Last card from the weekend that was televised that I haven't seen yet. Possibly the most meaningless. Given how bad Telefutura was, that is a statement there. This is a Star Boxing show: Good to see them move from the ghetto of GFL to some form of TV.

Opener is a light heavyweight fight between Steven Tyner and Mike Ocasio. Ocasio is the star prospect and Tyner is the guy intended to be a stepping stool, and this doesn't go well. Ocasio is down 23 seconds in off a right hand and never recovers. He's just holding to survive and ends up beating a ton of punches before going down two minutes in. 

We're onto bout number two after some time in the studio and, oh no, heavyweights. In one corner, we have a fighter making his pro debut in Aaron Kinch and a 2-0 chubby Haitian named Jacques Louis. Hey, at least I'm not paying $9/99 for a middling stream. I had a bizarre realization watching in the third round of this generally lousy but semi entertaining sloppy slugfest - this might not be a real fight. This might be two obese men doing a performance art tribute to the great lost heavyweight classic of the preceeding decade, Etienne/Clay-Bey. They seemed to have similarly colored clothes as the competitors in that fight. Kinch is a dead ringer for Clifford Etienne. Louis just laid on the ropes and got hit a crap load like Clay-Bey did in that fight and then would randomly choose to fight back seemingly when the fight was about to be stopped. OK, OK, it was just a bad heavyweight bout. And it reminded me of how just 10 years ago, there were fights between not that good heavyweights on TV regularly, and they were actually pretty good. These days? Kinch wins a split decision and earns win number 1.

With that trip down memory lane completed, onward to the next televised fight featuring guys on a card because they sold tickets: Rashad Bogar vs. Cletus Seldin. Cletus' cornermen are rocking Stars of David, so I guess we know where his fans are on Saturday. He's also the undefeated fighter looking to get a win, and if he does it, he's the first for the night to actually win a fight he was set to do so in. We nearly get a continuation of the theme in the first as Seldin is badly hurt by a right hand as he comes forward, but he hangs on and survives to see the end of the round. We end up with a pretty decent little scrap between guys who aren't that good and Seldin gets a gift stoppage of sorts in the third round. Seldin doesn't show much of a jab or head movement and that means he'll probably have some exciting fights at this level until he inevitably gets beaten stupid. Seldin's left eye was closing up too.

MAIN EVENT TIME! Chris Algieri and Bayan Jargal meet in a fight that would possibly get a green light as an opener for Shobox. Algieri is 11-0, Jargal is 15-2-3, and I know nothing about either one. The fight actually ends up being pretty good, to be honest. Algeri does a lot of little things right - his body shots are nice, I like his jab, he does a decent job throwing combos. But his stamina for a 10 round fight is very suspect. After round 6, he slows down tremendously, and Jargal comes on very strong in the last few rounds. He makes Round 7 close enough for the TV announcers to give him the round, and then wins rounds 8-10 pretty clearly by pressuring Algieri and landing a lot of shots. He gets some help in this because I think the ref misses a thumb to the eye of Algieri in round 8 that flips the entire momentum of that round (and to an extent, the remainder of the fight). Algieri gets a UD but he comes out a little dented in terms of rep. 

I did some post fight research on Algieri also: Looks like he had never been past 6 before, which explains why and when he gassed. Also, he never had an amateur career. Instead he learned the craft of boxing vis-a-vis kickboxing (not muay thai, just standard full contact ISKA rules karate based stuff). Kinda an interesting way to come into the sport. I'd be glad to see him again though in an 8 rounder against a similar sort of opponent.