Saturday night saw James “Boots” Ennis (28-0. 26 KOs) impress with a quick knockout. Jamal James wasn’t so fortunate.
Jaron “Boots” Ennis stopped Thomas Dulorme in the first round. The first knockdown happened on a shot that Dulorme’s (25-6-1, 16 KOs) camp claimed was a shot behind the head. The second and deciding knockdown happened on a straight left hand.
Radzhab Butaev’s (14-0, 11 KOs) scored a ninth-round TKO over Jamal James in the biggest win of his career.
Butaev upset came at the end of a punishing body attack and a switch to being a lefty.
Butaev kept pressuring Jamal James (27-2, 12 KOs) despite the fact that James was effective early on with his jab and his own power punches.
The tide changed in the third round when James had some success fighting “small”. Ironically enough his success led to his downfall. Instead of staying behind his length, he fought the way Butaev needed him to fight.
In the fourth round, Butaev switch to being a left and was able to work the body and eventually hurt James in the round.
As James became more and more a stationary target, Butaev was able to work the body. James was never able to effectively go back to the lateral movement and jab that was successful earlier in the fight.
Earlier in the night, Michel Rivera looked impressive behind the jab in his win over Matias Romero. Once the jab was established, Rivera would unleash combinations. As for Romero, Rivera’s jab kept him at bay. There were times when Romero wasn’t busy enough and you could tell he was afraid to get off first because he was concerned with what was coming back.
But as the fight went on, Romero started trying to steal rounds in the last 20 seconds of a round but Rivera didn’t allow him because he was so dominant for the majority of the round.
The most impressive thing about Rivera was he fought a complete fight. He worked up and down. He kept proper distance. He was patient. He did everything an up-and-coming fighter should do.
