Herring, a southpaw, started out confident and poised early on, darting in and out and scoring with stinging jabs. Flores, possessing a healthy KO percentage bulled forward with heavy shots, but most missed the elusive Herring. By the mid rounds, Herring seemed to get a good sense of timing, bury body shots and alternating between offense and defense with ease. In round five, Herring scored two knockdowns, one caused by an apparent foot tangle, the second a slap check hook on an off-balanced Flores. By round seven, Herring turned it up another gear, ripping body shots, coming upstairs, and landing flush hooks. A dejected Flores continued to press forward, but the mugging continued until the final bell.
A solid win on national television was a step forward for Hering, who trains under the guidance of Mike Stafford. Herring stated he’d like to position himself for a belt by the end of the year, and it looks like he’s headed in the right direction.
In the opening bout of the evening, welterweight Alex Martin of Chicago improved to (12 – 0, 5 KO’s) in a ten round unanimous eight-round decision victory over Rossemberth Gomez (17 – 5 – 1) of Nicaragua. Martin, a former amateur standout, was sharp and very impressive in this outing. Martin, the southpaw, used excellent footwork and a consistent punch output to dominate his foe. I’m certainly interested in seeing what’s next for him this year.
In the second bout tonight, Raynell Williams, a southpaw out of Cleveland, survived a late final round scare and improved his ledger to (11 – 0) with an eight round unanimous decision victory over Gabriel Tolmajyan (14 – 5) of Glendale, CA. Williams, trained by Barry Hunter, was tentative in the ring and really failed to distance himself against his pedestrian foe. Williams did collect rounds but did not really exert any dominance. In the eighth round, Tolmajyan rocked Williams bad with a left, however, Williams hung on till the final bell to capture the win.
