Rising stars show their talent on undercard

At The Bubble inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Top Rank with ESPN opened the night with exciting undercard bouts for the Vasiliy Lomachenko versus Teofimo Lopez title fight in the lightweight division on Saturday night, October 17, 2020. JAHI TUCKER (2-0, 1 KO) VS CHARLES GARNER (1-1)

The undercard opener started off with a four-round welterweight rumble, two New York natives came into the bout looking for the second win of their professional boxing career. Seventeen-year-old, Jahi Tucker (2-0, 1 KO) from Deer Park, New York took on twenty-six-year-old, Charles Garner, (1-1,0 KO) from Buffalo with ease. Tucker came out of the corner determined, as southpaw Garner tried to pull a fast one and surprised him with a wild left hook, but the quick-thinking Tucker ducked out of his range, leaving Garner to fall and land on his gloves. The first round, we learned both fighters were switch hitters, meaning they had the ability to switch stances while fighting. However, Garner chose to come out of the corner in his southpaw stance, but we saw this showed to be an issue in the continuing rounds. Tucker maintained the first round by pacing and testing his opponent, Garner became more calculated with his punches and combos. We ended the first round with Garner up against the ropes, as Tucker worked his opponent to the end.

After taking much damage from Tucker, Garner continued to see issues with not only the commitment in his stance, but his nose began to bleed in the beginning of round two. Garner took many blows to his head, as Tucker continued to move forward toward his opponent with strong left hooks. There were some calculated exchanges between the two, but Tucker was able to maintain his technical punches and stayed on top of his counter. Thus, causing Garner’s mouthpiece to fly out of his mouth in the remaining thirty (30) seconds of round two. Commentator, Timothy Bradley claimed, “I am not scoring this match, it looks kind of ‘even’ right now,” in the beginning of round three. After much time to warm up, Garner began to come forward, but Tucker stopped him in his tracks by using his straight one-twos upon his face. Pressure for the young pugilist was expected, but the experienced boxer was well prepared and can thank his sparring days to elite sparring partners such as Shakur Stevenson, the current WBO World Featherweight title holder.

Both fighters learned a lot about their boxing technique in their second professional boxing match, such as maintaining composure inside the ring when being pressured by his opponent, for Tucker. As well as Garner learning how to commit to a stance and not dropping his hands so much. Although both fighters were competitive, any time Garner gained momentum, Tucker did not lead up. They ended the third round with a head clash as Tucker, who we saw had the better performance of the night, finished off Garner with a body shot and left hook to the head. In the fourth and final round, Garner finally came in strong and used his body to lean on his opponent, but the hungrier boxer out of Deer Park, New York was too fast and too quick with his responses in the earlier rounds to take the win by points. Age was no fault for the young fighter Tucker, he clearly schooled his opponent that night. All four judges scored the bout, 40-36 for Tucker to win the unanimous decision and improve his record to 2-0. QUINTON RANDALL (7-0, 2 KO) vs JAN CARLOS RIVERA (4-1, 4 KO)

The second battle of the night came with excitement for the unknown results. Quinton Randall, (7-0, 2 KO) out of Houston, Texas faced off Jan Carlos Rivera (4-1, 4 KO) of Vieques, Puerto Rico in a six-round welterweight bout. The unknown question of whether Rivera would be pushed passed the second round by his opponent Randall, lead into the first half of the scheduled six-round fight. Although Randall’s back story of “finding himself” while in jail was well known, this did not shake Rivera and his quest to come out on top, in this fight. Rivera took his time by staying inside the pocket and landing multiple punches, meanwhile Randall continued to get clocked too often by his opponent in the first round. Working off his backfoot deemed to be an issue for Randall, since Rivera was the more aggressive fighter digging into the body and landing a clean left hook to Randall’s chin. This left hook, caught the attention of Randall, who then calculated Rivera’s lounging, this left him open to Randall’s counters.

By the third round of the second welterweight battle of the night, Randall came into the round clear headed and backed up his technique with stronger-faster combos. In opposition, Rivera stayed on top of Randall, but Randall continued to come forward with no fear, landing his well-placed punches. In the fourth round, Randall perfectly timed Rivera with the jab and right hand then quickly landed hard body shots to the body of Rivera. Pushing passed desperation for a fighter who has bever been passed the second round, Rivera came lounging forward again with more aggression but with poor fundamentals in his boxing technique. Boxing commentators had Randall winning all six-rounds, but I saw Rivera winning the first three rounds but shortly slipping into weakness by round four. Finishing off the last and final round, Randall landed another hard body shot to Rivera with his perfect timing thus forcing Rivera to step backwards against the ropes. After six-rounds of back-and-forth aggression from both fighters, judge Adalaide Byrd had the fight at 59-55 and judges Max De Luca and Patricia Morse Jarman had the bout at 58-56; for your winner by unanimous decision, the captain of USA boxing team, Quinton Randall.

JOHN VINCENT MORALDE (23-4, 13-3 KO) vs JOSE ENRIQUE VIVAS (20-1, 11 KO) A scheduled eight round featherweight bout did not last longer than as expected for the third fight of the night. John Vincent Moralde (23-4, 13-3 KO) threw the first hard and quick jab against his opponent Jose Enrique Vivas (20-1, 11 KO), however, Vivas quickly countered with combinations of his own and a powerful left hook to the face of Moralde, knocking him down. The more technical fighter, Vivas, backed Moralde to the ropes with his hard body shots and blows to the head. A shaken-up Moralde suffered a low blow in the quick fight and ended it with Vivas finishing him with left hooks and big shots to the head. This was the third time Moralde had been stopped in his career, “what was lacking was the courage to want to be a champion,” says Vivas, who won the fight only 1:16 of round one by technical knockout.