Liam Paro knocked out Brock Jarvis with ease in the opening round of Matchroom Boxing’s debut main event in Australia, with Skye Nicolson and Demsey McKean, among others, picking up undercard victories.
Paro (23-0, 14 KO) was the clearly cooler head in the ring, with the is the 26-year-old junior welterweight looking nice and relaxed, compared to a tense, seemingly overwhelmed Jarvis (20-1, 18 KO).
Jarvis, 24, has had a very odd prospect path, turning pro in 2015 as a junior bantamweight at 115 lbs, making his way up a couple divisions by 2019, and then, in four fights prior to this, bouncing from 122 to 126 to 130 to 135, and this fight was at 140. It’s really not that Jarvis was finding it so hard to find suitable opposition at any weight, he was still fighting at a prospect level, there are dozens if not a hundred opponents out there at any of those weights for where he was.
He also does have the frame to carry 140, and in reality it’s shocking looking at him that he was making 122 as recently as 2019, but he just did not look mentally prepared for this moment, at the top of a bill that, while not a massive global event, was certainly significant to Australian boxing.
Jarvis fought tense, stiff, a little wound up, and Paro was cool as you like, shooting shots until he found the exact right one at the right time. The left hand that knocked Jarvis out followed one that was just a bit straighter and had met gloves, and came when Jarvis was trying to throw something himself.
More coverage coming today:
Paro is the WBO’s No. 2-ranked contender at 140 lbs, and while that’s, you know, questionable, it’s meaningful for him, and could let him work his way into a title fight by the end of 2023.
It’ll be back to the drawing board for Jarvis, who had shown vulnerability before, and this is the sort of thing that we’ve seen derail young fighters who went a step too far when they just weren’t prepared. But it’s also something we’ve seen fighters bounce back from, something that can serve as a needed reality check about where they really are in their development. We’ll see where Jarvis goes from here.
Undercard results and highlights
- Demsey McKean TKO-3 Patrick Korte
- Skye Nicolson UD-10 Krystina Jacobs (Nicholson wins Commonwealth featherweight title)
- Cesar Mateo Tapia UD-10 Abdoulaye Mayweather
- Rocky Ogden TKO-1 Ben Cameron Hands