A sultry summer night in Queens mixed crunching knock-downs with twelve-round chess matches, as three weight divisions shuffled their title picture on a busy show inside Louis Armstrong Stadium. The main event, a high-stakes super-middle clash, lit the fuse; the lightweight co-feature kept 20,000 fans buzzing until the final bell; and two under-card title bouts piled on more drama before the card was through.
Hamzah Sheeraz wrested WBC mandatory status at 168 lbs by flooring Edgar Berlanga twice in round 4 and again seventeen seconds into round 5 to force the stoppage. Berlanga’s early burst ended the moment a short right hand and follow-up left decked him near the ropes; a second knock-down left him woozy, and Sheeraz’s opening salvo in the fifth - right cross, left hook, straight right—sent the New Yorker to a knee for referee Michael Griffin’s wave-off at 0:17.
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Shakur Stevenson kept his WBC lightweight belt with a unanimous nod over volume-puncher William Zepeda (scores 118-110, 117-111, 116-112). Zepeda charged through the first four rounds, uncorking 367 punches, but Stevenson’s accuracy—half of his 600-plus shots landed—slowed the Mexican by the sixth. Slick pivots and sharp counters marked the championship rounds; Zepeda never stopped coming, yet Stevenson’s cleaner work and late flurries sealed the cards.
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Subriel Matías snatched Alberto Puello’s WBC super-lightweight crown by majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 116-112). A phone-booth brawl for eight frames turned in round 11 when Matías shook Puello with a right uppercut, cut him above the eye, and finished stronger down the stretch.
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David Morrell survived a knock-down and a furious finish from Imam Khataev to eke out a split decision in a wild ten-rounder. Khataev flattened Morrell with a two-piece in round 2, but a cut over the Russian’s eye in the third bled freely for the rest of the night. Morrell’s urgency in rounds 8-10 impressed two judges enough to prevail 95-94, 96-93 against a dissenting 95-94 card.
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Image Credit: Golden Boy