From Nice, California, another Toe to Toe Tuesday is in the books. This one featured four PBC prospects and it is no surprise that the bout featuring two of them in unbeaten Marco Hernandez versus once beaten Kyrone Davis was the treat of the card.
Counter to my expectations, the now 12-1 (5 KOs) Davis came in pressuring while the now 9-1 (2 KOs) Hernandez worked very well off the back foot in the first two rounds. He especially excelled in the second when he surprisingly wobbled Davis with a huge left hook. His record shows no power, but he does land a lot of flashy shots that look like they have something on them when they don’t. This is much like Juan Diaz used to though he was more of a pressure fighter.
Davis took over in the middle rounds. He kept the pressure on by putting his head square in Hernandez’s chest while moving both hands to the body. His shots sometimes looked like there was nothing on them, but he just kept digging away. Staying inside was smart as he was struggling to safely close the distance.
Drama picked up in the seventh when Kyrone Davis landed a big left to the body that looked legal both live and on the first replay. Hernandez went down in visible pain. Instead of counting, referee Dan Snell instead immediately took a point from Davis for a low blow with no prior warning. He had warned him about grabbing the ropes several time, but not about a low blow. A second replay showed it on the belt. I have no problem if the ref thinks it is low and not calling the knockdown as it was in a 50/50 spot, but deducting the point out of the blue was ridiculous.
Dan Snell again reared his head again in the tenth and final round when yet another huge left hook landed square on Davis. The once beaten fighter’s legs were shot from the punch and he staggered around the ring. At one point he went down, but he was pushed and the Snell was forced to rule it a slip. What Dan Snell was not forced to do is follow that with an extended lecture while Davis was still hurt, allowing him valuable time to recover and make the final bell.
The cards came back a split decision: Two 96-93s for Davis and a dissenting 95-94 for Hernandez. It was an entertaining, close fight and I am fine with the split decision. Mostly I just left glad the bogus point deduction did not prove meaningful in the end.
The show strangely opened with a fight in progress by joining in the third round. PBC Middleweight prospect Malcom McAllister brought his perfect KO record in against Mexico’s Alejandro Torres and left unbeaten, but with some serious drama. Having hurt Torres late in the fifth of six, McAllister came out to finish in the final round. Instead he found a big left hook which badly hurt and dropped him. He was able to survive, frankly, because Torres is not particularly a quality opponent. With the decision win, Malcom Mcallister moved to 9-0 with eight by knockout.
I don’t really believe in McAllister as a prospect yet. He has decent hand speed, but despite his muscle bound look and previously perfect KO run, he doesn’t actually appear to have a ton of power. Torres took a lot of clean shots before one really bothered him. Furthermore McAllister does not seem to have any sort of movement with his legs and is constantly in line to be hit down the middle. He and his team have work to do if he is going to develop and he is fairly old for nine pro fights at 26.
In the main event of the evening, Cuban Leduan Barthelemy (youngest brother of Yan and Rances) improved to 13-0 (7 KOs) with a ninth round stoppage of Dominican fighter Reynoso Blanco who fell to 14-4.
This was yet another fight where Leduan Barthelemy really struggled with a journeyman level fighters. Blanco was weight drained and looked shell shocked in the first round, but I thought he won the next three clean after. Leduan just could not keep him away.
Eventually Barthelemy did get his jab working and it changed the fight. A terrible non-knockdown was called in the eighth for the second time in the card when Leduan first wobbled Blanco with a left and then dropped him with a jab. Bad call or not, this seemed to be the moment Blanco broke and Barthelemy was able to pull away before dropping Blanco to a knee with a flurry in the tenth. I did not think Blanco wanted to rise, but he did and his corner stopped the fight for him.
From range Leduan Barthelemy is an accurate, reasonably strong puncher for his absurdly long 6′ frame at 130 lbs, but he seems unable to either use his legs to keep himself there or his jab to keep his always shorter opponents away. Having struggled repeatedly now, it is hard to imagine him matching the career of his two division titlist brother Rances. At 27 years old already, the clock is moving.
In recap, like I said in the preview, this was a weak card on paper. Four prospects, none of which are blue chip, and two of them against overmatched opponents on paper. So much for that. This was a pretty good card with three competitive fights.
