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Guy Stops Ball In Stunning Fashion
Mike Guy ended a two-year drought Saturday and brought home
a new piece of hardware for his efforts.
The 40-year-old Los Angeles native won the vacant WBC USNBC
super middleweight title at the MassMutual Center with a
ninth-round knockout win over Worcester, MA, native Kendrick
Ball Jr. (17-2-2), headlining an eight-fight card promoted
by CES Boxing and snapping his own three-fight losing
streak, which dated back to 2019.
Despite an impressive resume that included wins over Marco
Delgado, Eric Moon, and Denis Douglin and a bout against
Sergiy Derevyanchenko, the 5-foot-8 Guy entered (on paper)
as the underdog against the 6-foot-2 Ball, who had recently
captured the WBC USNBC Silver title and defended it for the
first time in August against Tyi Edmonds.
Once the bell rang, Ball was no match for Guy’s aggressive,
come-forward approach; Guy had little trouble working his
way to the inside and eluding Ball’s jab, dropping Ball with
a hard, overhand right in the opening round. Guy continued
the onslaught in rounds three and four, though Ball did a
better job defensively by not absorbing as much damage.
As Guy continued to throw every punch with bad intentions
while working at a frenetic pace, the only question was
whether or not he’d run out of gas in the later rounds. Ball
boxed effectively in rounds five and six when he was able to
use his height to his advantage, but Guy caught a second
wind down the stretch and hurt Ball again in the ninth
before catching him with a flurry against the ropes, landing
several hard shots that forced the referee to step in at the
1:26 mark.
For Guy, it was his first win since beating Douglin in
November of 2019, almost a full three years, while Ball
hadn’t lost since 2018, a streak of eight consecutive wins
entering Saturday.
In the co-main event, New London featherweight Shelly
Vincent (27-2) made a triumphant return to the ring,
outworking Chicago’s Shelly Barnett (5-6-2) en route to a
80-72 unanimous decision win on all three scorecards.
Vincent, who hadn’t fought since 2019, looked sharp as ever
at the age of 42, consistently staying a step ahead against
the smaller, quicker Barnett, who jumped from 120 pounds to
battle Vincent. Nicknamed "Shelito’s Way," Vincent has now
won four in a row and is now 15-0 lifetime fighting for CES.
Fresh off a comeback win in September, New Britain, CT,
featherweight Nathan Martinez (7-2) lost a narrow split
decision to Puerto Rico’s Jayron Santiago Lopez (8-8),
58-56, 56-58, 58-56, after the fight was stopped 44 seconds
into the sixth and final round due to an accidental headbutt
that opened a cut over Martinez’s right eye.
Martinez got rocked at the end of round one, but fought back
to score a knockdown in the second round courtesy of two
overhand rights that sent Lopez crashing to the canvas.
Lopez continued to press the action and the two fought
within arm’s length of one another for the majority of the
fight, leading to the headbutt that opened the cut over
Martinez’s eye. After a lengthy examination on the ring
apron, ringside physical Dr. Peter Warinner stopped the
fight, at which point the decision rested on the judge’s
scorecards.
Springfield welterweight Jalen Renaud (7-0, 3 KOs), who
bumped up to 154 for this fight, sent the crowd into a
frenzy with arguably the knockout of the night, cracking
Jurmain McDonald (5-5) of Jefferson City, MO, with an
overhand right at 1:37 of the fourth round. The fight,
scheduled for six rounds, was back and forth until Renaud
caught McDonald with a thunderous shot, immediately
prompting the referee to stop the bout as McDonald struggled
to get to his foot. Renaud remains unbeaten at 7-0.
In one of the most exciting fights on the preliminary card,
Springfield super featherweight Isaiah Cruz (2-0, 1 KO)
stopped newcomer Darren Mima (0-1) with only two seconds
remaining in the fourth and final round. Mima, an MMA
veteran of 19 professional bouts making his boxing debut,
absorbed some early damage in the opening round, but
continued to fight back until Cruz knocked him down in the
closing seconds of the final round. Mima tried to survive
the bell, but Cruz rocked him two more times, prompting the
referee to stop the bout at the 2:58 mark.
Making her second appearance of the year with CES and second
since September, Connecticut welterweight Stevie Jane
Coleman (2-1) ran her winning streak to two in a row with a
unanimous decision win over LeAnn O’Malley (1-1) of Las
Vegas, earning a 40-36 score on all three cards. Springfield
featherweight Joshua Orta (8-0, 4 KOs) made quick work of
Vermont’s Kody Murray (0-1), a late replacement due, via
first-round stoppage at 2:24.
Providence’s Timothy Hatfield (1-0, 1 KO), a former
defensive tackle for the Brown University football team,
made a huge splash in his pro debut, stopping Woburn, MA,
heavyweight Rodrigo DaRocha (0-2) at 1:03 of the opening
round.
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