And S8C is back open for business.
“World Kid” Sadam Ali (27-2, 14 KOs) got back to both welterweight and the win column against fading but still tricky fringe contender Mauricio Herrera (24-8, 7 KOs) in DAZN’s second main card fight of the big evening. Ali didn’t look spectacular by any means, but Herrera is always difficult to look good against and there was no question who deserved the win on the cards even if they did come back too wide. Certainly Sadam looked better than he did as a small junior middleweight against massive young Mexican Jaime Munguia in May. That night saw Ali get absolutely wrecked so this win is important for confidence if nothing else. No judge gave Mauricio more than two rounds, though I scored it 96-94. It wasn’t a good fight, however, and I can’t get worked up about the margins since both men landed so little. More interesting than this fight itself is where Ali can go from here at 147 pounds. Golden Boy doesn’t have much at the weight for him to work with.
It is good to be back from my real world forced hiatus from the sport.
The first fight I had to cover tonight was Ryan Garcia’s (17-0, 14 KOs) five round demolition of a game but very overmatched opponent in Braulio Rodriguez (19-4, 17 KOs) of the Dominican Republic. Some of the shine was taken off the 20 year old blue chip prospect and social media star when he struggled to overcome Carlos Morales in September. Garcia did well to put those worries on the back burner for now. While “Kingry” does stand awful straight up and over rely on his monstrous counter left hook, all that and anything else he was going to try was able to work well against Rodriguez. The Dominican was very bold in the ring with his taunting and all around antics. He just didn’t have the fire power to make it count in terms of scoring. The potential future star dropped him hard in the first round and finished him in five. Garcia still oozes star potential and another finish will only add to that. Hopefully Golden Boy moves him intelligently moving forward still.
