Junior middleweight contender Xander Zayas (19-0, 12 KOs) won a painfully dull ten-round unanimous decision against a washed up looking Patrick Teixeira (34-5, 25 KOs) on Saturday night at Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Both fighters looked awful, but Teixeira took the cake by playing it safe for the full ten rounds, trying not to get knocked out. Zayas, 21, tried to go for a knockout in the eighth and ninth rounds when he finally realized that Teixeira wasn’t throwing anything back at him.
In the tenth, Teixeira caught Zayas with several hard shots that slowed him down a bit, and he was cautious at the last minute to ensure he won.
The judges’ scores wre 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91.
Teixeira was cut over his left eye in the ninth, and he chose to move rather than chance it in the remainder of the fight. All in all, it was a very boring fight from start to finish.
Top Rank made a mistake choosing Teixeira to give Zayas a guy he would look good against because he was too defensive to allow him to impress.
Featherweight contender Bruce Carrington (12-0, 8 KOs) defeated Bryan De Gracia (29-4-1, 25 KOs) by an entertaining eighth-round technical knockout.
In round eight, Carrington, 27, unloaded with a storm of shots to the head and body of De Gracia when he was up against the ropes. The referee then stepped in and halted the fight at 2:56 of round weight.
Carrington knocked De Gracia down in round five with a right to the head. De Gracia made it back to his feet at the count of seven, and luckily for him, the round ended.
In the eighth, Carrington went for the kill, stalking De Gracia around the ring with his hands down, uncaring about the shots he was getting hit with, and looking to unload on the hurt and tired fighter.
Finally, Carrington cornered De Gracias against the ropes and flurried on him with a series of power shots, resulting in the referee Erc Dali stepping in to stop the fight.
After the fight, Carrington said he would like to fight Naoya Inoue if he moves up to featherweight. Inoue was in the crowd, and he was asked if he would be interested in moving up to 126.
He made it clear that he wasn’t interested in moving up in weight yet, which isn’t that surprising because, with killers like Carrington and Nick Ball in the division, it might be bad for Inoue.
Light welterweight prospect Delante ‘Tiger’ Johnson (13-0, 6 KOs) battled hard to win an eight round unanimous decision over the busier Tarik Zaina (13-2-1, 8 KOs).
The fight looked close enough to be scored a draw, but the judges gave it to the A-side guy, Tiger John, by the scores 79-73, 78-74, and 77-75. Zaina outworked Tiger the entire fight, showing that he wanted it more, and was nailing with looping punches to the head and stringing body shots.
Tiger had a difficult time predicting where the punches were coming from and appeared intimidated. In the eighth round, Tiger came alive in the final minute, landing a couple of uppercuts that got Zaina’s attention and caused him to back off. This was the only instance in the fight where Tiger looked good.
Top Rank will need to watch Tiger because he doesn’t look like world championship material, and not in this fight. He looks more like a career contender-level fighter than someone destined to capture a world title.
Flyweight Andy Dominguez (11-1, 6 KOs) won an entertaining eight-round majority decision over Christopher Rios (10-2, 7 KOs) in a classic phonebooth type of fight.
Rios landed the harder shots, but Dominguez’s punch output was impressive and clearly what the judges looked at when scoring the fight.
The judges’ scores were 76-76, 78-74, and 77-75.
Junior middleweight Jahi Tucker (11-1-1, 5 KOs) dominated the tough Quincy LaVallais (17-5-1, 12 KOs), winning a wide eight round unanimous decision. The scores were 80-72, 80-72 and 80-72.
Tucker frequently trapped LaVallias against the ropes and hit him nonstop shots without worrying about what would come back. It was surprising the fight wasn’t halted because LaVallias took an enormous amount of punishment from the 21-year-old Tucker.
Super featherweight Ofacio Falcon (12-0, 6 KOs) boxed his way to a six-round unanimous decision over Antonio Dunton El Jr. (5-3-2, 2 KOs). The judge’s scores were 59-54, 60-53, and 60-53. Dunton El Jr. was down in the second from a jab. He was hit when he was off balance and fell over.
Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Ali Feliz (2-0, 2 KOs) obliterated Lemir Isom Riley (4-3, 2 KOs), stopping him in the first round. Feliz, 20, caught Riley with a perfect right to the head to put him down on the canvas. The referee, Eddie Claudio, stopped the fight at 1:25 of the round.
