#junior younan
Photo by Jessica Chen for StiffJab.com
by Seamus McNally
WASHINGTON, D.C.–Unbeaten welterweight Dusty Hernandez-Harrison (29–0–1, 16 KOs) took on his toughest opponent to date in Mike Dallas Jr. (21–3–2, 10 KOs) Friday night and it showed, as he was lucky to escape with a split draw on BETat the D.C. Armory.
Despite fighting in front of a hometown crowd of 2,633 for the first time in 18 months, the 2012 Stiff Jab Prospect of the Year Hernandez-Harrison did not receive a warm homecoming from Dallas. Dallas was the aggressor throughout the contest as he repeatedly got off first and dictated the pace of the fight before a late rally by Hernandez-Harrison.
Dallas, who hails from Bakersfield, California, set the tone in the first round by working much harder than Hernandez-Harrison, who walked straight forward with earmuffs on and hardly threw any punches. That theme continued the next two rounds, as Dallas would throw three or four punches for every punch that Hernandez-Harrison threw. Hernandez-Harrison’s face quickly showed signs of the punishment he was absorbing.
Hernandez-Harrison recently spent five weeks of training camp in San Diego as a sparring partner for middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and was working with trainer Barry Hunter for the first time after a split with his father Buddy Harrison. The Southeast D.C. native had a successful fourth round as he let his hands go more and landed a few heavy blows.
His success was short-lived. During one of the many exciting exchanges in the fifth round, Dallas caught Hernandez-Harrison with a left hook that sent him down with about 30 seconds left in the round. The hometown crowd that had started the fight chanting “Dusty! Dusty!” now sat in stunned silence.
Hernandez-Harrison did his best to make a rally in the second half of the fight and impose his size advantage by walking Dallas down and looking to land powerful shots. In the eighth round, Hernandez-Harrison returned the favor of the earlier knockdown, albeit controversially, as he landed two left hands that appeared right on the belt line. It was tough to tell if they were low blows or not.
Dallas insisted the shots were low, but referee Malik Waleed ruled it a knockdown, which gave Hernandez-Harrison a much needed 10-8 round.
The knockdown gave Hernandez-Harrison a sudden and much-needed sense of urgency, while Dallas clearly felt like he needed to close strong in his opponent’s hometown. The combination resulted in an action-packed finish. Both fighters emptied the rest of their gas tanks with punishing give-and-take exchanges that had the crowd on its feet.
It appeared Hernandez-Harrison’s rally was too little, too late, but the judges saw it a different way, allowing the hometown fighter to remain unbeaten via a split draw by scores of 95-94 for Hernandez-Harrison, 96-92 for Dallas, and 94-94.
Both fighters felt they deserved the victory.
“I thought I finished it great,” Hernandez-Harrison said. “I finished it way too strong with that knockdown [not to get the decision]. I feel I pulled it out with that late knockdown.“
“In my opinion, we won in his hometown convincingly,” Dallas said.
As for a rematch, Hernandez-Harrison offered to return the favor and fight Dallas in his hometown.
"I’ll fight him in Bakersfield, California. I’ll fight him right now,” Dusty said.
A potential rematch would be highly anticipated, as it was a very exciting and controversial main event.
In the co-feature, Roc Nation Sports newest signee Darmani Rock (1–0, 1 KO) impressed in his pro debut as he made quick work of Carlos Black (1–4) of Rockville, Maryland with a brutal first-round knockout.
Rock, a Philadelphia native, showed patience in the early moments of fight, easily picking apart Black. The 2015 National Golden Gloves and U.S. National Amateur Heavyweight Champion unloaded a thunderous right hand that sent Black staggering towards the ropes, then ended it with a left hand just seconds later. Referee Michelle Myers reached the count of ten at 1:54 of the opening frame as a wobbly and dazed Black couldn’t get to his feet in time.
“I feel great. Hard work pays off,“ Rock said after. "This is just the beginning. I was a little nervous. I had to warm up a little bit. … I seen him bobble a little bit when I landed the right hand and then I got him with the left and that was it. But next time, I’ll start a little faster.”
In the first televised bout, junior featherweight Orlando Del Valle (22–2, 16 KOs) of Bayamon, Puerto Rico scored two knockdowns against the local fighter Thomas “K.O.” Snow (18–3, 12 KOs) of Capitol Heights, Maryland that were ultimately the difference in the fight as all three judges scored the fight 76-74 in favor of Del Valle.
Del Valle pressured and stalked Snow before sending him down with a right hand with a minute left in the second round. Halfway through the third round, Del Valle caught Snow with a left hook that put him on the canvas for a second time. Del Valle, sensing Snow was hurt, followed it up with a heavy barrage of punches that staggered Snow but Snow made it out of the round.
The rest of the bout was fought on even terms as Snow made a nice little rally the last couple rounds but it was not enough to score a victory.
“I had the edge from every judge because my boxing was superior,"Del Valle said."I applied pressure and I was the busier fighter. I dropped him twice, and it was a really dirty fight and hard to get through”
In the chief non-televised bout, Greenbelt, Maryland cruiserweight Sam “The Vanilla Gorilla” Crossed (3–0, 1 KO), who had a large contingency of fan support, was pushed by the tall, rangy southpaw Damion Reed (2–14–1, 1 KO) of Danville, Virginia before ultimately scoring a majority decision victory by scores of 40-36, 39-37, and 38-38.
Junior welterweight Abner Cotto (20–3, 9 KOs) of Caugas, Puerto Rico won a relatively easy six-round unanimous decision by scores of 60-54, 60-54, and 58-56 over the durable journeyman Samuel Amoako (21–11, 15 KOs), originally out of Ghana but now living in Baltimore, Maryland.
Cotto is the second cousin of Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto. In other undercard bouts, Zhang Zhilei (9–0, 6 KOs), Mike Balogun (6–0, 5 KOs), and Junior Younan (9–0, 7 KOs) all won their bouts by first round technical knockouts over their overmatched opposition.
Correction: Abner Cotto is the second cousing of former middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. This story originally said he was Miguel’s first cousin. –GN
