Up-and-coming lightweight prospect Sharif “The Lion” Bogere fought to a close – and bloody – unanimous decision victory over Ray Beltran by the scores of 97-93 and 96-94 twice from Buffalo Bill’s Star of the Desert Arena in Primm, Nev. In the co-feature, top American heavyweight prospect Seth “Mayhem” Mitchell knocked out Evans Quinn at 2:38 of the first round on ShoBox: The New Generation.
Bogere (20-0, 12 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nev., and Beltran (24-5, 16 KOs) of North Hollywood, Calif., battled for ten blood-filled rounds before the judges declared Bogere the winner. Bogere had the momentum early as both men established their game plans. Beltran kept heavy pressure – and his weight – on Bogere to tire out the younger fighter and prevent him from getting into a rhythm. Bogere used his speed and volume punching to make his mark through the first several rounds.
Head butts dominated a large portion of the fight with Beltran suffering from a cut just above his left eyebrow in the third before returning the favor just below Bogere’s left eyebrow in the fourth. Both men punched, landed and bled in the middle of the ring for most of the fifth before Beltran landed some hard lefts to finish the round with the upper hand.
Beltran’s plan to take Bogere into deep water seemed to be coming together by the eighth, as the pressure seemed to be affecting the Las Vegas resident. Beltran rocked him with a big left uppercut and a short left that forced Bogere to lunge in an attempt to hold before eventually hitting the canvas. It was not ruled as a knockdown. Later in the eighth, Beltran slipped while trying to land a homerun punch.
One last cut-causing butt reared its ugly head in the ninth as blood poured from Beltran’s hairline. Despite the crimson streaked faces of each fighter, the two men battled until the final bell of a fantastically close fight that thoroughly pleased the crowd.
In the telecast’s first bout, Mitchell (22-0-1, 16 KOs) of Bradywine, Md., steamrolled over a completely apathetic Quinn (20-6-1, 18 KOs) of Bluefields, Nicaragua, in the scheduled 10-round heavyweight affair that didn’t go much past the first bell. Mitchell began the bout by popping his jab through Quinn’s lax guard. Quinn responded with a few flurries of wild punches, but Mitchell was unfazed and continued to pressure the Nicaraguan.
As the round entered the final minute, Mitchell connected with some hard shots including a left to Quinn’s head that was followed by some body blows and one last right that caused Quinn to drop to his knees. Referee Joe Cortez counted to 10 as Quinn looked up and shook his head to confirm that he would not continue.
After the fight, Mitchell commented, “He couldn’t handle my power. He couldn’t handle it.”
