By: William Holmes
Showtime Championship Boxing was broadcast tonight from the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas., Nevada. The main event had big implications in the junior welterweight division and a potential showdown with the winner of the upcoming Zab Judah vs. Danny Garcia bout.
The first bout of the night was between Harry Joe Yorgey (25-1-1) and Jermell Charlo (19-0) in the junior middleweight division. Carlo had a slight height advantage and a significant speed advantage that was apparent throughout the fight. Charlo established his jab early and scored a knockdown in the second round when he connected with a right cross that sent Yorgey stumbling backwards. He then finally sent Yorgey to the mat with a short left hook.
Yorgey was knocked down again in the second round by a straight right hand from Charlo.
Yorgey continued to get pummeled by Charlo after somehow surviving the second round. Charlo out-threw and out-landed Yorgey and was making the fight a blowout. Yorgey suffered a cut over his left eye in round seven and was stopped in the eighth round when he was dropped again with a straight right hand to the temple. Jermell Charlo remained undefeated with a TKO victory at 1:09 of round eight.
The next bout of the night was between Selcuk Aydin (23-1) and Jesus Soto Karass (26-8-3) in the welterweight division. Soto Karass was considered by many to be a heavy underdog in this fight, but Soto Karass has been in several wars and fought Aydin–who entered the ring with new trainer Adam Booth and Booth’s sidekick David “Hayemaker” Haye–with no fear whatsoever.
Aydin threw wild haymakers, but Soto Karass patiently walked Aydin down, and backed him away with his body work and volume punching. Aydin clearly had problems with the superior reach of Soto Karass, and he was caught flush with several hard punches.
Aydin’s best rounds of the night were rounds seven and eight, when he was able to tag Soto Karass with several crisp crosses, but it was not enough to win him the fight.
The fight went to the scorecards and Soto Karass won the much deserved decision victory with scores of 97-93. 97-93, and 95-95, the draw by one judge being clearly undeserved.
The main event was between the hard hitting Argentinean Lucas Matthysse (32-2) and Michael Dallas Jr. (19-2-1) for the WBC Junior Welterweight title. Dallas was the taller fighter and came out aggressive with his jab, and even looked to be the faster fighter.
However, it did not take long for Matthysse to connect with a solid and crisp punch, and when he did land, it ended the fight.
Matthysse connected with a beautiful counter right hand followed up by a short left hook and Michael Dallas Jr. was out cold.
Lucas Matthysse is known as a slow starter, but he did not start slow tonight. Lucas Matthysse wins by devastating 1st round KO at 2:26, and now looks toward a possible meeting with the winner of the upcoming fight between Danny Garcia and Zab Judah.