WBA #2 ranked heavyweight Michael ‘The Bounty’ Hunter II (20-1-2, 14 KOs) and Jerry ‘Slugger’ Forrest (26-4-2, 20 KOs) battled to a hard-fought ten round draw on Thursday night at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Forrest landed the heavier punches and busted up Hunter, but judges scored it 96-94 Hunter, 96-94 Forrest, 95-95. Forrest gets his second straight upset draw.
In a clash between undefeated heavyweights, former NFL player Mike Balogun (18-0, 14 KOs) destroyed Trey Lippe-Morrison (18-1, 17 KOs), the son of former world champion Tommy Morrison, in the first round. Balogun dropped Morrison, then swarmed him and got the referee’s stoppage. Time was 2:41.
In another clash between undefeated heavyweights, ‘Gentleman’ George Arias (17-0, 7 KOs) took a workmanlike ten round split decision over Cassius ‘C.O.G.’Chaney (21-1, 14 KOs). Arias pressed the action while Chaney never got untracked. Scores were 96-94 Chaney, 99-91, 97-93 Arias.
Heavyweight “Mighty” Joe Jones, (13-4, 9 KOs) knocked out Junior ‘Hurricane’ Wright, (18-4-1, 15 KOs) in round two. Jones floored Wright in round one and finished him 13 seconds into round two.
Light heavyweight Khainell Wheeler (6-1, 5 KOs) outscored previously undefeated Frederic “The French Revolution” Julan (12-1, 10 KOs) over six rounds. Wheeler won by scores of 59-55, 59-55, 58-56.
Nice win for Wheeler. He’s a sold prospect and missed fighting Nov. 18 in Philly when his opponent failed to show up. So he stayed ready and got this nice match in NYC. It pays off not to get discouraged and to stay ready.
Damn, Balogun has been out of the NFL for nearly a decade, and is 38 now. Had only seen clips of him prior to this, and wasn’t expecting much. This was starting to remind me of Mercer-Morrison for a split second there when Balogun had him on the ropes just before the stoppage. Probably too late a start to his career to go really far, but that was a nice win.
That was brutal! I agree, he’s almost surely started too late to do some major damage, but he can be fun to watch for a few years. I do recognize a few names on his record besides Morrison, like Ed Fountain and Branden Lee Hinkle who was a UFC fighter, but I think next Balogun has to go for the double. Trey has a brother named Kenzie who is 19-0-2 with 17 ko’s – that’s probably an easy fight to sell now and I’m sure Balogun would take it (probably would pay him pretty good now).
– Just watched that fight and it was indeed a brutal KO. Going to see if I can get the entire card on the ‘Tube.
– Take care.
@Lucie I had no idea that Trey had a Brother who boxed (or a brother at all for that matter). Watched some of Kenzie’s YouTube highlights, and uh, I think it’s safe to say that Balogun sweeps the Morrison family should that fight take place, and it’s a fight that does make business sense.
Oh yeah, the Morrisons are pretty interchangeable. If you’re THAT much better than Trey – maybe Kenzie goes rounds (I don’t think so), but Balogun surely beats them both.
Is it safe to say Morrison’s career is definitely over?
He has been very carefully matched over a long period of time but I expected he would win this one.
Right too carefully lol !
Pathetic decision and another black eye from stupid bias Judges..Forrest easily won that 7-3. Judges suck…..
LOL… Hunter pretty much got dominated and beaten up. 7-3 for Forrest would’ve been reasonable. But Hunter was the main guy of the promotion, so he got 2-3 courtesy rounds. It’s a shame that it’s this way, but not a shock to see a gift draw.
Very Terrible for Hunter….
Shocked that Lippe made it so far and got exposed so fully and completely. I’d like to see Balogun in a good fight soon because he’s aging and seems like an exciting fighter.
Hunter didn’t seem ready and wasn’t in the best of shape. I think Forrest got robbed for sure. Poor dude, he deserved to have his hand raised and a victory.
Thought Hunter was supposed to be the Heavyweight that everyone was scared to fight
It sounds like a few careers and ego were deflated last night. A draw for Hunter freezes his status for the moment, Cassious Chaney was a well kept secret and shall remain so- at least for the time being, and Morrison was just flat out exposed. No one is claiming this card was a clash of the worlds top heavies, but there were some definite intriguing matchups.
100% accurate ; my thoughts and expectations about this card were higher but honestly 3 of the fighters i thought were promising are definitly not at the level their suppose to be with such records..
Michael Hunter is barely average at best and this fight proved it his level once again.
He needs to stay active against Top opposition and not call out AJ or Whyte.
That’s what happen when your record is built with lower opposition and then you step up to actually fight a real fighter with KO power.. Balogun isn’t going at 38 to be a HW world champion but he could surprise some undefeated fighters like Trey Lipp whom the record was built against low low opposition and that’s just because i hate use the word BUM to describe any boxer..