On a night full of junior middleweight title defenses, the incoming champions have prevailed so far. Jermell Charlo shocked super prospect Erickson Lubin with a one punch, first round knockout in the co-main event while Jarrett Hurd was somewhat surprisingly able to earn a tenth round stoppage over top contender Austin Trout in the opener. Erislandy Lara picked up the expected win in the supposed main event as well.
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Well, then. In the co-main event and most anticipated fight on the card, Jermell Charlo (30-0, 15 KOs) shocked the boxing world by stopping super prospect Erickson Lubin (18-1, 13 KOs) in the first round with a clean one shot knock out. Most seemed to acknowledge that this was a competitive matchup, but most also figured that the young prospect would prevail. Nope on both accounts. One perfect right hand that Lubin ducked into had him down twitching on the canvas as his mind tried to rise while his body was incapable.
Jermell Charlo is having one of the strangest mid-career power surges that I have ever seen in the sport. He went nearly twenty six fights showing none and now has knocked out four straight opponents cleanly at the peak of his career. He now reportedly looks forward to a unification fight, potentially with Jarrett Hurd though Hurd has a mandatory defense to deal with. For Lubin, this is quite the set back, but he is only 22 and has plenty of time to come back.
Speaking of Jarrett Hurd (21-0, 15 KOs), the 27 year old IBF titleholder picked up his career best win after a tenth round doctor stoppage win over former titlist Austin Trout (30-4, 17 KOs) in the Showtime opener. Trout started this fight really well with his movement and counter work. After five rounds, I had him up four to one. Hurd was having a really difficult time finding him consistently while Trout was at times landing at will.
Hurd has clearly established himself as a second half fighter, however, and beginning in the sixth round he really began to open up as Trout tired. Strangely, Hurd seemed to come to life in particular after suffering a bad cut on an accidental headbutt. For a bit from there he started to fight with his hands down, adopting a herky jerky rhythm that Trout found near impossible to figure out. While the fight was at least somewhat competitive the whole way, the defending champion really was putting a beating on the challenger. After the tenth, the ringside doctor stopped the fight due to Trout’s closed eye and overall damage.
Closing the show in the traditional main event spot, Erislandy Lara (25-2-2, 14 KOs) picked up the expected unanimous decision win over Terrell Gausha (20-1, 9 KOs). This was not ever expected to be a compelling fight and it wasn’t. Lara would land a big shot here and there, most notably dropping Gausha in the fourth, and the former US Olympian would try to rally once and a while, but overall this was a very slow pace bout that left the crowd frustrated. The arena was emptying throughout the contest and those were still were there spent the most of their time booing. The crowd was maybe a bit too harsh, but still it wasn’t a good fight. For boxing fans, the other two contests were always the real draw here anyway.
