By Jeff Zimmerman at ringside
Super bantamweight’s Traimaine Williams (19-0, 6 KOs) out New Haven, Connecticut and Yenifel Vicente (35-4-2, 27 KOs) from Miami, Florida, took some time to warm up, but once it did, all hell broke loose, as they fought for the vacant NABO and USBA title. As both fighters tried to work inside, they constantly held each other, which forced referee Laurence Cole to separate them constantly. Vincete then proceeeded to get warned by Cole for holding in the 5th for and then three low blows in the 6th round which prompted Cole to deduct a point. Again in the 7th round, after another low blow, Cole deducted another point from Vicente. Williams, a southpaw, landed a big left hand late in the round too as they squared off in the center of the ring. At the end of the 8th round, Williams slipped multiple punches by Vincente ala the late Pernell Whitaker. Both guys were warned in the 9th round for fouls, but no points were deducted. In the end, Williams landed the cleaner shots, displayed better defense and got out of there with the unanimous decision and now holds both the NABO and USBA titles. The scores read 97-91 twice and 96-92.
Williams shared his thoughts after the fight with Chris Mannix.
“I think I did a B-, C. I could have done better. I didn’t want him to get comfortable fighting his fight. He saw me having fun so he starting to do dirty tactics.”
In a 10 round feature, heavyweight journeyman Joey Dawejko (20-7-4, 11 KOs) out of Philadelphia, who resembles heavyweight champ Andy Ruiz in size and was a sparring partner of former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua before the Ruiz matchup, squared off against Rodney Hernandez (13-8-2, 4 KOs) out of Modesto, California. Hernandez claim to fame is beating the massive 6’7″ Nigerian Onoriode Ehwarieme in a first round knockout. Hernandez came out the aggressor as he took the fight to Dawejko in the first couple rounds landing occasionally to the body and head. Dawejko came back in the 3rd round and landed a big right hand and a stiff jab. The best round was the 6th round, as Hernandez punched Dawejko into the corner and landed an upper cut and a big left hook as Dawejko was trying to escape. Over the second half of the round Dawejko came back and landed a straight right hand and double left hook to the head. The scorecards read 96-94 twice and 98-92 as Dawejko earned the unanimous decision.
One of Matchroom’s hot prospects, middleweight “White Chocolate” Nikita Ababiy (6-0, 5 KOs) out of Brooklyn, NY, used a sustained body attack and big overhand rights to win a hotly competitive battle against “The Cuban Missile” Yunier Calzada (6-6-1, 1 KO) from Houston via Cuba over six rounds. In the 1st round, Ababiy landed multiple blows to the body, but Calzada countered with right hands of his own. In the 2nd round, they exchanged in the center ring as Ababiy continued to work the body. In the 5th round, Ababiy went looking for the big KO, but Calzada was not going away and fired missiles back. Although Calzada appeared to win a round or two, all three judges scored it a shutout for Ababiy. The scores read 60-54 x 3. After the fight, Ababiy told the crowd he was happy to go the 6 rounds and “I learned that I have a lot to work.”
Super lightweight Arthur Biyarslanov (4-0, 4 KOs) rocked Solo Staley (1-4) from South Carolina in the first round with a shot to the head and landed a devastating right and left hooks to the head in the 3rd round with Staley against the ropes. Staley appeared out on his feet and against the ropes as referee Robert Chapa jumped in to stop any more damage. Biyarslanov kept his knockout and undefeated streak intact at four to start his career with the TKO at 1:18 of the 3rd round.
In a scrappy opening bout in Arlington, Texas, as part of the big unification clash of 140lbers Maurice Hooker and Jose Ramirez in the main event, Dallas middleweights Daruis Bagley (1-0) and Carlos Dixon 1-14-1, (1 KO) went toe to toe over four rounds. Dixon came out firing from the opening bell and landed heavy shots to the head and body of Bagley. Bagley returned the favor over the second half of the fight as he stalked Dixon around the ring and landed to the body plus uppercuts and overhand rights to the head. The judges gave Bagley the edge with his aggressiveness as he won his pro debut 39-37 on all three scorecards.
Rudy Hernandez got robbed. Big Time.
I hate BULLSHIT decisions.
You hate good decisions since you’re so used to shiat decision!
DAZN commentators suck! It was a good back and forth but Joey won the fight without a doubt.
Juan, you watch too much CNN.
#CNNsucks.
Agreed, that’s why I diversify my news sources.
But as a boxing fan, I scored the fight as the judges, Joey won Rodney lost.
Williams has no power and made a lot of slick moves without actually throwing any punches. Vicente gave it a good try and threw a lot of punches but missed with many of them. Williams threw a lot of light punches and occasionally slipped a hard one in there. However, Vicente was the power puncher and made it close because Williams just didn’t throw enough punches in some of the rounds. I thought the cards were way too wide. It was a lot closer fight than that despite the point deductions from Vicente for fouls. Williams did not impress me at all.
As for Dewejko, he was just disappointing. He didn’t seem to be into the fight and Hernandez looked like the winner to me. Dewejko just didn’t throw a lot of punches in some of the rounds and his late rally in the 10th round was too little too late. The cards in his favor looked like a gift because the fight could have been a draw.
White Chocolate” Nikita Ababiy needs to go back to the drawing board and learn some defense. He got hit by a lot of clean shots tonight and spent a lot of time posing and not throwing. He was throwing one shot at a time and occasionally swung wildly missing badly. Ababiy won the fight, but against a harder puncher could have been on the floor. He’s got a long way to go to be a decent fighter. He got exposed tonight.