ShoBox results: Xavier Martinez crushes Jessie Cris Rosales in 21 seconds

Super featherweight prospect Xavier Martinez wasn’t wasting time tonight, blasting out Jessie Cris Rosales in just 21 seconds in the main event of ShoBox: The New Generation.

The fight had six punches thrown, three from each fighter. The difference was that Martinez’s landed. A right hand got through, then was followed with a left hook and another right that put Rosales down and out. It was that simple.

Martinez (15-0, 11 KO) is a good-looking prospect at 22 years of age. Rosales (22-4-1, 10 KO) wasn’t a terrible opponent on paper, having been in with Jhonny Gonzalez and Shakur Stevenson in the past, but they both stopped him, too. And in his last fight, he lost an eight-round split decision to Tyler McCreary, so this wasn’t exactly a matchup that reflected the old mission statement of this series, matching prospects tough, often against other prospects. This was a half-step showcase, and Martinez put an exclamation point on it.

Richardson Hitchins UD-10 Kevin Johnson

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A solid win for Hitchins, who improves to 10-0 (5 KO), but this wasn’t a lopsided fight or anything. Johnson (7-2, 4 KO) gave a solid accounting of himself at this level as a prospect checker, as he had against Fazliddin Gaibnazarov in July 2018, a fight where he won a couple rounds out of eight.

Here, Hitchins won on reasonably scores of 96-94, 97-93, and 97-93. BLH had it 97-93 for Hitchins, too. He’s a good boxer but the power hasn’t really been there yet (maybe it will with MAN STRENGTH!!!!!!!) and he still has some flaws defensively, too. He’s worth keeping an eye on at 140, but miles away from the top level yet.

Kevin Newman II UD-8 Marcos Hernandez

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This was a rematch of a fight from Aug. 2017, where Hernandez dropped Newman and won a six-round decision. In this one, though, Newman (11-1-1, 6 KO) was the clearly better fighter and avenged his only career defeat, outpointing Hernandez (14-3-1, 3 KO) on scores of 79-73, 79-73, and 80-72. Bad Left Hook was a bit more sympathetic to Hernandez’s cause, scoring it 78-74 for Newman.

Newman is 27 and still fighting at a pretty low level, so being honest there probably isn’t world championship glory in his future, but this was a pretty watchable fight. Hernandez, 26, is now 1-2 in his last three, having been stopped in February against Jeison Rosario, which was also a rematch, that one of a six round draw from early 2018.

Rolando Romero KO-1 Juan Carlos Cordones

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Romero (10-0, 9 KO) is a legit prospect at 135, someone people are excited about. Cordones (14-2, 9 KO) had no business in the ring with him, and was down about halfway into the round, and down again a little over two minutes into the round, where he was counted out. It’s not just that he got stopped fast, it’s that he was clearly in no way a legitimate prospect or anything. His record is pure fluff; last time out, he fought Danielito Zorrilla, who is also a solid prospect, and Zorrilla took him out in three. He’s never won outside of the Dominican Republic or Venezuela, places where you can rack up a horseshit record pretty easily.

But don’t count that against Romero. The matchmaking is what it is, but Romero is a real prospect you want to remember. He’s still very raw and hasn’t faced any real adversity in a fight yet, so we’ll see, but there’s talent to mold here, and power to spare.