Photo by Carlos Baeza
Goossen Promotions and ESPN 2 presented a televised three-hour special of boxing fights that ended with Antonio Tarver (30-6, 12 KOs) knocking out Johnathan Banks (29-1-1, 19 KOs) in the seventh round of a scheduled 10-round Heavyweight fight at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California.
Tarver hurt Banks in Rounds 1 and 2 with straight left hands that put Banks on the defensive before being knocked down with a right hook to the body followed by a straight left to the chin.
Banks got back to his feet but was clearly wobbled. Tarver finished the fight with another solid left hand.
Tarver made his case for a shot at Wladimir Klitschko in his post-fight interview with ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna.
“Nobody’s got the experience I’ve got to fight Wladimir Klitschko. He’s fighting these tomato cans, man. He’s not facing nobody,” said Tarver.
Photo by Carlos Baeza
In the televised co-main event, Austin Trout (27-2, 14 KOs) scored a seventh-round TKO victory over Luis Grajeda (18-3-2, 14 KOs) in a scheduled 10-round Middleweight fight.
Trout had a bit of trouble early with Grajeda, but his pressure in the following rounds eventually caused Grajeda’s corner to stop the fight.
Oscar Escandon (23-1, 16 KOs) won a close split decision win over Tyson Cave (24-2, 8 KOs) to win the interim WBA World Super Bantamweight title.
Cave won many of the early rounds by outboxing Escandon with a lot of movement, quick straight left hands and changes of the angle followed by more left hands.
Escandon managed to land counter punches of his own, but the fight was mostly dictated by Cave.
Some rounds were harder to score because of Escandon’s inactivity, but one judge’s score of 117-111 for Escandon was completely inaccurate.
A second judge scored it 115-113 for Escandon while another scored it the same for Cave.
In the first televised bout, Terrell Gausha (12-0, 6 KOs) knocked out Cesar Villa (7-1, 3 KOs) eighth and final round of a Middleweight right.
Gausha landed a vicious combination of straight punches that stopped Villa after Guasha had been outclassing him for nearly eight rounds.
