Oh, what a fight night!
Jamaica’s Kemahl Russell retained his North American Boxing Federation (NABF) Junior Middleweight title by knocking out Mexican challenger Jorge “Michi” Muñoz in two minutes and five seconds of the second round of their eight-round contest at the National Arena in Kingston on Friday night.
It was a big disappointment to the almost full house when the end came so quickly in the main bout of an eight-fight undercard.
Prior to that, Jamaica’s leading welterweight and Wray & Nephew White Overproof Contender champion Sakima “Mister Smooth” Mullings had set the stage when he knocked out his Guyanese opponent Edmund DeClou in 2:36 minutes of the sixth round in their eight-round encounter that was the premier undercard fight of the night.
Before that, consistent Wray & Nephew Contender performer Tsetsi “Lights Out” Davis, in one of three middleweight clashes on the card, dropped to his knees in the fourth round from exertion and was counted out in 2:21 minutes, following four pulsating rounds of a tit-for-tat brush with Canadian south paw Christopher Pearsons.
Meanwhile, one of the highlight of the evening’s programme manifested itself in the clash between Rudolph Hedges of Jamaica and Lawrence Newton of Canada in another high-entertaining six rounds in which Newton took a unanimous decision win over Hedges.
In the lone female encounter on the card, Guyanese boxing diva Rewinna David succumbed to a barrage from her Italian counterpart Federica Bianco in round two of their six-round clash as referee Eion Jardine stepped in to spare David further punishment.
The night’s eight-fight card was a composition of six professional bouts, along with two amateur fights in which Marvin Shea of the JDF Boxing Gym prevailed over Samuel Grant from the Sugar Olympic Gym on points, while Rolanzo Lewin of Heavy Metal Gym won ahead of Renaldo Beckford in an Open Class matchup.
In the night’s main event, Russell, basking in his short but sweet victory, said: “I am quite pleased with the win, but if I were properly warmed in the first round… the fight would have been finished in the first round. But that is how it is. No taco cannot beat yam, banana and dumpling.”
While Russell was celebrating his victory, the vanquished Muñoz sat in the dressing room disconsolate with his brief showing as he nursed his left knee with an ice pack.
“I was finding my distance in the first round, but in the second round this happened,” pointing to his knee.
“It was perhaps one of those incredible incidents where my knee gave out. I was staying away from his longer reach as he had that advantage on me, and in one of those jumps to skip away from his attack, the left knee buckled under as it appeared to pass that threshold point of stability,” Muñoz told the Jamaica Observer.
Russell’s professional record now stands at 13 victories, 11 knockouts, and a defeat, while Muñoz was suffering his eighth defeat in 36 fights. He has won 26 fights, 17 of which ended in knockouts.