Farmer dominated Francisco Fonseca to successfully defend is title. Photo Credit: Sky Sports
It was a marathon of a card at Madison Square Garden, in anticipation of the main event on Saturday night.
Top of the preliminaries was IBF Super Featherweight Champion, Tevin Farmer, who was authoritative in a defence of his Title against the tough Costa Rican, Francisco Fonseca. Farmer landed with uppercuts at regular intervals, and his bodywork was impressive. It was no classic, with Farmer’s loose and languid style meeting the more rugged work of Fonseca, but Farmer impressed in patches with some eye catching punches, often clean, which showed on the bruised Fonseca’s face. in the end it was a 117-111 verdict across the board for the Philadelphian, in a dominant win, and he now looks forward to increasing his stock in the division in 2019.
Canadian puncher, David Lemieux was dropped from the card at late notice. Rehydration issues meant his proposed Middleweight meeting with Tureano Johnson failed to materialise. He was reportedly dehydrated and drained from trying to make weight the previous day.
It was a stinker of a ten rounder at Welterweight, as former WBO Super Welterweight Champion, Sadam Ali defeated Mauricio Herrera. There was little to report in an instantly forgetful bout, where Ali got the nod by scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92.
Katie Taylor successfully defended her world titles against Eva Wahlstrom. Photo Credit: Getty Images
On the opposite end of the entertainment scale, Bray, Ireland’s Katie Taylor is fast becoming too good for her own good. She turned in another masterclass in defending her WBA and IBF Lightweight Titles against the overwhelmed Finn, Eva Wahlstrom. Taylor dazzled with blurring hand speed and sublime combinations. It truly was a faultless performance, and try as Taylor might to stop Wahlstrom, with a body barrage in the last especially, the previously unbeaten Wahlstrom survived to hear the final bell. The result was a formality, and Taylor expressed her aim to become undisputed Champion at her weight in 2019.
A man usually with a lot to say for himself in California’s Ryan Garcia, moved to 17-0 with a knockout win against the awkward Panamanian, Braulio Rodriguez at Lightweight. A crashing left uppercut dropped Rodriguez hard in the first, but he impressively survived the count made it to the end of the round on unsteady legs. Rodriguez resorted to mostly showboating in an effort to unsettle and confuse Garcia, but “King Ry” was wise to this and was always in charge. Rodriguez was deducted a point for a low blow in the third, and became more and more ragged in the fourth, with Garcia landing with a barrage of punches. The pressure told in the fifth, as a concussive right, set up a crushing left, as Rodriguez was counted out, to the delight of the Big Apple crowd.
Elsewhere, Lamont Roach retained his WBO International Super Featherweight Title with a points win against Alberto Mercado. Scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93 saw Roach declared the victor. In an eight rounder at Super Lightweight, Canadian Yves Ulysse triumphed 79-71, 78-72 (twice) over the tough Maximiliano Becerra, who was dropped twice during the contest.
