On Saturday night, June 13, at New York City’s Theater at Madison Square Garden, light welterweight, Mike “Yes Indeed” Reed defeated Luis Joel Gonzalez by unanimous decision in an 8 round bout. For most of the fight, Reed walked his opponent down while displaying a varied attack of jabs and powerful body shots.
Judges at ringside scored the contest for Reed 80-73, 80-72, and 80-72. With the win, Reed’s record improved to 15-0, with 8 KOs, while Gonzalez’s record moved to 11-2-1, with 6 KOs. Reed-Gonzalez opened the non-televised portion of the HBO “Boxing After Dark” fight card, promoted by Top Rank, in association with All-Star Boxing.
The 22-year-old Reed talked about his win in New York City. He said:
“I thought I had a solid performance. Gonzalez came to fight and win on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade. I did what I was supposed to do. I hit him hard to the body and slowed him down. He had real good leg movement and we saw that on film.
“In the first three or four rounds he came out a southpaw, and I adjusted accordingly, hitting him with some good body shots and counter hooks. Southpaw fighters aren’t used to fighting other southpaw fighters. Then, he made a switch and I adjusted to that as well. He was a good opponent, and he made me work for my win.
“We don’t know the next fight date yet, so I’ll take a couple days off, and then get right back to the gym. I want to stay close to my fight weight, so I’ll be ready when Top Rank calls. Thank you Top Rank, HBO, Nike Boxing and Athlete Performance Solutions, my team, all the media, and everyone that continues to support Team Reed.”
Reed’s father, trainer, and manager, Michael “Buck” Pinson (Dream Team Boxing Gym/Clinton, MD), said, “I thought my son performed well. He showed a lot of hand speed and a lot of power. Gonzalez was a real durable guy. We definitely wanted the knockout, but it didn’t come. We’ll go back to the gym, back to the drawing board, and continue to work on throwing combinations and hard punches. All the fans I spoke to at the Garden said they really enjoyed his fight. Team Reed should be back in the ring again soon. We appreciate all of our fans that made the drive to NYC. We’re already looking forward to the next one.”
