Talented unbeaten middleweight Antoine Douglas made an impressive 2015 debut thoroughly outboxing previously unbeaten Thomas LaManna before finishing him by TKO at 2:44 of the sixth-round in the main event of a night of knockouts on ShoBox: The New Generation Friday from The Space at Westbury in Westbury, N.Y.
Douglas (17-0-1, 10 KOs), of Washington, D.C., controlled the bout from the opening bell and was the more active and accurate fighter, throwing 127 total punches to LaManna’s 73. LaManna (16-1, 7 KOs), of Millville, N.J., was tough and tried to counter, but wasn’t experienced enough to land anything meaningful against the skilled Washingtonian. Douglas employed a diverse and ferocious attack of uppercuts, hooks and jabs knocking LaManna down twice before scoring the knockout in an exciting win.
“I put the work in at the gym and that made it easy. It took me longer than I thought it would, but I got the job done,” said Douglas. “I thought I hurt him early in the fight now and then. I just wanted to keep the ball rolling from here.”
“He’s a good fighter, fast and strong. He’s everything I thought he would be. It was a learning experience for me,” said LaManna. “He caught me with a good shot. The first knockdown wasn’t a knockdown. The last one, I was off balance, but he caught me with a good shot. He was the better man tonight.”
“The last time Douglas fought on ShoBox, it was a very unsatisfying fight because he was held to a draw, and he faded late. This time, he took control the first 30 seconds of the first round, won every round, and then, just as you thought that the only thing that he needed to do was put an exclamation point on the performance, that’s what he did by scoring three knockdowns in the sixth,” said Boxing Historian and SHOWTIME Analyst Steve Farhood. “Douglas took down a fighter that had never been down before. This was a very impressive performance that reestablished him as a top 160-pound American prospect.”
In the co-feature of a thrilling quadruple header, unbeaten southpaw Ismael “El Tigre” Barroso (17-0-2, 16 KOs), of El Tigre, Venezuela, scored his 13th consecutive victory earning the NABO Lightweight Title with a TKO over-determined Issouf “Volcano” Kinda (17-3, 7 KOs), of Bronx, N.Y. The stoppage happened just three seconds deep in the sixth after Kinda appeared to have problems with his vision.
Barroso dominated from the early rounds despite a nasty cut above his right eye in the third and another below his left eye in the fourth, both from accidental headbutts from Kinda.
“I fight better when I’m worried. I had to get worried I would lose so I knew I had to fight my best,” said Barroso. “The cuts bothered me a little but I had a job to do. I thank God everything went well once I started to fight the way I fight.”
Kinda was rushed to the hospital with a possible orbital fracture. This is the second time he has experienced vision problems in his last three fights.
Skilled Jerry “The King’s Son” Odom (13-1, 1 NC, 12 KOs), of Washington D.C., avenged his lone loss with a first-round TKO against formerly unbeaten Andrew “Hurricane” Hernandez (8-1-1, 1 ND, 1 KO) of Phoenix, Ariz., in a super middleweight rematch.
Odom delivered his 12th knockout in 13 fights at 2:47 of the first by throwing solid jabs and strong connecting power shots. Hernandez attempted to counterpunch, but he was quickly finished by the talented Odom.
“I told you he couldn’t beat me. He caught me at a bad moment in the first fight,” said Odom. “I did it like my idol Roy Jones did it. After I hit him, I saw him smile, so I knew I hurt him. I did to him this time what I was on the way to doing in the first fight.”
Although it was clear that Hernandez was hurt, he challenged the referee call.
“I don’t know how the referee sleeps at night. He made a huge mistake,” said Hernández. “I was dominating. As soon as he landed a punch, they stopped the fight. I want a third fight. The world saw and will demand a rubber match.”
In the opening bout of the telecast, San Antonio’s Adam “Mantequilla” Lopez (10-0, 5 KOs) kept his record unblemished by delivering a second-round TKO at 1:42 with a strong left hook over fellow countryman Pablo “El Zankudo Letal” Cruz (11-1, 3 KOs) in a battle of Lone Star State super bantamweights.
“I hurt my left hand in the first round, but I knocked him out with the same punch a round later. I’m looking forward to fighting on SHOWTIME again,” said Lopez.
