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Tony Harrison, Julian Sosa notch victories on Lara-Gausha undercard

Fighters Network
14
Oct

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – On the undercard of Saturday’s junior middleweight tripleheader at Barclays Center local favorite Julian Sosa defeated Erick Daniel Martinez by unanimous decision in front of a large contingent of hometown fans. The official scores at ringside were a unanimous 40-35.

Making his fourth appearance at Barclays Center, the 21-year-old Sosa (10-0-1, 3 knockouts) thoroughly dominated Martinez with his speed and quick foot movement. Sosa leveled Martinez (14-10-1, 8 KOs) with a big counter-right hook which sent him down in the third much to the delight of the crowd. Martinez managed to get back up to finish the round but the bout was all but done.

Former title challenger Tony Harrison (25-2, 20 KOs) defeated Paul Valenzuela Jr. (20-7, 14 KOs) by unanimous decision to get back in the win column. The official scores at ringside were 80-71 and 78-73 (twice).

Coming back from suffering a knockout loss to Jarret Hurd back in February in a world title bout, Harrison stayed control for most of the bout against Valenzuela outworking the Mexican fighter until a clash of heads in the fifth round brought out some hostility from Valenzuela. After what looked like an accidental low blow by Valenzuela, he followed that up with a more blatant looking low blow sending Harrison down to the canvas in pain. Referee Steve Willis took a point away from Valenzuela. Harrison turned up the heat and went after Valenzuela peppering him with clean right hands.



In the seventh round Harrison stepped it up even more hurting Valenzuela with clean shots almost scoring a knockdown. The durable Valenzuela survived the onslaught and came back to hurt Harrison with a straight right hand. Harrison tried to cover up and evade danger but Valenzuela caught up to Harrison and started to land clean shots of his own. Harrison did his best to catch the shots and waited for Valenzuela to punch himself out. Finally when Valenzuela slowed down Harrison charged back with flush punches of his own opening a cut inside Valenzuela’s mouth.

This is the second career appearance at Barclays Center for the Detroit native who stopped Sergey Rabchenko in nine rounds in July of 2016, which earned him the title bout against Hurd.

Cindy Serrano (27-5-3, 10 KOs) scored a split-decision victory over familiar foe Edina Kiss (13-6, 7 KOs). The official scores at ringside were 78-74 and 79-73 for Serrano and 78-74 for Kiss.

In stay busy bout for the WBO featherweight champion, the elder Serrano sister didn’t stop Kiss as her kid sister Amanda had done on two previous occasions but Serrano was busy enough and clearly more skilled than the Hungarian Kiss.

Serrano worked behind her jab and landed hard right hands both to the body and back up top to keep Kiss off of her and give Serrano plenty of room to work. This marked the first appearance at Barclays Center for the Brooklynite Serrano, who hasn’t lost a bout since 2012.

Junior middleweight prospect Chordale Booker (9-0, 4 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Malcolm McAllister (9-1, 8 KOs) by unanimous decision. The official scores at ringside were 79-72 and 78-73 (twice).

The 25-year-old Booker dropped McAllister with a huge left hook in the seventh round sending the California native face first down between the bottom and middle ropes. McAllister was able to get back to his feet and survive the remaining 10 seconds of the round.

In the eighth and final round of the bout while Booker was coasting through the round believing he was up far enough on the scorecards, McAllister came charging and nailed Booker with a right hand that sent the 25-year-old Booker back to the ropes. McAllister tried his best to seize the opportunity to come from behind and ran into a straight right hand by Booker that stopped McAllister dead in his tracks. The two men traded bombs in the remaining seconds of the bout getting the crowd to their feet.

Booker, originally from Connecticut where he narrowly avoided jail time for a gun and drug charge now lives and trains in Brooklyn. He is coming off a second round knockout victory over Bryan Goldsby in North Carolina this past July.

In welterweight action Brooklyn’s rising prospect Richardson Hitchins (3-0, 1 KO) defeated Jordan Morales (2-3, 2 KOs) by four-round unanimous decision. The official scores were a unanimous 40-36.

Making his third consecutive appearance at Barclays to begin his professional career the 20-year-old Hitchins was in control from the opening bell landing clean right hands and keeping Morales off balance with his speed. Morales was bleeding from his mouth after the third round and worked to do enough to make it to the end of the bout.

Hitchins signed with Mayweather Promotions immediately after representing Haiti, the home country of his parents, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. This was his third bout this year.

In the opening bout of the evening heavyweight prospect George Arias (9-0, 5 KOs) picked up a hard fought sixth round stoppage over Mario Heredia (14-6, 12 KOs). The official time of the stoppage was 2:59 of round six.

The Bronx native Arias, who gave up nearly 60 pounds to Heredia, survived a second round knockdown to rally back against a winded Heredia. Arias found a home for his left to Heredia’s body which slowed the big man from San Diego down long enough for Arias to outwork him.

Heredia had Arias on the ropes in the first half of the fifth round landing unanswered uppercuts and left hooks. Arias was able to weather the storm and waited for Heredia to lose gas and came forward pinning Heredia on the ropes and unloaded a barrage of uppercuts and hooks to which Heredia did not have an answer. Heredia somehow survived the round but was unsteady walking back to his corner. Although Heredia’s corner was going to allow their man to come out for the sixth round the ringside physician had other ideas and ordered the referee to stop the bout.

This marked the second consecutive appearance at Barclays Center for the 2014 New York City Golden Gloves Champion Arias having defeated Elder Hernandez by six-round unanimous decision last July

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