Boxing’s version of the Barnum & Baily’s Circus rolled into the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on Saturday night, April 4, as Big Knockout Boxing aired their second ever pay-per-view card featuring Middleweights Gabe Rosado and Curtis Stevens as the main event.
The fight, which was built up by pre-fight bickering between fighters and trainers, hardly lived up to its hype, providing minimal action aside from a Stevens knockdown of Rosado with a short left hook with just seconds left in the fifth round.
Rosado attempted to use his size advantage and limited technical boxing ability to out-box Stevens throughout the fight, while Steven’s seemed uninspired, and even though he carries good power in both hands, was not able to really hurt Rosado, who usually doesn’t get through a fight these days without being cut wide open and left bleeding all over the ring.
The fight was tough to score, while Rosado controlled the first round, Stevens seemed to win Rounds 2 through 5 with flashier and harder looking punches.
Rounds 6 and 7 you could have scored for either fighter, since neither guy seemed interested in putting in the late round work that it was going to take to stand out to the judges.
Fittingly the fight ended in a disappointing majority decision draw, two judges scoring it 66-66, while one judge scored it 69-63 for Stevens, leaving viewers who dumped $40 dollars of their hard earned money wondering if they’d be willing to tune into the next PPV.
.@Showtime_curtis clearly unhappy w decision, pointing to his knockdown as proof point. Says he loves the pit and is down for rematch! #BKB
— BKB (@BKB) April 5, 2015
In the co-main event, popular brawler Jesus Soto Karass scored a clear unanimous decision victory over Ed Paredes in their Junior Middleweight fight, which was arguably the most exciting bout of the evening.
Neither fighter focused much on technical boxing, instead both were content with throwing wild hooks throughout five rounds, hoping to score a knockout victory.
Soto Karass proved to be the more seasoned fighter, and showed his ability to be able to actually slip a few punches, while landing the more meaningful shots on Paredes.
Somehow the fight went the distance, all three judges scored the fight 49-46.
Header photo by David Becker/Getty Images
