With Showtime being a big cheese outfit these days, we don't see too many ShoBox cards anymore. Generally speaking, this is alright; Showtime now delivers much better quality (and quantity) with its Showtime Championship Boxing cards that losing the B-series -- which had devolved from a focus on quality competition for rising prospects into your average secondary showcase series -- hasn't really stung.
Last night's event from Shelton, Wash., was another showcase event, this time featuring four Mayweather Promotions fighters in what turned out to be mostly one-sided and non-competitive affairs.
In the TV opener, 23-year-old junior middleweight prospect Chris Pearson improved to 10-0 (9 KO) with a first round demolition of Brazil's Acacio Ferreira (14-1-1, 12 KO), the end coming brutally at 1:44. Pearson is a raw prospect, but was clearly far too much for Ferreira and his absurd paper-thin record to handle.
"I trained hard and was prepared to go 10 rounds, but I knew if I caught him right I could take him out of there,'' Pearson said. "I'm just glad to give the fans what they love to see. This was a good win, but now it's time to get ready for the next one."
30-year-old lightweight Mickey Bey was up second, and he smashed Venezuela's Carlos Cardenas in the third round on a left hook that came from a video game. Bey (19-1-1, 10 KO) said he didn't even feel entirely warmed up for the fight, but Cardenas (20-7-1, 13 KO) was no match anyway.
"It always feel good to get your hand raised," Bey said. "I know he was going to come out strong and try and catch me in the early rounds. The fight before me ended so quickly I'm not sure I was totally warmed up so I just took my time.
"This guy was not an easy opponent. But I wanted a tough fight. Honestly, I didn't even know I threw the punch that knocked him out. It was so automatic, just like I do all the time in training. It was like hitting the mitts. It's good to get back on track."
We did see some iffy moments for super middleweight Badou Jack, who was outboxed in the early rounds by Mexico's Rogelio Medina before putting things together and scoring a sixth round TKO victory. Jack (16-0-1, 11 KO) had difficulty timing Medina (31-5, 25 KO) early, but his right hand looked a dangerous weapon even when he wasn't quit making it count. Once he did, it was over.
"He was tougher than I thought he'd be," the 30-year-old Jack said. "I'm known as a slow starter and it took me a while to break him down, but it felt great to get that knockout.
"I thought the referee would stop the fight after the first knockdown. After the second knockdown I thought that Medina was definitely done, but then he got up and the fight went on and I was like, 'I gotta go for the kill.'"
Finally, in the main event, J'Leon Love (16-0, 9 KO) moved up to super middleweight for a fight against veteran Lajuan Simon, who had last fought in 2011, and had last fought over one round (2:17 to be exact) in 2010. Simon (23-5-2, 12 KO) gave an effort, but was knocked out in the sixth round. It's certainly worth noting that physically, Love looked better weighing in at 167 pounds than he did at 160.
It was Love's first fight with new trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, which Love's supporters must be hoping will stick, given this was the fighter's third trainer in four fights.
"This was a good fight," said Love. "This guy was a vet. I knew I couldn't just go in and blow him away. I knew I had to work angles and fight smart. But I had to do something. Everybody on my team before me was knocking everybody out. We work so hard as a team. We're always behind each other. There is no limit to what we can do."