By: William Holmes
The Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, NJ was the host for tonight’s NBC Sports Fight Night card and the main event was an important middleweight bout between Curtis Stevens (25-4) and Patrick Majewski (21-2).
The undercard got the crowd warmed up and featured some exciting bouts. Roberto Acevedo and Wellington Romero both scored first round stoppage victories, with Acevedo winning by a highlight reel knockout. Corporate attorney and Duke Law School graduate Venroy July won by decision and Wilky Campfort defeated DeCarlo Perez in a very close and hard fought split decision.
The venue was jam packed and the crowd was enthusiastic from the opening bout to the final bout.
The first televised bout of the night was between Thabiso Mchunu (13-1) and Olanrewaju Durodola (15-1) for the NABF Cruiserweight title. This was a highly anticipated fight as both boxers had a very high knockout percentage, Durodola had fourteen knockouts while Mchunu had nine knockouts.
Unfortunately for the fans in attendance this fight failed to live up to it’s potential.
Mchunu was a southpaw and shorter than the orthodox Durodola. Mchunu landed the first solid punch of the fight with a straight left hand in the first round and followed that up with a counter check right hook. Durodola had trouble landing clean punches early on and most of his shots were bouncing off the shoulders of Mchunu.
Mchunu scored a knockdown in the second round with a short right hook left hook combination on Durodola. Durodola was able to get back up to his feet and did not seemed phased from the combination. Mchunu was able to land a few more good counter punches on Durodola when he charged forward in the second round.
The fight really started to slow down in the third round as both fighters appeared to be looking for the one punch knockout without really throwing much. There was some decent exchanges in the third round but it was Durodola who was getting his punches off first.
The middle rounds lacked any significant action. Durodola was pressing the pace while Mchunu was fighting while moving backwards and looking for the counter. By the eighth round one individual in press row could be heard saying “It’s like watching eight first rounds.”
Neither fighter looked like they really wanted to press the action. Mchunu did have a solid last round and connected with some good straight left hands, but he never followed up his solid shots with combinations even when Durodola appeared to have been slightly dazed.
The judges scored it for Mchunu with scores of 96-93, 97-92, and 98-91.
Afterwards Mchunu seemed to realize that the fight wasn’t as exciting as fans were expecting. He stated, “I think he knew everything about me. He didn’t’ want to commit most of the time he was waiting for me.” He went on further to state, “ I wasn’t using my speed most of the time because I also wanted to drop him. I learned a lot tonight.”
The main event of the night was a ten round bout between Curtis Stevens (25-4) and Patrick Majewski (21-2) in the middleweight division. Both Majewski and Stevens had brought a large contingent with them for their bout and the fans in attendance were evenly split.
Many in attendance were expecting a close bout, but Stevens had other ideas.
Curtis Stevens landed a quick left hook almost immediately in the first round and it caught Majewski by surprise and he hit the mat. He was clearly stunned when he got back to his feet and Stevens quickly followed it up with a combination that sent Majewski to the mat again. Majewski rose to his feet for the second time, only to be met by a hard charging Curtis Stevens who landed another combination and sent Majewski to the mat for the third time in the first round.
The referee rightly waived off the fight at 0:46 of the first round in a very easy and quick fight for Curtis “Showtime” Stevens.
Afterwards, Stevens said “I tried to not to think so much tonight and I let my hands go, and when I let my hands go you see what happens.”
Undercard Quick Results:
Venroy July (16-1-2) defeated Sevdail Sherifi (9-3-2) by decision with scores of 59-55, 58-56, and 58-56.
Wilky Campfort (16-1) defeated DeCarlo Perez (11-3-1) by split decision with scores of 77-75 Campfort, 77-75 Perez, and 78-74 Campfort in the junior middleweight division.
Roberto Acevedo (8-1) viciously knocked out Illshat Khusnulgatin (10-1) at 2:09 of the first round.
Wellington Romero (2-0) won by TKO over Ismale Serrano (1-1) in the junior welterweight division at 1:29 of the first round.
Hasan Young (5-1-1) scored three knockdowns on Justin Johnson (5-6-4) in route to a decision victory in the junior welterweight division with scores of 60-51, 60-50, and 60-50.
Mark Rideout (4-0-2) drew with Fred Latham (4-0-1) in the heavyweight division with scores of 38-38, 38-38, and 38-38.
