By Nate Anderson: #15 IBF ranked light welterweight contender Mike Arnaoutis (19-2, 9 KOs) easily defeated a badly overmatched and previously unbeaten Lanardo Tyner (19-1, 11 KOs) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Bally’s Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 118-110 and 116-112. Speaking of overmatched opponents, on the undercard undefeated heavyweight prospect Devin Vargas (16-0, 7 KOs) flattened Dave Brunelli (8-4, 2 KOs) in the 1st round.
Going into Friday’s bout, Tyner, 32, had done a lot of talking about how he was going to take Arnaoutis to school in the ring. However, it was immediately clear in the first round that Tyner didn’t have the skills with which to back up his claims and it would be he who would be getting a boxing lesson. The southpaw Arnaoutis, 28, used a lot of jabs and straight left hands in the 1st round to easily win the round. Tyner attempted to crowd him as much as possible, working his way in close where he was able to land some good shots. However, Tyner’s hand speed was lacking and so was his work rate, which wasn’t nearly as high as the busy Arnaoutis.
In the third and fourth rounds, Arnaoutis used a lot of combinations to take advantage of the slower Tyner, hitting him with repeated right-left combinations with which Tyner had no real answer for. Though Tyner was landing an occasional shot, he just wasn’t able to put his hands together enough to worry Arnaoutis. Tyner looked good, but he was way over his head in terms of class and really didn’t belong in the same ring as Arnaoutis. Going into the fight, Tyner had fought exclusively lower level fighters and he was making a bit too big of a jump in class despite his previously unbeaten record. Tyner landed some good shots in the last minute of the fourth round but it wasn’t nearly enough to win the round. At this point, Tyner had lost every round of the fight and it didn’t look good for him.
In the 5th round, Arnaoutis tagged Tyner with a right to the back of his head. At this, Tyner got upset and turned his back towards the referee looking for help. Instead of getting help, Tyner was tagged several more times as Arnaoutis took advantage of Tyner’s lapse in concentration to pelt him freely. The remainder of the round was almost all Arnaoutis as he tagged Tyner with a high amount of left hands. Tyner only got in 3-4 punches and was mostly busy receiving shots to the head.
In rounds six through ten, Arnaoutis began to dominate even more as Tyner’s punch output dropped off to next to nothing. He looked both tired and dispirited, perhaps knowing that he couldn’t compete with Arnaoutis no matter what he tried against him. Tyner attacked hard in the 6th round, charging forward and throwing shots. However, Arnaoutis met him with a ton of jabs and left hands, catching him cleanly and turning back Tyner’s momentary attack. In the 7th round, Arnaoutis had perhaps his best round of the fight as he threw continue shots, throwing 115 punches in the round.
Tyner looked disparate and switched between orthodox and southpaw fighting stance, hoping something would work for him. Nothing did and he continued to take a one-sided beating. Arnaoutis was cut on the side of his right eye in the 8th round. This seemed to increase Tyner’s confidence as he attacked hard in the round and landed some good shots, enough to win the round. Arnaoutis’ punch output dropped off by a huge amount in the round, though he was probably concerned with the cut, and wanted to avoid taking unnecessary punishment.
Arnaoutis landed a low blow in the 9th round, which Tyner used to get a momentary rest from his beating. I thought for a second that he would use an extended time out, taking a page from the playbook of Bernard Hopkins. Thankfully, he didn’t because it wouldn’t have mattered a bit because Tyner simply didn’t have the skills to compete no matter how many rests he was given. Arnaoutis had a good round in the 10th, spending much of the time bouncing on his toes and snapping fast jabs to the head of the plodding Tyner. It was another easy round for Arnaoutis, who pounded Tyner with ease.
In the 11th and 12th round, Arnaoutis continued to bounce on his toes and jab Tyner silly. Tyner tried to press the issue in the 12th, trying to get a knockout, but he didn’t have the power to bother Arnaoutis much in the round. In the end, it was a case of too much skill on the side of Arnaoutis, and the case of a fighter with a bloated record, which was the case for Tyner.
In the undercard, heavyweight prospect Devin Vargas (16-0, 7 KOs) stopped Dave Brunelli (8-4, 2 KOs) in the 1st round of a scheduled 8-round bout. Brunelli, 32, didn’t belong in the same ring with the much more experienced Vargas, 26. Though Vargas has had only 16 fights, he has extensive amateur experience and was the 2000-2001 National Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion. Both fighters started slowly in the first round, throwing slow jabs.
Brunelli landed a couple of harmless combinations which showed that he had very little hand speed. Vargas then leaned forward and threw a lead right hand to the side of Brunelli’s head, hurting him badly. Vargas immediately followed with a big left hook that dropped Brunelli to the canvas. Brunelli made it to his feed and staggered into the ropes, holding onto them for support. He was then given a standing eight count by the referee.
As soon as the fight resumed, Vargas landed a left hand, followed by a left-right combination as he was smelling blood and trying to get Brunelli out of there as soon as possible. Vargas then stepped back, getting his distance, and unleashed another big right hand, flattening Brunelli for the second time in the round. This time the referee stepped in and halted the fight at 1:31 of the 1st round. Brunelli made it to his feet and was very upset that the fight was stopped, although for the life of me, I can’t see why; He was taking a beating and would have most surely been knocked down again and again in the round until it was eventually stopped.