By Jim Dower: As everyone expected, WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. (27-1, 16 KOs) had no problems dispatching the over-matched visiting Patrick Hyland (31-2, 15 KOs) in stopping him in just two rounds on Showtime Boxing from the Fox Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
Russell dropped the 32-year-old Hyland twice in the 2nd round. The fight was halted after the 2nd knockdown. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:33 of the round. Hyland was knocked down hard on the 2nd knockdown with a left hook to the head. Hyland was badly hurt and there was no way he was going to be able to get back up from that knockdown. The first knockdown was from a hard right hand to the head from Russell Jr.
The speed difference between Russell Jr. and Hyland was just too much for the fight to be competitive. Russell was able to hit Hyland at will with shots without worrying about getting hit in return.
After the fight, Russell Jr. called out Vasyl Lomachenko, Leo Santa Cruz and Lee Selby. Russell said that he would move up in weight to fight Lomachenko so that he can avenge his loss to him.
If Russell doesn’t get any of the big names to fight him, it would be too his benefit not to fight anymore over-matched fighters like Hyland. If Russell wants to become a big name, then he needs to fight a better caliber of opponent than guys like Hyland.
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IBF super featherweight champion Jose “Sniper” Pedraza (22-0, 12 KOs) outclassed his mandatory challenger Stephen Smith (23-2, 13 KOs) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision. Smith gave it a game effort, but he wasn’t able to land enough solid shots to get the nod from the judges.
The fight was scored 117-110, 116-111, 116-111. Smith lost out on his chance to win the fight when he was knocked down in the 9th round by a right hand he didn’t see coming.
Smith, 30, got off to a bad start in the first three rounds of the fight in getting outworked. When Smith finally did start getting untracked in the 4th, he was already in a bad position to win the fight. Smith had to take a lot of chances.
Smith fought well in rounds four through six. Pedraza had a very good round in the 7th round when he suddenly started putting a lot of pressure on Smith. However, Smith came back strong in the 8th round and outworked a lazy looking Pedraza by a wide margin.
The wheels came off the track for Smith in the 9th round when he was clipped by a right hand from Pedraza. Smith was able to hold his way out of the round. Pedraza continued to fight well in the 10th round in taking the fight to Smith.
Smith was getting dominated in the 11th round when he suddenly came alive in the last minute of the round to steal the round.
In the 12th round, Smith controlled the first two minutes of the round, but Pedraza turned on the heat in the last minute in taking the fight to Smith and nailing him with some big shots.
Pedraza could have made this fight a really easy one if he’d been able to throw more power shots and work the entire three minutes of every round. Instead of letting his hands go, Pedraza spent much of the time jabbing and throwing single shots. He’s a much better fighter when he’s attacking his opponents and throwing a lot of shots.