By Arne K. Lang
Canada-born entrepreneur Garry Jonas is keeping boxing alive in the Tampa Bay area with his bi-monthly series of Wednesday Night Fights that air live at nominal or no cost on his ProBox platform. These are high-level club shows often featuring graduates of Showtime’s discontinued ShoBox developmental series.
The main event tonight was a battle of unbeaten junior welterweights that shaped up as a nip-and-tuck affair but became a breakout performance by Mykquan Williams (20-0-2, 9 KOs) who dominated Luis Feliciano (17-1) before stopping him in the sixth round.
Managed by Jackie Kallen and promoted by Lou DiBella, Williams had a rough upbringing in his native East Hartford, CT. His father was murdered when he was eight days old. Williams, now 25, turned pro eight days after his 18th birthday, but while he has yet to lose, his career before tonight made little headway. Heading in, he had stopped only one of his last 10 opponents. In Feliciano, a Milwaukee native of Puerto Rican stock, Mykquan was meeting a former Golden Boy Promotions top prospect who would have the noted trainer Ismael Salas in his corner.
Williams decked Feliciano twice in the second round and finished the job in round six, smashing Feliciano to the canvas with a pair of chopping right hands followed by a superfluous left. Feliciano made it to his feet but was in no condition to continue and the bout was waved off at the 1:43 mark of round six.
Co-Feature
In the co-feature, Freudis Rojas out-pointed Cristian Baez, winning the 10-round welterweight bout by scores of 98-92 and 99-91 twice, tallies that struck the TV commentators as far too wide, on opinion undoubtedly shared by those in attendance as the verdict was greeted by a smattering of boos.
Rojas, who was profiled in these pages back in July, came in undefeated (12-0, 11 KOs) and was expected to win handily over the Venezuela-born Baez who brought a good record (19-3, 17 KOs), but had done most of his fighting as a lightweight and was stopped in three of his last four starts. However, the six-foot-two Rojas never hurt the smaller Baez and Rojas was forced to go the distance for the second straight time.
In the lid-lifter, a battle of southpaws, Puerto Rican junior lightweight Jaycob Bradley Gomez (9-0-1, 6 KOs) had too much class for Ezequiel Borrero (6-1). Gomez, who was making his fifth appearance at this venue, scored a TKO, stopping Borrero at the 1:40 mark of round five.
Canada-born entrepreneur Garry Jonas is keeping boxing alive in the Tampa Bay area with his bi-monthly series of Wednesday Night Fights that air live at nominal or no cost on his ProBox platform. These are high-level club shows often featuring graduates of Showtime’s discontinued ShoBox developmental series.
The main event tonight was a battle of unbeaten junior welterweights that shaped up as a nip-and-tuck affair but became a breakout performance by Mykquan Williams (20-0-2, 9 KOs) who dominated Luis Feliciano (17-1) before stopping him in the sixth round.
Managed by Jackie Kallen and promoted by Lou DiBella, Williams had a rough upbringing in his native East Hartford, CT. His father was murdered when he was eight days old. Williams, now 25, turned pro eight days after his 18th birthday, but while he has yet to lose, his career before tonight made little headway. Heading in, he had stopped only one of his last 10 opponents. In Feliciano, a Milwaukee native of Puerto Rican stock, Mykquan was meeting a former Golden Boy Promotions top prospect who would have the noted trainer Ismael Salas in his corner.
Williams decked Feliciano twice in the second round and finished the job in round six, smashing Feliciano to the canvas with a pair of chopping right hands followed by a superfluous left. Feliciano made it to his feet but was in no condition to continue and the bout was waved off at the 1:43 mark of round six.
Co-Feature
In the co-feature, Freudis Rojas out-pointed Cristian Baez, winning the 10-round welterweight bout by scores of 98-92 and 99-91 twice, tallies that struck the TV commentators as far too wide, on opinion undoubtedly shared by those in attendance as the verdict was greeted by a smattering of boos.
Rojas, who was profiled in these pages back in July, came in undefeated (12-0, 11 KOs) and was expected to win handily over the Venezuela-born Baez who brought a good record (19-3, 17 KOs), but had done most of his fighting as a lightweight and was stopped in three of his last four starts. However, the six-foot-two Rojas never hurt the smaller Baez and Rojas was forced to go the distance for the second straight time.
In the lid-lifter, a battle of southpaws, Puerto Rican junior lightweight Jaycob Bradley Gomez (9-0-1, 6 KOs) had too much class for Ezequiel Borrero (6-1). Gomez, who was making his fifth appearance at this venue, scored a TKO, stopping Borrero at the 1:40 mark of round five.