In front of a live crowd at the Robert Treat Hotel, Light Heavyweight rising star Shaun George 16-2-2 (7 KO’s) of Brooklyn, New York earned an impressive unanimous decision victory over late replacement Thomas Reid 35-20-1 (13 KO’s) of Jackson, Tennessee. George impressed the crowd with his world class hand speed while landing many impressive body shots. Reid did land a few haymakers but was never able to hurt George.. Reid was stunned on many occasions and was severely winded during the last few rounds. To Reid’s credit, he was never knocked down and showed why he has gone the distance with many top fighters, only being stopped four times in his 20 losses.
“I was upset I wasn’t able to finish him off but overall my performance I think my performance was ok. I was very excited to fight Eric Harding since he is a world class fighter and after hearing he pulled out, I was let down. This is nothing against Reid, he was a very tough veteran and I can see how he went the distance with good fighters in the past. I was training for a different type of fighter {being that Harding is a southpaw boxer} and did not get tapes of Reid until the day before the fight”, George said after his victory.
Newark Welterweight prospect Alex Perez improved to 9-0 (6 KO’s) following a close unanimous decision victory over game challenger Cory “The Mad Bomber” Peterson 7-2 (4 KO’s) of Bay City, Michigan. During the first round, Perez showed good versatility as he effectively boxed and landed some big shots to Petersons head. The Mad Bomber stormed back in the second landing some good body shots on Perez while pressuring him for most of the stanza.
Perez had an excellent round three where he staggered Peterson and started closing his left eye from an accumulation of punches. After a competitive fourth, Peterson had his best round in the fifth where he was again able to land some heavy blows to the body and head of Perez. Perez however prevented any chance of an upset by having an effective round six (As a major brawl erupted in the crowd) by jabbing and moving his way to a 58-56 victory on all three cards.
Bantamweight Jorge Diaz improved to 2-0 (2 KO’s) by making quick work of Antonio Vera 0-2 who will return home to Puerto Rico following a left hand to the body which put him down for the count only 1:35 into the fight.
John Watson won his pro debut in front of many fans that came from local Irvington, NJ to support him in defeating Fitzgerald Johnson 1-2. Watson, who was supremely conditioned exhibited good hand speed and was able to land many good shots on Johnson, who represented his home city of Philadelphia well in the loss by not going out easily. Scores were 40-36 on all three cards.
Scott Fairlamb 5-0 (2 KO’s) of Butler, New Jersey, returned from a 3 ½ year layoff to quickly stop Dino Weingarten. The southpaw Fairlamb came out attempting to box and the first meaningful punch he landed was a straight left hand which dropped Weingarten. Weingarten attempted to get up but quickly fell back down forcing referee Earl Morton to stop the fight only 55 seconds in.