By Jim Dower: Middleweight contender Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan (28-2, 20 KOs) destroyed welterweight prospect Berlin Abreu (14-2, 11 KOs) by a 3rd round stoppage on Saturday night on ESPN at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
(Photo Credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
O’Sullivan, 33, hurt Abreu in the 3rd round, causing him to spit out his mouthpiece to try and buy some time. The referee Gerard White promptly penalized Abreu, 26, a point for spitting out his mouthpiece. After the round ended, Abreu quit on his stool.
Despite the fight being a terrible mismatch in terms of weight, size and power, Abreu seemed to hurt O’Sullivan right a hard fight hand in the 2nd round. Fortunately for O’Sullivan, he was able to shake off the shot and keep fighting effectively for the remainder of the round.
O’Sullivan’s jab was working well for him tonight. He used his jab to pop Abreu with it repeatedly throughout the fight. O’Sullivan’s jab was quite effective tonight, and he was able to dominate Abreu with it when he was remembering to use it.
In the 3rd round, O’Sullivan went after Abreu and began to punish him with power shots. Abreu was trying not to show that the power punches was getting to him, but it was clear that he was reeling. Even the glancing blows seemed to hurt Abreu, which isn’t surprising because he’s a welterweight and he has no business fighting in the middleweight division.
O’Sullivan landed 77 of 215 shots for a 36 percent connect rate. For his part, landed Abreu 18 of 177 for a 15 percent connect rate.
O’Sullivan looked good tonight, but he was fighting a welterweight. Abreu is not a particularly good welterweight or a big one. Gennady Golovkin fought former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in 2016. Brook was a big welterweight, and he was one of the best fighters in the division. Abreu is not anywhere near the same class as Brook.
Golden Boy Promotions need to match O’Sullivan a lot better than this if they want him to be taken seriously by the boxing public. This was obviously a showcase fight for O’Sullivan to help make him look better than he is, but it was such a mismatch that it wasn’t entertaining to watch. O’Sullivan passed up a fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin for this Saturday night.
O’Sullivan said he wanted to take the fight with GGG, but he was given a better offer by Golden Boy. That better offer could be a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez in September. O’Sullivan is the backup option for Golden Boy to put in with Canelo if Golovkin doesn’t agree to the negotiations for the rematch with the red-headed Mexican star. Having O’Sullivan as a backup option gives Canelo and Golden Boy leverage in the negotiations with Golovkin.
In other results on the card, middleweight Marvin Cabrera (8-0, 6 KOs) defeated Wilfrido Buelvas (18-9, 12 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout. The fight was halted at 1:11 of round 3.
