Antoine Douglas seals the deal with a 4th round TKO to stay undefeated in his fifth #ShoBox appearance. #Boxing https://t.co/izK2dbxga4
— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) November 7, 2015
ShoBox made its return on Friday night from Las Vegas with middleweight up and comer Antoine Douglas headlining making his fifth, and most likely final, ShoBox appearance. This card saw four fights on the televised portion, the first two being close and competitive while the latter being fairly one-sided.
The first fight of the night was a lightweight matchup featuring former amateur standout O’Shaquie Foster (8-1, 5 Kos), who made his ShoBox debut in an unimpressive performance versus the more active Samuel Teah (7-1, 2 Kos.)
This fight started slow and never seemed to pick up the pace. Foster was an amateur who nearly made the U.S Olympic team by finishing 2nd in the Olympic trials, but he failed to ever let his hands go and lost a unanimous decision on the cards: 79-73 and 77-75 twice
Teah won the fight simply by being the aggressor. He did not land a lot of punches, but did have some moments and landed a number of big shots on the quicker Foster, who really never got into a rhythm and seemed very tight. Thaboxingvoice scored the bout 78-75 Teah.
The second fight of the night was in the welterweight division between Keenan Smith (9-0, 3 Kos) and Benjamin Whitaker (10-2, 2 Kos), a fight in which we saw Keenan Smith winning by a wide margin on the cards with scores of 79-73 and 78-74 twice.
This fight saw solid action throughout and almost every round was a toss-up round. The cards were quite surprising, as a number of ringside observers at the fight and on social media had Whitaker winning.
Rounds four to six saw great exchanges and some drama as well. In the sixth round, an unintentional head-butt opened a nasty cut over the eye of Keenan Smith, a cut that forced him to get on his bike for the remainder of the round.
Smith did a good job to handle adversity with the cut. It looked very bad initially, he got out of the round however and scored a knockdown in the seventh round to help him secure his victory.
Smith’s victory helped him remain undefeated and on track to set up more ShoBox fights against other up and comers. This fight was fairly close and competitive and the scores do not reflect how close this fight was. My score: 76-76 Draw.
The third bout of the night saw two foreign fighters squaring off. Taras Shelestyuk, (13-0, 8 Kos) a 2012 Ukrainian Olympian, put on a boxing clinic when he dominated the game, but overmatched, Aslanbek Kozaev (26-2-1, 7 Kos) on his way to a unanimous decision victory.
The judges scored the fight 100-90 twice and 99-91. Shelestyuk looked extremely polished and active for such a young prospect. He out-landed his opponent 4 to 1 in this fight and was on the verge of stopping him in the sixth.
Taras displayed good stamina and this fight and a solid chin by taking some early fire from Kozaev in the second round. From that point on Shelestyuk cruised to an easy win to keep his record perfect. The amount of combos landed and angles used by the Ukrainian spoke to his fantastic amateur background. I had it a shutout on my card. My score: 100-90
Douglas def Sherrington TKO4 (Junior Middleweight):
Antoine Douglas (18-0-1, 12 Kos) made his unofficial “ShoBox Graduation” fight tonight. He joined the likes of Andre Ward, Badou Jack, Robert Guerrero, and several others as boxers who have fought five times on ShoBox.
The man in his way, Les Sherrington (35-7, 19 Kos), a former Australian rugby player making his U.S debut who had been knocked out in six of seven losses, had not fought in nearly a year but had faced solid opposition and was a good pick for Douglas’s last fight on ShoBox.
The first round saw action immediately, as Douglas knockdown Sherrington with a straight right hand. It seemed like a flash knockdown, however Douglas landed the punch almost on Sherrington’s neck, thus causing him to be floored despite not being hurt.
Douglas had a quiet start to the second, until he landed a vicious left hook that wobbled Sherrington. He then landed a barrage of punches on Les in the corner causing the Australian to be dropped for the second time in as many rounds.
Also in the second round, Douglas knocked Sherrington down with an uppercut on the inside which knocked Les down. Kenny Bayless, who is a terrific referee, ruled it a slip, no knockdown.
The third round saw more of Douglas. Antoine scored his third and fourth knockdowns of the fight on Sherrington who at this point was just going down by any significant shot Douglas landed.
The fourth round saw the grand finale, as Douglas got Sherrington into a corner, and landed a series of devastating body blows that put the Australian on his back for a fifth and final time.
Despite being in with a guy who does not have a sturdy chin to say the least, Douglas displayed good power and discipline. He could have gone for the knockout in the first, but he seemed contempt with boxing a few rounds while still overpowering his opponent, knowing he would eventually be stopped.
It looks like Antoine Douglas is finally moving on to the PBC picture after finishing undefeated on ShoBox. Douglas is a highly versatile middleweight who many think is ready to fight for a title in the next year.
We will see who Douglas’ advisers want him to fight next, but he did what he had to do in his ShoBox finale tonight like so many other current champions have done before him.
