Photo by Jennifer Rutledge/PBC
The main event featured 6’6″ heavyweight prospect Gerald “El Gallo” Negro Washington (16-0, 11 KOs) in a match with Amir “Hardcore” Mansour (22-1, 16 KOs) scheduled for 10 rounds.
Mansour, whose lone loss came against Steve Cunningham via 10 round decision, was a step up in competition for the towering, unbeaten California native who had successfully vanquished several gatekeepers entering this bout.
Mansour, who was offended that Washington would accept this fight started fast and in the initial rounds determined the pace though his much larger rival didn’t appear uncomfortable.
The pattern remained consistent through the first half of the fight with Mansour pressing and Washington keeping the distance with his jab and garnering points along the way.
The pressure did make things uncomfortable in the second half of the fight as Mansour continued to churn forward winging punches as Washington’s punch rate slowed.
It seemed close going into the 10th and the fight appeared up for grabs in the final round as Mansour doggedly pursued his adversary from corner to corner.
The judges final result was a split draw 97-93 Washington, 96-94 Mansour and 95-95 even.
In the second televised bout of the evening, Light heavyweight Ahmed Elbiali (13-0, 11 KOs) originally hailing from Cairo, Egypt entered the ring to face Dominican, Mariano Hilario (12-4, 5 KOs) in a bout scheduled for eight rounds.
Seven of Elbiali’s KOs have come in the first round, but Hilario didn’t come to fold quite as easily. He fought gamely with the heavy-handed Elbiali and landed some clean shots in Rounds 3 and 4 though he lost a point for holding in Round 6.
Hilario was never in any serious trouble and gave Elbiali eight rounds of work that should be a learning experience for the young prospect who cruised to a unanimous decision victory by the scores of 78-73, 80-71 and 80-71.
Heavyweight action kicked off the night when Michael Hunter (10-0, 7 KOs) of Las Vegas, Nevada faced off with Canadian Jason Douglas (11-6, 4 KOs) in a 10-round affair.
An anxious Hunter began the fight loading up on overhand rights, a strategy that paid off when he dropped Douglas at the end of Round 2.
Douglas had a better round for the majority of Round 3, landing some decent shots and accidentally opening a cut over Hunters left eye with a butt until he again was knocked down near the end of the round.
Hunter’s dominance continued as he dropped Douglas in the opening moments of Round 4 and yet again with about :30 left. At the end of the round he wandered into the wrong corner and the doctor stopped the fight.
Michael Hunter opens tonight’s #PBConFS1 with a TKO4! He improves his career record to 10-0 with 7 KOs. #ToeToToeTuesdays
— PBC (@premierboxing) October 14, 2015
