Since PBC’s debut in March of 2015, it seems as if Spike has consistently had the best action fights, and that did not change Friday night in Mississippi.
In the main event of the evening, we saw light heavyweight contender Edwin Rodriguez (28-1, 19 Kos) find himself in an absolute war with unknown Michael Seals (19-1, 14 Kos) in a fight that had a round of the year candidate to start it off.
From the moment the bell rang, Rodriguez came out throwing giant right overhand bombs at Seals, who looked to be bothered by the punches Rodriguez was landing. Edwin scored a knockdown thirty seconds into the fight, an odd one considering Seals basically ran across the ring and fell down.
Seals was not hurt at all after getting up from the knockdown, and he proved that right away. While defending up against the ropes, Seals threw a beautiful straight counter right hand which landed flush on Rodriguez’ chin and put him on the canvas.
Edwin wisely took the full eight count and got up looking ready to fight. Both men slowed down after suffering knockdowns until Seals, yet again, landed a huge right hand on Rodriguez just as Edwin was loading up to throw a punch, which once again sent “La Bomba” down to the canvas, this time a little dazed.
Rodriguez managed to escape the round but was in bad shape to say the least. He recovered nicely in the second round by boxing and moving around the ring well while picking sports to attack Seals. It was a quiet round, but of course, on this card tonight somebody had to get knocked down in once per round, this time it was Seals’ turn.
Rodriguez threw the overhand right with authority all night, and when it landed clean, it hurt Seals badly. That is the punch that virtually ended this fight: an overhand right by Rodriguez towards the end of the 2nd round damaged Seals and he was obviously shaken from the shot.
He made it out of the round, but it did not matter as Rodriguez put him away with yet another overhand right that sent Seals flying into the ropes 0:24 into the 3rd round.
Seals despite not getting the win, put on an impressive television debut, and I’m sure we will see him back in the ring very soon against another good opponent. Rodriguez overcame adversity from the beginning of the fight to defeat the formerly undefeated Seals.
Rodriguez got knocked down twice not just because of his chin, but because of him being over aggressive. The way he came out showed that he did not respect Seals’ power. Both times that Edwin got knocked down were on counter right hands; both shots that he did not see coming.
It will be interesting to see what is next for Rodriguez as I do not believe he is ready to take on tests from the likes of Adonis Stevenson, Andrzej Fonfara, or Artur Beterbiev. His chin would be a big concern against those sluggers.
Undercard Results:
The first televised fight of the night saw two young light heavyweights go at it. Thomas “Top Dog” Williams Jr (19-1, 14 Kos) outslugged Umberto Savigne (12-3, 9 Kos) by second round technical knockout, in a fight that saw both men touch the canvas in the 1st round.
Williams opened the fight using his jab effectively. During the first exchange Williams dropped Savigne with an overhand right that seemed to be a balance knockdown. Savigne did not seem harmed, as he answered back with a right hand of his own that put Williams down hard.
Williams was stunned by the knockdown more so than Savigne, and it carried over into the start of the second round. He looked slow and cautious for the start of the round, until he landed a straight left that put Savigne absolutely out of it, followed up by about four more punches that dropped Umberto for a second time.
Savigne was in no shape to continue after the second knockdown and it showed. Williams landed a barrage of punches in the corner until the ref finally stepped in and stopped it.
With the win, “Top Dog” Williams should get a fight with another one of the up and coming PBC light heavyweights sooner rather than later. His chin remains an issue, though, as he suffered his second 1st round knockdown in his last five fights.
The second fight that was televised was an absolute wipeout. Bryant “Goodfella” Perrella (12-0, 11 Kos) defeated Chaquib Fadli (13-6, 7 Kos) by technical knockout halfway through the 1st round.
Perrella just used the overmatched journeyman as a punching bag for a minute and a half until the ref stepped in and stopped the beat down.
Bryant Perrella could be a dangerous player in the welterweight division, he is 6’0 with a 72’ reach and he also possess power: a scary combination if he can prove that he can take punches.
In the third televised card of the night, former middleweight contender Fernando Guerrero (28-3, 20 Kos) scored a seventh round knockout over Brazilian Daniel Souza Santos (14-9, 11 Kos) in a surprisingly competitive fight.
Guerrero came out with furry boots (not kidding) and had somewhat of a slow start against the journeyman. The fight was uneventful in the first few rounds, each round being extremely even.
Guerrero started to pull away in the middle of the fight, and proceeded to hurt an exhausted Santos in the sixth, punishing him for the remainder of the round.
Santos came out for the seventh but was clearly done. Guerrero, after landing about thirty slow and powerless punches in the round, finally mustered up a shot good enough to finally put the overmatched opponent down and out in the seventh round.
This was a solid overall card with an absolutely electrifying first fight and main event. This is the type of card that I feel bad if people missed simply because they thought the main event was not “worthy” of being a main event. Seals proved to be a tough challenge and just because a guy is not known does not mean he is just some tomato can.
This is why all of us boxing fans need to remember the one rule when talking bad about a fighter or a fight in general: watch the fight, then voice your opinion.
