Before Showtime Championship Boxing aired its triple-header featuring the Light Heavyweight unification bout between Bernard Hopkins and Beibut Shumenov, Showtime Extreme aired three undercard bouts featuring wins by Sadam Ali, Marcus Browne and Zachary Ochoa.
Sadam Ali (19-0, 12 KOs), who was the first Arab-American to represent the United States in the Olympics, knocked out Michael Clark (44-10-1, 18 KOs) in the first round of a planned ten-round Welterweight fight.
Ali made quick work of a man who took the fight on one week’s notice. Ali boxed calmly and waited for Clark to make mistakes.
Indeed, Clark swung wildly with a left hand that put him in place for a powerful left hook by Ali. Clark was unable to recover from the knockdown.
Marcus Browne (10-0, 7 KOs) scored a unanimous decision victory over veteran Otis Griffin (24-15-2, 10 KO) in an eight-round Light Heavyweight bout.
Browne entered the fight as if he had a point to make, aggressively pushing Griffin onto the ropes and hurting him with a left hand before the end of the first round.
Browne continued his aggression in the second, hurting Griffin with a right hand to the body and staggering him with a straight left hand in the third.
A clearly frustrated Griffin had trouble closing the distance in the middle rounds, often being the victim of counter right hooks and straight lefts, the latter of which knocked him down in the fifth.
After eight comfortable rounds, the judges scored the bout 80-71 for Browne.
Zachary Ochoa (7-0, 4 KOs) knocked out Hector Marengo (6-8-4, 4 KOs) in the fifth round of a scheduled six-round Junior Welterweight fight.
Ochoa began the fight calmly, perhaps too respectful of Marengo’s offense. Ochoa landed punches, but was not able to consistently land.
Ochoa often had to step forward to land, but by the time he’d done so, Marengo had already stepped around.
In the fourth round, as his confidence grew, Ochoa landed more frequently, and eventually knocked down Marengo with an overhand right.
Ochoa’s momentum was briefly stopped as Marengo was allowed to recover from a low blow (which actually landed on his thigh), but Ochoa continued his new-found aggression before the round ended.
In the fifth round, Marengo was knocked down again after he received a fusillade of punches as he was backed onto the ropes. The bout was then stopped in the fifth as Marengo’s corner threw in the towel before Marengo could be hurt again by another barrage.
