Sena Agbeko scored a minor and deserved upset win over Isaiah Steen in tonight’s ShoBox main event, winning by unanimous decision over 10 rounds in Atlantic City.
Judges had the fight 96-94, 97-93, and 98-92 in Agbeko’s favor. Bad Left Hook’s unofficial card was 97-93 for Agbeko.
Steen (16-1, 12 KO) was confident he had “out-boxed” Agbeko (27-2, 21 KO), but the judges didn’t see it that way, and neither did I. For what it’s worth, Showtime’s Steve Farhood had it 95-95, and the final punch stats were close.
What likely made the difference was aggression and power shots, both thrown and landed. Agbeko landed 45 of 142 power punches, to just 18 of 78 for Steen. Steen spent most of his time pushing out a jab that struggled to actually dictate the pace of the fight, though he did have a wide advantage in jabs landed, 55 to 30.
Steen, 26, had flirted with losing his “0” in his last ShoBox fight in July 2021, winning a competitive decision over Kalvin Henderson, and tonight it seems he just held a little too much, and his boxing simply wasn’t as effective as he believed, at least to those scoring the fight.
Agbeko, 30, is also the level he is, but this was a real reality check for Steen’s potential. Agbeko was just that vital bit better, and was good at doing the right things to win rounds where there wasn’t a ton of clean punching to choose from on either side.
Marquis Taylor UD-8 Marlon Harrington
More than any other single thing, this was fully down to overall boxing experience and knowledge, cleverness and craft.
Taylor (13-1-2, 1 KO) is no puncher, but he is a born spoiler, especially at this level, and he vast level of experience compared to the older but more novice Harrington (8-1, 7 KO) just took over the fight from the fourth round on especially.
Judges had it 79-73, 79-73, and 80-72 for Taylor, who at 28 really wants to fight at the higher levels, and of course he should. It’ll be tough for him, but he’s not already just accepting being a ShoBox spoiler. Harrington’s corner were really trying to rally him, but they just couldn’t; he was mentally beaten by the sixth, Taylor just too frustrating for him.
Moses Johnson MD-8 Elvis Garcia
A heavyweight battle to open, and a good fight, both big lads cut a nice pace and even when they were clearly tired, didn’t slack off into unwatchable garbage.
Johnson (9-0-1, 7 KO) gets his best win as a pro, at least on paper, taking it on two cards of 77-75, with the third even at 76-76. Bad Left Hook also had it 76-76, couldn’t split them, but it felt like a fight you could have defensibly scored 6-2 either way.
Garcia falls to 12-1 (9 KO). If we’re being totally honest, neither projects as any serious heavyweight contender, but Johnson, 30, will get the better chance at proving that assessment wrong from here.