Antoine Douglas stops Les Sherrington in four on ShoBox

Nov

It was youth that triumphed experience on Friday night. And it was done so in impressive fashion.

Unbeaten middleweight prospect Antoine Douglas scored an impressive fourth round technical knockout over Les Sherrington at the D Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.

With the win, Douglas improves to 19-0-1, 13 knockouts, while Sherrington drops to 35-8, 19 KOs.

It was a classic matchup of youth versus experience. Some thought Sherrington might have been too much for Douglas, considering the fighter from Australia had faced the better opposition and fought more than the twice the number of times Douglas had as a pro.

That assumption was thrown out immediately in the first round as it was Douglas who acted the more poised fighter, staying within punching range and putting Sherrington on his back foot. The pressure paid off in the opening round when Douglas dropped Sherrington with a right to the head.

Douglas scored another flash knockdown in the second, this time dropping Sherrington with a barrage of punches to the head. Things went from bad to worse in the third round when Douglas dropped Sherrington, both times with left hooks to the head.

Douglas ended matters in the fourth round, hurting Sherrington with a left hook and eventually dropping him to the canvas with a barrage of punches. Referee Kenny Bayless immediately waved the fight over at 1:02.

The 23-year-old Douglas has now won four in a row since fighting to a 10 round majority draw against contender Michel Soro in July of last year.

Shelestyuk decisions Kozaev

Welterweight Taras Shelestyuk was too much for Aslanbek Kozaev of Russia, winning a one-sided 10 round decision.

Shelestyuk, who won a Bronze Medal for the Ukraine in the 2012 Olympic Games, improves to 13-0, 8 KOs. Kozaev falls to 26-2-1, 7 KOs.

After a feeling-out opening round, Shelestyuk began to sit down more on his punches, landing the more telling blows throughout the fight. The taller Shelestyuk rained down an abundant of punches, which began to redden and eventually leading to a cut over Kozaev’s left eye.

Anytime Kozaev attempted to mount a rally, Shelestyuk made him pay by landing repeated punches to the head.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Shelestyuk, 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91.

In other televised bouts:

– Welterweight Keenan Smith dropped Benjamin Whitaker (10-2, 2 KOs) in the seventh round in route to an eight round unanimous decision victory. All three judges scored the bout, 78-74, 78-74, and 79-73 in favor of Smith (9-0, 3 KOs).

– In the opening bout of the “ShoBox: The New Generation” telecast, junior welterweight Samuel Teah (7-1, 2 KOs) defeated O’Shanique Foster by unanimous decision over eight rounds. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Teah, 77-75, 77-75, and 79-73.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing