Top Rank Boxing is back and Shakur Stevenson was able to shake off the ring rust with a one-sided victory.
Stevenson, the current WBO featherweight champion, scored a sixth-round TKO win over Felix Caraballo. The fight headlined Top Rank’s first boxing show in the United States since February as the coronavirus pandemic effectively shut down the sport for months.
From the start, Stevenson quickly asserted his dominance over Caraballo, outlanding him and making him chase the young champion throughout the ring. Stevenson found plenty of opportunities to land punches, including a right-hand body shot that dropped Caraballo to one knee in the first round.
Afterwards, Stevenson was able to keep the pressure going, landing dozens of punches with ease throughout the rest of the fight. Stevenson ended the night with a huge body shot in the sixth round as Caraballo writhed on the canvas in pain for a brief moment from the body shot.
Although Stevenson moved up in weight for this fight, his future at super featherweight after this fight is not set in stone. Prior to the fight, Stevenson did tell Fightful that he has already imagined himself facing off against the super featherweight champions of today, but he hasn’t made a decision on where to fight next at this point.
The card also featured a pair of heavyweight prospects, Guido Vianello and Jared Anderson, in action competing in separate bouts. Vianello was first, dropping Don Haynesworth in the first round. As Haynesworth was slow to get up, the referee decided to stop the fight, awarding the win to Vianello. Anderson, on the other hand, had a livelier fight by comparison when he faced Johnnie Langston. The two exchanged shots early in the fight but from the second round onwards, Anderson kept connecting on power punches and Langston was unable to properly answer back, resulting in a third-round TKO win for Anderson.
The one fight on the card that did go to the scorecards was a middleweight bout between Quatavious Cash and Calvin Metcalf. Early in the bout, an accidental clash of heads resulted in a bad cut on Metcalf’s head. The fight was ultimately stopped in the sixth round, resulting in a technical decision for Cash, winning the bout with scores of 60-55, 60-54 and 50-55.
Opening the night of action was highly-touted prospect Robeisy Ramirez scoring a first-round TKO victory over Yeuri Andujar. Ramirez, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, threw a flurry of left hands from the start of the fight, dropping Andujar twice in less than a minute, forcing the referee to step in and stop the fight.
Below are the full results of the June 9 Top Rank on ESPN card from Las Vegas:
- Shakur Stevenson defeated Felix Caraballo by TKO, round 6, 1:31
- Jared Anderson defeated Johnnie Langston by TKO, round 3, 1:55
- Guido Vianello defeated Don Haynesworth by TKO, round 1, 2:15
- Quatavious Cash defeated Calvin Metcalf by technical unanimous decision (60-55, 60-54, 59-55)
- Robeisy Ramirez defeated Yeuri Andujar by TKO, round 1, 0:54
Top Rank also announced three more cards taking place in June at this link.
