By Damien St.Pierre
Current NABA Gold Heavyweight champion Jonathan “King” Guidry secured his 21st victory as a professional boxer on Friday night at the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi, MS, and he did it in very convincing fashion. Guidry (21-1-1, 13 KOs) who is also currently ranked #13 by the WBA walked down Mobile, AL’s Bobby O’Bannon (10-8, 10 KOs) from the opening round. Round one saw Guidry go to work on the body of his opponent. To his credit O’Bannon did put up a fight and landed a good right hand in the middle of the round but not enough to keep the round close.
The second and final round saw Guidry turn up the pressure and landed a chopping right hand followed by left hand that put O’Bannon down. O’Bannon beat the count but was on extremely unsteady legs and official Brandon Huges stopped the bout shortly after.
In a battle that lived up to all of the pre-fight hype Golden Meadow, LA’s Victor “Jalapeno” Hernandez (10-0) scored a hard fought 8 round majority decision over Tyler, Texas native Kenneth Taylor (14-3-2).
The bout was closely contested throughout and most rounds could have gone to either fighter. It was a true story of a boxer vs a puncher. Taylor stayed on the outside for most of the fight catching Hernandez with multiple left hooks as he came forward. Hernandez pressed the action from the opening bell until the close.
Taylor had a really good opening round as he successfully kept off the aggressive Hernandez. The middle rounds saw Hernandez implore his will and did a great job of staying busy while working on the inside. The last 2 rounds saw Taylor really move around the ring using his speed to keep Hernandez at bay, both fighters landed shots but they were few and far between which caused both rounds to be hard to judge.
Scorecards read 78-74, 77-75, 76-76 in favor of the current NABA Featherweight champion Victor Hernandez.
New Orleans super middleweight Marcus McDaniel (16-1) ended an almost 5 year layoff by stopping veteran Manny Woods (17-22-1) of St. Petersburg, FL at the end of the 4th round.
McDaniel controlled the fight throughout and did not look to have any sort of ring rust accumulated from the layoff. McDaniel landed powerful body shots early and had Woods hurt on a couple of occasions but to his credit Woods was never officially ruled down.
The lone female bout of the night saw St. Bernard, LA’s Britney “Punisher” Ruiz move to 2-0 with a 4 round unanimous decision win over a very game Jessica Pritcahrd (1-3-1). Both ladies came to win as the first three rounds saw an all out war break out with Ruiz winning those battles. Round 4 slowed down a step and Ruiz was able to land some nice right hand, left hook combos.
Scorecards read 40-36, 40-36, 39-37 all for Ruiz.
In a cruisuerweight bout that the judges seemingly had the scorecards turned in prior to the start of the fight, Meridian, MS’s Charles Dale (14-3) captured a 4 round unanimous decision win over Houma, LA’s Steven Lyons (5-10-2). Dale started the bout with a thudding right hand that sent Lyons in the ropes, that would be Dale’s best moment of the bout. The middle of the 2nd round saw Lyons land a straight right hand that changed the complexion of the fight. The final rounds were back and forth with both fighters landing shots back and forth.
Official scorecards read 40-36, 40-36, 40-36. FightNews scored the bout 38-38.
The opening bout of the night saw Kenner, LA’s Junior Pizzati (4-1) score a 4 round unanimous decision win over a game Clayton Ward (1-2) of Cypress, TX. Scores were 40-36, 40-36, 40-36.