By Lucas “Lukie” Ketelle at ringside
San Francisco welterweight Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield (21-4-1, 11 KOs) picked up a hard-fought win over a game Gaku Takahashi (18-9-1 8KOs) in an eight-round main event bout taking place at the Grand Ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA in a card promoted by Hard Hitta Promotions and Humboldt Boxing.
Mayfield, who was fighting with a heavy heart started strong nearly stopping Takahashi in the first round, but Takahashi had a good jab and came to win and made the fight interesting late as Takahashi never stopped coming forward. The judges scored the bout 77-74, 77-75 and 77-75 for Mayfield.
After the fight, Mayfield dedicated the bout to his brother Sahleem Tindle, who was killed by BART police earlier this year.
In the co-main event, super lightweight Willie “The Thrill” Shaw Jr. (6-0 5KOs) stopped southpaw Sean Gee (4-8). Shaw showed off a bit of everything that he can do using distance, speed and angles to land the right hand at will. The middle of the fight saw Shaw decided to fight on the inside, which didn’t seem practical seeing as he was having so much success from the outside. Shaw, nonetheless got a sixth-round TKO stoppage when Gee dropped his hands and took five straight punches unanswered in a manner like Ricardo Mayorga did in some of his fights, the ref called bout when this happened.
San Francisco middleweight Ricardo Pinell (16-3-1 9KOs) picked up a second-round TKO over Enrique Gallegos (7-7-1 2KOs). Pinell dropped Gallegos in the first round and stopped him in the second.
Junior welterweight Lennard Davis IV (2-1-3 1KO) got the first knockout of his career as he stopped Julio Rizo in a very entertaining fight. Both Davis and Rizo stunned each other before Davis caught Rizo in an exchange and stopped him on the ropes with only seconds left in the 2nd round.
In the opening bout, cruiserweight, Andres Salas stopped Tamis Long in a little over a minute. Salas swarmed Long and never stopped throwing punches as the cruiserweight was trapped in the corner with nothing to do.
Romualdo “R.J.” Magayanes was unable to compete because his opponent had issues prior to the bout.
I was told the fight was a complete sell-out.