By Eric Thomas: Previously unbeaten welterweight prospect Darnell Jiles Jr. (8-1-1, 3 KOs) ran into a big road block for his promising career when he was stopped in the 3rd round by Ray Robinson (10-0, 4 KOs) on Friday night at the Roseland Ballroom, in New York, New York. Robinson, 23, a tall, gangling 5’10” welterweight who just happens to share the same name as the famous Sugar Ray Robinson, caught the 20-year-old Jiles with a big left hand late in the 3rd round, staggering Jiles.
Robinson then went on the attack mode, pumping in almost exclusively left hands for the remaining portion of the round and battering Jiles something awful as he stood with his back against the ropes for much of the time. Though Jiles didn’t go down, he was hit was an enormous amount of punches before the round ended.
Afterwards, Jiles, his nose now bleeding like a faucet, went back to his corner and shortly after that, the fight was stopped by his corner, apparently because Jiles supposedly had injured his right hand. Injury or not, he probably wouldn’t have been in deep trouble if he had come out for the 4th round and would have been considered very lucky if he would have been able to make it through another round getting hit with the lefts from Robinson.
The loss was another big setback for Jiles, a fighter with a lot of amateur experience having fought 152 fights before turning pro, as he was held to a four round draw in March by Henry Lundy, which was also shown on ESPN in front of a large National audience in the U.S.
Jiles reportedly attempted to get a rematch with Lundy, but had no luck, instead opting to fight Robinson. In hindsight, Robinson was perhaps too big of a bite for Jiles to chew at this early stage of his career and should have thought of someone with a few less skills than Robinson.
The first round was close, with neither fighter throwing jabs, mainly looking to land straight left hands. Jiles and Robinson, both southpaws, seemed not interested in throwing right hand or jabs early on, mostly looking to load up with lefts and try to take each other out.
It’s surprising, because in the other fight I’ve seen of Jiles, he was very versatile with his offensive attacks, using both hands to inflict punishment. Robinson looked clumsy in the 1st, falling in with his punches each time he’d try to land, leaving himself open for uppercuts and counter punches almost every time.
In the 2nd round, Jiles continued to get the better of Robinson, throwing the more accurate shots and landing some nice left hands and a few jabs. Robinson was missing quite often when he would attempt to land, and like the previous round, looking terribly clumsy like he had two left feet. Robinson had better luck in the last minute of the round in which he was able to connect with a lot of left hands, enough to make the round close and perhaps steal it.
I had Jiles still winning it based on his solid work during the first two minutes, however.
Robinson came out looking fresh and powerful in the 3rd, landing frequently with straight let hands and not giving any respect to the power of Jiles.
It was all Robinson, who landed some nice combinations for a chance until suddenly he came over the top with a hard left hand after Jiles had missed with a slow jab, hitting Jiles hard and staggering him. Robinson then went after him with a fierce left hand attack, blasting him with one left hand after another and driving a hurt Jiles to the ropes where he covered up.
For the next minute, Robinson pounded Jiles unceasingly with pretty much nothing but lefts, missing many of them but connecting with quite a few hard shots. Jiles was moved from one side of the ring to the other, getting hit the entire time and only occasionally firing a punch back at him.
After the round ended, Jiles, with a bloody nose and a dazed look to him, walked back to his corner and plopped down on his stool. After a little bit of commotion, the fight was stopped with Robinson being awarded the victory. It was immediately learned that Jiles had supposed hurt his right hand during the 3rd round, although I have no idea how because he wasn’t throwing any punches, and couldn’t continue because of the injury.
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