By Jim Dower: Undefeated #3 WBO, #12 IBF, #13 WBA super middleweight contender Jesse Hart (18-0, 15 KOs) battered and beat journeyman Aaron Pryor Jr (19-9-1, 12 KOs) in stopping him in the 9th round on Friday night to retain his USBA and WBO NABO super middleweight titles at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
The 26-year-old Hart was landing at will in the 9th round causing referee Tony Weeks to step in and halt the fight at 2:51 of the round. Pryor Jr. wasn’t throwing any punches back which is why Weeks stopped the contest.
Hart looked okay for the most part in this one-sided fight. However, he threw a lot of wild looping punches that made him look amateurish. Hart also seemed to lack hand speed and punching power that the better super middleweights all possess. He doesn’t look as good as the better 168lb fighters like James DeGale, Arthur Abraham, the Dirrell brothers, Gilberto Ramirez, George Groves and Badou Jack.
Hart is going to need to improve dramatically if he wants to beat the those types of fighters. If Hart had been fighting a good super middleweight, he would have lost. He’s too wild and way too green at this point of his career.
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Undefeated 2008 Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez (18-0, 15 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a 5th round stoppage win over super bantamweight Chris Avalos (26-4, 19 KOs). Valdez, 24, knocked Avalos down in the 3rd round with a big left hook that staggered the bigger Avalos, causing him to fall to the canvas.
Valdez continued to batter Avalos unmercifully in the 4th and 5th rounds with big power shots. In the 5th, Valdez hurt Avalos with a left-right combination that wobbled him. Referee Russell Mora than stepped in and halted the fight at 1:17 of the round. You can make a strong argument that Mora stepped in way too quickly because it prevented Avalos from trying to recover. It also kept Valdez from being able to put Avalos on the canvas.
For the fans that had traveled to see the fight, it probably wasn’t a good feeling to see the referee step in and stop the fight after Avalos was slightly staggered. He wasn’t badly staggered like he had been in the 3rd round, which is why it’s hard to understand Mora’s reasons for stopping the fight when he did.
Avalos put a lot of constant pressure on Valdez in the fight, but he wasn’t able to get to him most of the time due to Valdez’s in and out fighting style. Valdez had the quicker hands, and he was able to nail Avalos with fast shots all night long without getting hit.
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