Mykquan Williams put on perhaps the best performance of his career in a three-knockdown finish in the first ProBox main event of the year.
Williams (20-0-2, 9 KO) did exceptional work with the right hand all night, using it to knock down Luis Feliciano early in the 2nd round. Feliciano (17-1, 8 KO) was so unsteady, he went down again immediately, but managed to survive the round.
Williams shook Feliciano with another right hand in the 4th, and caught him again shortly after on what was ruled a slip but should have been a knockdown. Feliciano, to his credit, kept recovering and fighting like a man in it to win. It looked like he was rallying in the 6th, only to get knocked down again and stopped.
The tight, sharp right hand was again the one that did the finishing damage for Williams. Even though Feliciano beat the count, his wobbly legs and glassy expression forced a referee stoppage. It was a very good call, the second one of the night for referee Frank Santore.
Here’s an embedded video, cued to the finishing combination from Williams:
Freudis Rojas UD-10 Cristian Baez
Bafflingly wide scores gave Freudis Rojas (13-0, 11 KO) a very questionable unanimous decision victory in the chief support. The running observations on Rojas in our live coverage thread were a mix of his inability to do much with his height advantage, and the excessive clinching he relied upon through most of the fight.
Cristian Baez (19-4, 17 KO) never seemed concerned about Rojas’s power, and seemed to do the better work throughout the night. But, that’s not what the judges saw, delivering official scores of 98-92, 99-91, 99-91 for Rojas. The crowd didn’t agree, booing loudly and chanting “bullshit,” and Paulie Malignaggi said the judges must have left to smoke during the fight.
Jaycob Gomez TKO-5 Ezequiel Borrero
Impressive work from Jaycob Gomez in the opener, putting Ezequiel Borrero down midway through the 1st and arguably again in the 2nd, though he didn’t get credit for it officially.
Gomez (9-0-1, 6 KO) was a level above, and it snowballed through the fight. Borrero (6-1, 2 KO) didn’t seem equipped defensively to handle an opponent on Gomez’s level, and kept getting caught by hard punches he didn’t appear to see coming. He was shaken and on the ropes in the 5th when the referee stepped in for a very appropriate stoppage.