Friday night in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, Anthony Dirrell picked up the expected win over Denis Douglin. What was less expected was that the win was on a technical decision following a nasty cut on the favored Flint fighter that forced an early end to the fight. Jamontay Clark and Ryan Karl picked up wins on the undercard.
The main event was an ugly affair with Anthony Dirrell (31-1-1, 24 KOs) looking for one big shot and Denis Douglin (20-6, 13 KOs) lunging into clinches constantly. The only real moment of excitement early was the one big right hand that the Flint native landed in the first round that had Douglin a little hurt, but that was probably a bad thing in hindsight since all Dirrell looked for from there on was a repeat of that shot.
The fourth round brought some chippy activity in the clinch where they weren’t breaking and then hitting on the break when they did. That brought out some more fluid action for a minute or so, but when Douglin hit the canvas it was on a clear push and not a legal blow. Dirrell did bother him with a few shots though. He continued his better work a bit in the fifth, but it was also back to being ugly in the clinch as well.
The sixth round brought the end of the fight. It started with some more clinch rough housing resulting in Douglin losing a point. It didn’t seem all that reasonable at the time given that both fighters were pretty dirty at different moments and this was a minor incident, but in hindsight I am weirdly glad it happened. With a minute left in the round, a bad cut appeared over Anthony Dirrell’s left eye and the fight was stopped when the doctor ruled him unable to continue.
It was unclear what caused the cut on the replay, but it was ruled an accidental headbutt and we went to the cards. Bizarrely, despite Dirrell being the home fighter and seemingly winning every round, he won on very close cards. Two of them were by one point. Had that bogus point deduction not occurred, this would have ended in a ridiculous technical draw. Thanks ref, I guess.
Jamontay Clark (13-0, 7 KOs) picked up a decision win in the co-main event over Domonique Dolton (19-2-1, 10 KOs) despite suffering a bad cut in the fourth round from an accidental head clash. Clark controlled the first three rounds with his awkward size, but Dolton did rally a bit in the middle rounds following the cut. Clark edged the last couple rounds, however, and the draw Domonique received in the majority decision was probably a little too generous.
In the opener, PBC on FS1 staple Ryan “Cowboy” Karl (15-1, 9 KOs) picked up an exciting win over Kareem Martin (9-2-1, 3 KOs) in a battle of junior welterweights. The first two rounds of this fight were dominated by bombs being landed by Martin, but Karl rallied in the third by buzzing Martin. From there Cowboy Karl never relented. Martin tried to rally back himself in the final round knowing he must be down, but he was hurt again and on the verge of being finished when the final bell ring. This was a fun one.
