By: William Holmes
Showtime broadcast a card tonight featuring three bouts tonight. One between Jose Pedraza and Gil Garcia in the super featherweight division, another between Luis Del Valle and Chris Martin in the super bantamweight division, and the main event, between Thomas Oosthuizen and Marcus Johnson in the super middleweight division.
The first bout of the night was between Puerto Rican boxer Jose Pedraza (7-0) and Mexican boxer Gil Garcia (5-2-1). Garcia came out like a ball of fire and attacked Pedraza immediately. However, Pedraza was able to weather the storm and countered effectively with solid body-head combinations. Garcia kept up the pressure in an entertaining bout, often banging on the body of Pedraza. By the fourth round, Garcia started to tire, as his punches were losing steam. Garcia never relented despite tiring, however, and continued to come forward despite eating several hard shots.
Garcia got stung with a hard combination in the fifth round, and even though Garcia’s gloves or body never touched the canvas, the referee ruled it a knockdown. At the end of the fight, there was no question who won, as Pedraza remained undefeated with scores of 79-72, 80-71, and 80-71.
The next bout of the night was between undefeated prospect Luis Del Valle (15-0) and Chris Martin (23-1-3).
Luis Del Valle was a three-time NY Golden Gloves champion, and had a considerable amount of hype coming into this bout. Del Valle was heard saying he wished he was in the ring with Abner Mares last week, but he may not quite be ready for that yet. Del Valle was the more active fighter and landed the cleaner shots, but Martin was able to make it competitive for the most part.
Del Valle had Martin backed into a corner in the seventh round and decked Martin with a left hand as he was rolling away from the corner. Martin received a standing eight count, and was able to survive the blitzkrieg assault from Del Valle as he got back to his feet.
Martin somehow managed to survive the rest of the round and the rest of the fight. Del Valle appeared to step off the gas pedal in the last three rounds, but won the decision with scores of 98-91, 97-92, and 100-89.
The main event of the night was between Thomas Oosthuizen (18-0-1) and Marcus Johnson (21-1) in the super middleweight division.
Oosthuizen towered over Johnson and looked like a giant in the ring with Johnson. Johnson kept the fight close early, but the South African Thomas Oosthuizen used effective body punching when in tight and surprisingly quick combinations from the outside to win most of the rounds.
Johnson tried to keep the fight in tight to try to take away the height and reach advantage Oosthuizen had on him, but Oosthuizen showed why he had a nickname of “Tommy Gun” and fired off quick combinations to punch his way out of trouble. Johnson began to visibly tire as the fight wore on, was knocked down by a hard right hook to the body in the eighth round, and may have been tagged with a punch as he took one knee.
Johnson was never able to get himself back into the fight and seriously threaten Oosthuizen, and he lost the decision to Tommy Gun by scores of 98-91, 98-91, and 98-91.
Thomas Oosthuizen remains undefeated, and with his surprisingly quick combinations and gi-normous height and reach in the super middleweight division, he will be a force to be reckoned with.
