Miami Fight Night results: Roamer Alexis Angulo upsets Anthony Sims Jr on prelims

The prelims from Miami are in the books, and here’s a look at what we saw on the DAZN stream, and what took place before the show went live.

Our live coverage for Miami Fight Night continues here!

Alexis Espino TKO-3 Vincent Baccus

Pretty easy win for the 20-year-old Espino (5-0, 4 KO), a super middleweight from Nevada. He’s a sharp-looking young fighter; thanks to DAZN prelims we’ve gotten to see pretty much everything he’s done thus far as a pro, and the Robert Garcia-trained fighter is showing real promise. There’s a long way to go, obviously, but the potential is clearly there, and Matchroom are very high on him.

The 35-year-old Baccus, from Okmulgee, Oklahoma, falls to 4-2-1 (3 KO).

Roamer Alexis Angulo SD-10 Anthony Sims Jr

This one’s a solid upset, as the 24-year-old Sims, a rather well-hyped prospect at 168, drops his first pro fight to a guy who was terribly outclassed the one other time he fought a notable opponent.

Angulo (26-1, 22 KO) was shut down over 12 by Gilberto Ramirez in a title fight in 2018, and let’s be clear about this: he didn’t look much different here than he did there. This was not some case of the 35-year-old, Colombian-born, Miami-based Angulo showing any massive improvement since then. This was a pure exposure of Sims (20-1, 18 KO), who fought with zero urgency over all 10 rounds, despite his trainer getting on his case pretty hard by the seventh.

Scores were 95-94 for Sims and two cards of 96-93 for Angulo. A major setback for Sims, obviously, and a win that could get Angulo into another major fight, where most likely he won’t fare so well. He didn’t dominate anything here, but Sims was so passionless in his approach here that enough rounds went Angulo’s way just because he was the guy coming forward and landing the occasional shot, while Sims bounced around rhythmically achieving very little on offense. This is gut check time for Sims now; we’ll see how bad he wants it from here.

Austin Williams TKO-4 Donald Sanchez

“Ammo” Williams is a 23-year-old middleweight prospect fighting out of Houston, and so far he’s looked very good. The opposition has been what it is — Sanchez, 35, is an MMA fighter first, for instance — but you can see the skills there. He passes the early eye tests, power and speed and has some creativity in his offense.

Sanchez (5-3, 3 KO) showed some toughness here, down in the second and twice more in the fourth, but always showing heart. He didn’t want to quit, referee Telis Assimenios made the call for him, and it was the right one. Williams (5-0, 4 KO) worked the head and body effectively, mixed up his shots, and did the job in front of him. He’s not moving slow, but he’s also not looking to rush anything; this was his first fight scheduled for six rounds, and he says he wants a couple here before trying eight rounds.

Off-TV

• Amanda Serrano (38-1-1, 28 KO) returned for a short-notice fight against veteran Simone Da Silva (17-15, 6 KO), winning a third round stoppage. There’s still talk of the division-hopping Serrano fighting Katie Taylor at 140 later this year, which would be a hell of a matchup for women’s boxing.
• 19-year-old lightweight Otha Jones III improved to 5-0 (2 KO) with a second round stoppage of club fighter Juan Santiago (16-18-2, 9 KO).
• Russian-Canadian junior welterweight Arthur Biyarslanov (6-0, 5 KO) knocked out Nicolas Atilio Velazquez (11-8, 3 KO) in the third round.
• Australian bantamweight Avril Mathie (5-0-1, 3 KO) stopped Angelina Hoffschneider (0-3) in the fourth and final round.