David “Dynamite” Stevens KOs Sean Hemphill on ShoBox

In a prize ring more suited for midget wrestling, David “Dynamite” Stevens needed nearly all eight scheduled rounds to knock out Sean “Silky” Hemphill in a back-and- forth struggle on Friday.

Now fighting at super middleweight, Stevens (12-0, 9 KOs) showed that after fighting at heavyweight, even a talented fighter like Hemphill (14-1, 8 KOs) could not out-muscle him at the Wind Creek Events Center in Bethlehem, PA.

Despite a smaller than usual size boxing ring, Hemphill opened up quickly behind a steady stream of jabs and slick foot movement. It allowed him to take the first round against Stevens whose sole intent was to knock Hemphill into another dimension.

Stevens quickly caught Hemphill’s timing and from the second round on things began to turn around for the slugger. Body shots from Stevens were working and his harder blows were snapping off Hemphill’s head.

Things turned around again.

Hemphill stopped moving on his toes and began attacking Stevens’ body. That seemed to put the brakes on the heavy puncher’s attacks. The taller fighter was advised by his trainer Buddy McGirt that he needed to win the remaining three rounds.

Both fighters slugged out the final three rounds with neither able to take control. And just when it seemed Stevens was out of fuel and Hemphill was about to capitalize, that second wind kicked in and Stevens gained the upper hand with clubbing blows. Hemphill was in trouble and a left hook delivered him to the canvas. Hemphill got up but looked dazed and another left hook put him down for good at 2:58 of the eighth round.

Stevens, who is trained by Ronnie Shields, remains undefeated.

Other Bouts

Atif Oberlton (8-0, 6 KOs) won the battle of undefeated light heavyweights over Artem Brusov (12-1, 11 KOs) by unanimous decision after eight rounds.

Tall southpaw Oberlton, who reminds some of Antonio Tarver, used his stiff jabs to the head and body to batter Russia’s powerful Brusov and win by unanimous decision.

Super featherweight Julian Gonzalez (9-0-1, 9 KOs) maintained his knockout streak by stopping Rosalindo Morales (9-1, 2 KOs) in the fourth round. Gonzalez dropped Morales in the first round and then stopped Morales on his feet at 27 seconds of the fourth round.

Photo credit: Amanda Westcott / SHOWTIME