Rosado-Stevens ends in unsatisfying draw

Nobody likes draws - not the fans, not the fighters. But that's exactly what we got in the second BKB event on Saturday night when a hard-fought scrap between Gabe Rosado and Curtis Stevens went to the scorecards. During the fight, Rosado boxed well for the most part whereas Stevens activity level (really, lack-thereof) left something to be desired. When Stevens was able to close the distance, he landed some notable power shots, including his patented left hook that instantly leveled Rosado in the fifth round. Rosado was able to get up and shake that off, but continued to take some good power punches from Stevens for the remainder, a number of which were clearly effective. While Rosado didn't unravel amidst the pressure (nor did his face), he continued to box rather than slugging it out with Stevens.

At the end of it all, one judge scored it 69-63 for Stevens (which was definitely far too wide in Stevens favor), while the other two judges scored it 66-66, resulting in the draw. I probably would've given Stevens the slight edge due to his more effective punching, but he did himself no favors by not picking up the pace in a shorter fight.

"That's some bulls-t, man," Stevens said afterward. Both he and his trainer, Sugar Shane Mosley, appeared quite unhappy with the decision. "There's seven rounds and it can be eight if we do it right here. I love The Pit but I believe they just want a rematch."

Rosado wasn't happy with the outcome either:

"I thought I boxed a shutout," Rosado said. "Stevens has power but I thought I won the fight. I got clipped in the fifth but I used my jab and outboxed him."

Because no knockout was scored, neither man earned the $30k bonus, and it was probably more of a loss than a draw for BKB since their whole premise is predicated on knockouts. It wasn't an awful fight by any means, but it surely wasn't a barn-burner either. The BKB platform will likely have to come up with a few of those through selective matchmaking if they're going to stick around for any length of time and fulfill their promise.