By: William Holmes
The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada was the host site for tonight’s Pay Per View (PPV) Offering by Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).
The attendance in the arena was still sparse as the televised portion of the pay per view started. A portion of the undercard was televised on Fox and featured a stoppage win by Caleb Plant over Irish Mike Lee.
The opening bout of the pay per view was between Juan Carlos Payano (21-2) and Luis Nery (29-0) in the bantamweight division.
Both boxers fought out of a southpaw stance, and Payano was winning the early rounds and nearly doubled the output of Nery. Nery was short with his punches going into the third round, but had a strong fourth round and appeared to be gaining confidence.
Nery continued to stalk Payano in the middle rounds and remained the aggressor. Payano was still landing some good shots, but Nery did not appear to be bothered by the punches of Payano.
Nery turned the punch output in his favor by the seventh round and landed some hard blows on Payano by the ropes. Nery continued to land the harder punches and keep Payano on the defensive in the eighth round.
The end of the fight came in the ninth round when Nery landed a left hook to the body that crumbled Payano. Payano was unable to get up by the count of ten and Nery scored an impressive body shot knockout.
Nery wins by knockout at 1:43 of the ninth round.
The next bout was between Sergey Lipinets (15-1) and last minute replacement Jayar Inson (18-2) in the welterweight division.
Lipinets was preparing to face John Molina Jr., but he pulled out three days ago and Lipinets had to adjust his strategy for a southpaw on short notice.
Inson landed two straight lefts early in the first round, but that may have been the only clean punches he landed in the entire night.
Lipinets applied pressure in the opening round and continued that pressure into the second round. Lipinets landed a beautiful left hook on Inson that sent him falling flat on his face.
Inson got up before the count of ten, but he looked to be in bad shape and the referee waived off the fight.
Lipinets wins by TKO at 0:57 of the second round.
The final fight on the undercard was between Yordenis Ugas (23-4) and Omar Figueroa Jr. (28-0-1) in the welterweight division.
Ugas started off strong and crisp counters on the forward moving Figueroa. Ugas scored a knockdown when a punch from him knocked Figueroa backwards with only the ropes to keep him up, scoring Ugas a knockdown.
Ugas continued to land heavy body shots on Figueroa in the second round, and was able to wither the pressure of Figueroa. Ugas out muscled Figueroa, and by the fourth round had outlanded him 62-42. Figueroa had a cut above his eye checked out by the doctor but was allowed to continue.
Ugas lost a point in the fifth round for holding onto Figueroa, and Figueroa had a better round. But Ugas was able to land some hard straight right hands on Figueroa when his back was against the corner in the sixth and reclaim momentum of the fight.
Ugas had an effective body attack in the seventh and eighth rounds, but was warned for a low blow in the eighth.
Figueroa simply was not able to mount an effective offense in the ninth and tenth rounds, as Ugas had him time countered.
Ugas wins the decision with scores of 119-107 on all three scorecards.