Ardreal Holmes Wins in Deadwood and Marquez Does Too

In the cold of South Dakota, a battle between southpaw super welterweights saw Ardreal Holmes out-battle Vernon Brown on the inside to win by unanimous decision on Friday.

Despite a seven-inch height and reach advantage Holmes (12-0, 5 KOs) battled toe-to-toe against Chicago’s Brown (13-2-1, 9 KOs) and remained undefeated at the Deadwood Mountain Grand in Deadwood, South Dakota.

After a 36-month absence of ring activity, Flint, Michigan’s Holmes, a former amateur standout, returned to action and shot out of the corner with guns blazing behind a snappy jab and combination punching. That lasted three rounds.

Behind a steady supply of body shots, Brown fought his way inside and thanks to the good refereeing by Mark Nelson, the fight maintained most of the remaining seven rounds toe-to-toe. That’s where Brown found success and Holmes began to tire.

Brown seemed to get inspired by his success inside, and with the referee allowing the fight to resume in-close, the Chicago fighter began to rally heavily against Holmes who kept getting stuck along the ropes.

Finally, around the eighth round, Holmes caught a second wind and began using the jab and combination punching to keep the shorter Brown from pummeling the inside. After 10 rounds all three judges favored Holmes 97-93, 96-94, 98-92.

In a lightweight fight, once again a late-replacement short-circuited an undefeated fighter as Dominican left-hander Edwin De Los Santos (14-1, 13 KOs) knocked down Luis Acosta (12-1, 11 KOs) twice before ending the fight in the second. A couple of stiff right jabs followed by a rocket left delivered the Houston fighter unconscious at 45 seconds into the second round.

De Los Santos was a late replacement and accepted the fight two months after his first and only loss. He was glad he took it and gained the exposure in front of a national televised audience.

In the opening televised bout, Giovanni Marquez, the son of former world champion Raul Marquez, won his pro debut with an impressive strong win over Nelson Morales (2-1) in a four-round welterweight fight. He fought in front of his father who was doing TV analyst work for Showtime.

Photo credit: Amanda Westcott / SHOWTIME

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