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Ardreal Holmes Jr. Boxes Past Game
Ismael Villarreal For
Split Decision Win
Ardreal “Bossman” Holmes relied on his superior height,
boxing chops and movement to win a split decision that
didn’t seem as close as the scores indicated against the
aggressive Ismael “Maelo” Villarreal in a 10-round super
welterweight contest Friday live on SHOWTIME from Stormont
Vail Events Center in Topeka, Kan.
After he stood in the pocket and absorbed too many shots in
his March win on SHOBOX® against Vernon Brown, the
undefeated Holmes, an amateur standout, took a safer path to
victory on Friday, or so he thought, tying up the aggressive
Villarreal when he got too close and banking on his jab to
pile up points. Holmes of Flint, Mich., won by scores of
96-94, 97-93 and 94-96 to move his record to 13-0 with 5
KOs, while Villarreal (12-1, 8 KOs) became the 224th
undefeated boxer to sustain his first loss on SHOBOX, a sign
of the competitive matchmaking of the long-running series.
Holmes’ jab was the difference as he out-landed Villarreal
50-8 and overall, 422 punches to 269 in a show of authority
that wasn’t really reflected in the scorecards.
“I felt like he won two, three rounds,” Holmes said. “I
don’t know where that one card came from. I feel like I
dominated the fight and felt like he might have gotten two
or three middle rounds, but that was the max. I felt like I
out-jabbed him and out-fought him. I felt like this was a
step-up from last time I fought, and this was a tougher
fight. I’m only 13 fights in so I’m going to keep
improving.”
The main event was a classic matador vs. bull contest as the
six-foot-two Holmes kept his distance with his jab and right
hand and Villarreal tried to bully his way inside with wide,
looping shots. Both had success but Holmes seemed to control
the pace of the fight and frustrate his hard-charging
opponent.
Villarreal of the Bronx, N.Y., landed a flush right a minute
into the sixth as Holmes was bullied into the corner, but
Holmes timed Villarreal with an uppercut to back him up and
comfortably fought on the inside when he chose to.
Villarreal landed a short right a minute into the seventh,
but Holmes danced away. At that point, the southpaw Holmes
began to come forward and back up Villarreal with his jab.
Villarreal landed a hard right that briefly shook Holmes
with a minute left in the eighth round. But he never
followed up, and Villarreal, who had just boxed past the
sixth round once before this fight, appeared to tire a bit
down the stretch. Holmes connected with a left hand in the
final minute of the ninth, but Villarreal rammed home a
right hand that seemed to stun Holmes as he lay against the
ropes to end the frame. In the final round, Villarreal went
for broke with a barrage of punches as Holmes covered up.
After knocking out undefeated LeShawn Rodriguez last July in
an upset, Villarreal couldn’t duplicate those heroics on
Friday as Holmes boxed his way to victory.
In the co-feature, Edward Vazquez showed his superior
conditioning and power as he dropped Misael Lopez and
captured a split decision in a high-speed, spirited 10-round
featherweight bout. Vazquez won by scores of 96-93, 95-94
and 94-95 to improve to 14-1 with 3 KOs as Lopez, in his
third appearance on SHOBOX, lost for the second time on the
unforgiving prospect series to run his record to 14-2 with 5
KOs. The lone blemish on Vazquez’s record came one year ago
when he lost a controversial split-decision to undefeated
former National Golden Gloves champion Raymond Ford. This
time it was Vazquez getting the edge.
“I obviously thought [the scorecards] were wider than that,”
said Vazquez of Fort Worth, Texas, who said he planned to
run a half-marathon on Saturday. “I thought he was doing a
little showboating and that doesn’t mean he’s doing anything
effective. That’s what professional boxing is about is being
effective on your punches and he didn’t do any of that. For
the most part he was just throwing a few pitter-patter
shots.”
The difference in scoring was the knockdown. Vazquez, 27,
dropped Lopez with a winging left to the top of Lopez’s head
that landed behind the ear midway through the second round.
Lopez rose quickly but absorbed several more blows as the
frame ended. Lopez didn’t think it was a knockdown.
“I didn’t feel the punch,” said Lopez, a Denver resident. “I
thought it should have been ruled a slip. I didn’t feel
anything. I started a little late, but I thought I
out-classed him the rest of the way and just out-boxed him.”
It was an entertaining bout that pitted Vazquez’s
aggressive, constant come-forward pressure against Lopez’s
boxing ability in Lopez’s first fight with highly respected
trainer Manny Robles. Every time Lopez seemed to flurry with
punches, Vazquez would time his opponent with solid left
hooks as the two often traded in the center of the ring.
“The left hook knockdown in the second was the key,” Vazquez
said. “He was off-balance for sure, but I hit him with the
left hook and that’s the game. In my last fight, the same
thing happened, and they didn’t call it. So, you just never
know.”
In the telecast opener, Kurt Scoby ran over John Mannu in
their 140-pound bout, flooring the Australian four times and
ending things at 1:40 of the second round with a left to the
body for his sixth straight stoppage. Scoby improved to 11-0
with nine KOs, while Mannu, in his U.S. debut, fell to
7-1-1, becoming the 223rd undefeated fighter to suffer their
first defeat on SHOBOX.
“I don’t get paid for overtime, so I had to get him out of
there,” said Scoby, a former high school and college
football standout running back who tried out with four NFL
teams but never caught on. “The game plan was always to stay
with the jab. If you have a strong team and you believe, you
can do anything in this world. You know what I want next? I
want to just go back home and be able to understand myself a
little bit more. That’s my next opponent.”
It was a surprisingly dominant and quick performance for
Scoby, who faced mostly light opposition before this bout
but showed he’s ready for more advanced competition. Scoby,
who weighed as much as 215 pounds when he played football,
dropped Mannu with a straight right hand just seconds into
the second round. Moments later, another right hand from the
muscular Scoby floored Mannu, who again rose quickly but
wouldn’t remain upright for long as he was felled by another
right hand. This time when he rose, he got up on shaky legs.
The end came when Scoby, 27, unloaded a right to Mannu’s
head and followed up with a dagger of a left to Mannu’s rib
cage that dropped him for the fourth time, causing referee
Jacob Villa to wave the bout off.
Scoby is a former high school and NCAA Division I football
star who rushed for 2,206 yards and 35 touchdowns in his
senior year for Monrovia High School in Duarte, Calif. He
signed to play at Fresno State University as a criminal
justice major and red-shirted his freshman season. He
transferred to Azusa Pacific University in the San Gabriel
Valley southeast of Los Angeles where he rushed for 2,703
yards and 16 touchdowns from 2015-2017. Now he’s producing
numbers in boxing that may soon rival his dominance in
football. His trainers call him the “11-dollar man” because
at the height of the pandemic he bought an $11 one-way
economy airline ticket from California to New York City
where he walked into the famed Gleason’s Gym to focus on
boxing.
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