It was a great weekend for fight fans, both locally and nationwide. Here in St. Louis, we were treated to a fun fight card out at the Ameristar Casino courtesy of Rumble Time Promotions and DiBella Entertainment and ESPN’s Friday Night Fans.
Local boxing prospect Stephon “The Show Stopper” Young (10-0-1, 4KO) kicked off the ESPN telecast with an unanimous decision victory over Vicente Alfaro (6-4-0, 1KO). Though Alfaro was brought in an just an opponent to highlight Young’s still, he was a game competitor. He pressed the fight to Young, but Young was simply too fast and too skilled for Alfaro and picked him apart.
There was a big contingency of “Show Stopper” supporters in the house and they were undoubtedly pleased by the victory. With some seasoning, Young can make a name for himself in the bantamweight division, but he’ll have to improve in two areas. First, he’ll need to turn over his punches and to generate more power. Friday night, he threw “slap punches” for much of the bout. Secondly, he’ll need to maximize his speed by throwing swift combinations then using lateral movement to get out of the way of his defender. He showed a little too much tendency to lay back on the ropes against Alfaro. All-in-all, it was a solid victory for the STL kid and I’m looking forward to his next bout.
Hello world, meet Terence Crawford
WBO Lightweight Champion Terence Crawford had a coming out party in his hometown of Omaha, Neb. Saturday night on Shobox. Fighting in his hometown for the first time as a professional, Crawford (24-0-0, 17 KO) knocked out previously undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-1-0, 16 KO) in the ninth round of a fantastic fight.
Gamboa’s greater level of experience looked like it would be the difference early in the fight, as he controlled the bout for the first four rounds, hitting Crawford almost at will with lunging jabs and hooks. But once Crawford settled down, his used his reach advantage to keep Gamboa at bay and slowly began to pick Gamboa apart, knocking him down four times en route to his KO victory.Â
For his part, Gamboa showed tons of heart in defeat. Everytime he was hurt or knocked down, he came back strong and nearly dropped Crawford late in the fight. But it just wasn’t his night. Crawford was the better man at home. Still, this will certainly be in consideration for fight of the year. In the highest profile fight of his career, Crawford showed he’s a force to be reckoned with.
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