Gabriel Rosado demolishes Glen Tapia (ESPN)
Gabriel “King” Rosado (24-11, 14 KOs) earned himself another shot against the top ten of the middleweight division after stopping Glen “Jersey Boy” Tapia (23-5, 15 KOs) in the sixth round of the scheduled ten-round main event of the latest edition of Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN at Park Theater at Monte Carlo. Rosado, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, took the center of the ring at the start of the fight, asserting his veteran skills before landing a powerful lead left hook in the sixth round. The hook began a series of more blows that dropped the native of Passaic, New Jersey, who got to his feet once more before another flurry of punches forced the referee to end matters at 1:15 of the same round. Tapia was taken to the hospital shortly after the bout ended.
“Tapia’s the type of guy that when you hurt him, he’ll come forward,” said Rosado. “It was very important to get the win. It was important to make a statement, to be impressive, to put myself back into the mix. I want Canelo Alvarez, Danny Jacobs, or a rematch with David Lemieux. I want to prove that I still have something.”
Tonight at Park Theater at Monte Carlo, Golden Boy Promotions invited first responders and other servicemen and women from the Las Vegas community to its boxing event in the wake of the October 1 incident.
“Las Vegas has been like a second home to me, and everyone at Golden Boy was devastated by the tragic events of October 1,” said Oscar De La Hoya, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the city of the Las Vegas and those affected.”
In tonight’s co-main event, KeAndre “The Truth” Gibson (18-1-1, 7 KOs) of St. Louis, Missouri returned to the ring with a 10-round majority decision victory against Alejandro “El Elegido” Barrera (27-4, 17 KOs) in a welterweight fight. Gibson began the fight cautiously, which actually worked against him as it provided Barrera with the confidence to hurt him in the third round.
However, by the fourth round, Gibson changed his approach: after landing a right hand and a left hook that wobbled the Mexican warrior, Gibson spent the rest of the fight working more on the inside with his high guard and looking for counterpunches from the outside. Though one judge controversially scored the fight a 95-95 draw, the score was overruled with scores of 97-93 and 98-92 for Gibson.
“I feel good, you know. I feel great,” said Gibson. “I beat an experienced guy, though I think that I could’ve done a better. I’m going to box a little more next time. I’m going to control my distance more and relax. It was a good fight.”
“I feel sad because of the defeat,” said Barrera. “I should’ve done more defensive movements, so I’ll work on that for next time.”
Bekman Soilybayev (12-0, 4 KOs) remained undefeated as he defended his WBC International Super Featherweight Title with a 10-round unanimous decision win against Fernando Vargas (32-15-3, 24 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico.
Like a bull, Soilybayev, of Almaty, Kazakhstan, pushed forward aggressively in the early rounds, throwing a thudding jab before ripping hard shots to the body. When using his jab, Soilybayev was successful, but when abandoning his jab, he left himself susceptible to shots to the midsection, which he himself landed on Vargas as well. Despite taking serious blows, Vargas’ toughness allowed him to be competitive in every round, though Soilybayev won with scores of 110-99, 99-91 and 98-92.
“I felt good. I went the distance, and I didn’t get tired,” said Soilybayev. “It was just like we practiced. I did all the things I’d been training for. But I do need to keep working at it and work harder to be a world champion. Moving forward, I’m going to work a little harder and polish my skills. I’ll do whatever my trainer says and work hard.
Las Vegas’ Randy Moreno (10-1, 9 KOs) opened the ESPN 3 undercard stream with an easy second-round technical knockout victory against Miami, Florida’s Raul Chirino (12-7, 6 KOs) in a scheduled six-round lightweight fight. In the first round, Moreno used a sharp jab to the chin and body of Chirino, before closing the distance to land shots on the inside, including hard uppercuts through Chirino’s guard. In the following round, Moreno landed a hard right hand that dropped Chirino, which set up another knockdown that would force referee Jay Nady to stop the fight at 1:35 of the second round.
“I feel good. I feel very happy I got the win,” said Moreno. It’s my first fight back in Vegas for a while, so I’m happy to take home a victory. I could’ve done some things differently, and I’ll work on them in the gym for next time. When I got the TKO and saw him go down, I felt relieved and happy, especially because I was fighting in my home town.”
