By Ricardo Ibarra at ringside
Photos: Mike Blair

In a good heavyweight scrap that capped off Friday night’s ‘ShoBox: The New Generation’ card at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington, Jermaine Franklin (19-0, 13 KOs) maintained his undefeated run with a ten round split decision win over tough southpaw Jerry Forrest (25-3, 19 KOs). The bout was a close one, but it was Franklin who worked better behind his jab to land at a higher rate throughout.

The fight quickly erupted into an all-out slugfest at the start of the first round, with both unloading some hellacious shots in close. Franklin, though, began to work off his jab and appeared to gain an edge. Franklin continued to press forward at a measured pace while Forrest looked to counter in close, with the pace seeming to favor Franklin throughout the first five rounds.

In the sixth, Forrest began to tag Franklin more often with hard straight lefts, closing the distance and capitalizing with heavy punches. The two traded momentum in the remaining four rounds, with Franklin finding greater success when he kept his jab busy and Forrest taking over when he could close the distance. The fight erupted into a back and forth battle in the final stanza, with both combatants unloading heavily. One judge saw the fight for Forrest at 96-95 with the other two seeing it for Franklin at 97-93, to give the unbeaten prospect his nineteenth win via split decision.

Former world title challenger Eric Hunter (22-4, 11 KOs) shook the rust off after three years away from the ring, taking a five round technical decision win over journeyman German Meraz (62-57-2, 39 KOs) in a walk out bout. Hunter pressed the action from the start, walking his opponent down and popping him with accurate shots. He dropped Meraz in the third round with a left hook but could not follow up after Meraz went into a defensive posture. After an accidental headbutt opened a cut on Meraz in the fifth, the ringside doctor advised referee Joel Scobie to stop the fight at 2:40 of the round, forcing the fight to go to the scorecards. All three judges had the bout for Hunter, with scores of 50-44.

A heavyweight bout between Otto Wallin and BJ Flores that would have been a part of the ShoBox telecast was canceled by the Washington State Department of Licensing at the last minute after Flores could not provide some requested medical documents.

Kicking off the ‘ShoBox: The New Generation’ broadcast, undefeated Jr. lightweight Giovanni Cabrera Mioletti (17-0, 7 KOs) handed Ecuador’s Luis Porozo (14-1, 7 KOs) his first loss, scoring a ten round unanimous decision win. After a rocky start to the bout, Cabrera Mioletti made the necessary adjustments to outland his opponent over the final half of the fight and earn a hard-fought victory.

As the action kicked off, Porozo was the effective fighter, finding success with crafty straight hands to the head and body. For the first two rounds, the former Olympian controlled the action while Cabrera Mioletti seemed unable to adapt to his opponent’s style. In the third Cabrera Mioletti, who boxed out of a southpaw stance, began to cut the distance finding openings for his left. Porozo came back in the fourth with the more accurate attack, but in the fifth Cabrera did well in avoiding right hands and landing his own shots. Late in the round Cabrera seemed to hurt Porozo.

The momentum began to turn sharply in the sixth with Cabrera Mioletti seeming to shake the early fight jitters and work well with his combinations, tagging Porozo on a more consistent basis. Cabrera Mioletti maintained a busier work rate for the remainder of the fight, finding his rhythm and moving in and out on his opponent with sharp combinations. The final tallies read 98-92 twice, and 97-93, all for Cabrera Mioletti.

Opening the 122nd edition of the ‘Battle at the Boat’ series from the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington, undefeated cruiserweight prospect Constantin Bejenaru (14-0, 4 KOs) dished out a one-sided beating for nearly six rounds over the tough but outmatched Jose Corral (20-25, 12 KOs). Bejenaru came out pressing from the start and slowly amped up his aggression as the fight wore on. He hurt Corral repeatedly throughout the fight, buckling his knees in the fourth round. Late in the sixth, the fight was stopped by the inspector as Bejenaru delivered a stern combination on Corral at 2:02 of the sixth. The win broke a near two year stretch of inactivity for the former WBC Continental Americas and WBC International cruiserweight titleholder.

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