By Jim Dower: The big punching Cuban light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera (18-1, 13 KOs) totally destroyed a badly over-matched Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (17-1, 14 KOs) in stopping him in the 7th round on Friday night at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. This was a very good fight for all of two rounds.
After the 2nd round, the fight turned into a one-sided affair with Barrera hitting the defenseless Shabranskyy with right hand after right hand without him being capable of blocking them.
Photo Credit: Tom Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions
The fight was supposed to have been a competitive one, but it turned out to be a mismatch with the 34-year-old Barrera knocking Shabranskyy down three times in the fight before his corner threw in the towel to have the fight halted in the 7th. WBC #5, IBF #8, WBO #13 Shabranskyy was dropped by big right hands in rounds 1, 5 and 7. Barrera was knocked down in round 2 by a left hand followed by a right from Shabranskyy.
Shabranskyy’s corner chose to have the fight halted after he was knocked down by two huge rights in the 7th. Referee Ray Corono officially halted the fight at 2:05 of the 7th. Going into the 7th, Shabranskyy’s corner had given him one more round to see if he could get something going against the hard hitting Barrera.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for him, as Barrera clocked him with two right hands high on the head to put him down. It was a good thing that Shabranskyy’s corner halted the fight because he was just soaking up needless punishment.
Barrera staggered Shabranskyy in the 1st round with a right hand to the head. Barrera then followed up with two more big right hands to the head of Shabranskyy to drop him on the canvas. Barrera tried hard to finish Shabranskyy after he got back up, but he got a little too anxious and wasn’t able to connect with the same kind of power.
In round two, Barrera left himself open early in the round and was nailed by a huge left hook from Shabranskyy. The punch caused Barrera to back away towards the ropes. Shabranskyy quickly followed him and dropped him with a short right to the head. The punch wasn’t that powerful, but Barrera went down just the same because he was hurt. When Barrera got to his feet, he looked shook. However, Shabranskyy was unable to follow up with anything big to get another knockdown. Indeed, it was Barrera who took over the remainder of the round in landing right hands at will.
Rounds three and four were all Barrera with him hitting Shabranskyy with a load of right hands to the head. In the 4th, Barrera staggered Shabranskyy with a hard left hook to the head late in the round. Shabranskyy stayed on his feet, but he looked hur.
In round 5, Barrera nailed Shabranskyy with a long right hand to the head that dropped him hard on his backside. Luckily for Shabranskyy the knockdown came late in the round, because he might not have made it out of the round if it had come earlier.
The 6th round was easily the most one-sided of the fight, as Barrera hammered a defenseless Shabranskyy virtually at will with right hands to the head for the entire round. Shabranskyy appeared to land only three punches in the entire round. It was so one-sided that the referee was watching closely looking as if he were getting ready to stop the contest. He probably should have stopped it because Shabranskyy took a career’s worth of punishment in the 6th. It was no use. He wasn’t going to win the fight, and it was pointless to let the match go into the 7th.
Sure enough, Barrera teed off on Shabranskyy in the 7th round to put him down with a right hand. The fight was then stopped.
The way that Shabranskyy looked tonight, it’s doubtful whether he’s going to be able to improve enough for him to be a factor in the light heavyweight division. Shabranskyy has punching power, but he’s defenseless, he stands straight up, and he’s too predictable. The 175lb division is stacked with talent, and many of these fighters have extensive amateur experience. Shabranskyy is getting a late start in boxing, and he has too much ground to make up in my opinion for him to make anything happen in the division.
IBF #9, WBC #12 Barrera captured the vacant WBC United States (USNBC) light heavyweight title with his win over the 29-year-old Shabranskyy. This was a good case of redemption for Barrera, as he had been beaten by Andre Ward earlier this year in losing a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision to him in March 2016 in Oakland, California. A lot of boxing fans and sports writers gave up on Barrera after that fight, thinking that he was not talented enough to be a factor in the 175lb division. Barrera showed all of them that his loss to Ward was little more than a blip on the radar screen. In other words, Barrera isn’t the same fighter that lost the fight to Ward. I don’t know if that’s the case, but you have to agree that Barrera would have been a real handful for Ward if he were the one inside the ring tonight instead of the over-matched Shabranskyy.
If you look at Shabranskyy’s ring resume coming into tonight’s fight with Barrera, he really didn’t have the experience to be fighting someone with Barrera’s background in the sport. Barrera is a former Cuban amateur star with over 200 amateur fighters and a lot of solid fights as a pro. Shabranskyy is a former kick boxer with limited pro experience. It was always going to be a bad outcome in a guy like Shabranskyy taking on someone with the skill-set of Barrera. It was already academic that Barrera was going to win the fight by the 1st round when he kept bouncing right hands off the head of Shabranskyy, who made it easy for him with the way he stood straight up when he came forward without crouching down like normal fighters do. Someone from Team Shabranskyy should have changed his fighting stance a long time ago to teach him to less of a target for punches, because he looked like a rank amateur out there tonight against Barrera.
Shabranskyy’s fight last year against Paul Parker (8-1, 4 KOs) gave a big hint about what was going to happen in tonight’s fight against Barrera. Shabranskyy was dropped twice by Parker in the 1st round of their fight in June 2015. Shabranskyy was able to come on and get the knockout in the 3rd with his huge power, but the warning signals were there that he wasn’t going to be ready when he was moved up a level as he was tonight.
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In other boxing action on the card, undefeated welterweight prospect Rashidi Ellis (17-0, 12 KOs) destroyed Eddie Gomez (19-2, 11 KOs) in stopping him in 1st round to get a quick knockout. Ellis dropped Gomez twice with hands. The fight was then stopped. Ellis threw almost all right hands in the fight, and Gomez blocked none of them. He looked completely over-matched.
Featherweight Ronny Rios (27-1, 11 KOs) defeated Roy Tapia (12-2, 6 KOs) by a 6th round knockout.
Undefeated super featherweight Ryan Martin (17-0, 10 KOs) kept his unbeaten record intact with a 4th round stoppage win over Yardley Suarez (19-6, 10 KOs).
Other Results on tonight’s card:
Vergil Ortiz KO1 Nestor Garcia
Javier Padilla KO2 Jose Mora
Alex Rocha UD 4 Abraham Calderon