the remainder of the third round and his left eye was badly swollen.
Lemieux came out swinging wildly in the fourth round and was looking for the knockout. He pounded on Rosado from corner to corner, but Rosado would not give up and finally slowed Lemieux down with two clean uppercuts. Lemieux was in trouble by the ropes as Rosado was landing over the top right hands and the crowd was loudly cheering on it’s feet. Lemieux was ripping hooks into the body of Rosado as the round came to an end, but Rosado was waiving Lemieux and was getting the crowd strongly behind him.
The crowd was in a frenzy for Rosado at the start of the fifth round and Rosado started off the round by landing his counter punches on Lemieux when he tried to get in close, but Lemieux ended Rosado’s rally with a loud right hand followed by a rising left hook.
Lemieux’s jabs and hooks took over the sixth and seventh rounds as Lemieux had Rosado fighting on the defensive and backing up constantly. Lemieux had Rosado hurt with a three punch combination in the seventh and he was back in firm control of the fight.
Lemieux looked relaxed in the eighth round while Rosado was tried to stick and move and stay away from Lemieux’s power. Rosado’s eye got checked out before the start of the ninth round but the referee allowed him to continue fighting.
Lemieux came out at the start of the ninth round throwing bombs to the body and head of Rosado, who showed a tremendous amount of heart by staying in the fight and firing back. Rosado had a flurry as the round came to an end, but it was Lemieux who landed the last hard punch of the rouhd with a short left hook.
Lemieux had Rosado hurt early in the tenth round with two more hard left hooks and he ripped hooks into the body and head of a fading Gabriel Rosado. The referee looked like he was thinking about stopping the fight as Rosado continued to take a beating, but it took the actions of a ring side official to step up to the mat and stop the fight.
Gabriel Rosado showed a ton of heart, but David Lemieux won by TKO at 1:45 of the tenth round.
