Morrell Starches Cazares on an Entertaining Show Studded With Upsets

Morrell Starches Cazares on an Entertaining Show Studded With Upsets

Premier Boxing Champions was at the age-old Minneapolis Armory tonight for a show that aired on FOX and its sports channel affiliate FS1. The fans got their money’s worth although the main event was over in less than one full round.

Minneapolis resident David Morrell, a product of the Cuban amateur system, delighted his fans in his adopted city with a fast knockout of Culiacan, Mexico’s Mario Cazares who brought a 12-0 record but was clearly out of his element. What started out as a messy fight with excessive clinching, a low blow, and a rabbit punch, was brought to a swift conclusion when Morrell nailed Cazares with thunderous punch, a straight left hand that knocked Cazares flat on his back with his head under a lower strand of rope. It was all over in 2:32.

A super middleweight, Morrell (5-0, 4 KOs) owns one of those cheap WBA title belts but he’s better than that.

Upset #1

The 10-round co-feature between undefeated cruiserweights Efe Apochi and Brandon Glanton shaped up as a slugfest and seemingly had scant chance of going the distance. Apochi had won all 11 his pro fights by knockout. Glanton had stopped 11 of his 13 opponents.

Apochi, the 33-year-old Houston-based Nigerian trained by Ronnie Shields was the “A” side. Glanton, a former football player from a D-11 school in Georgia, had defeated only four fighters with winning records. But the unheralded Glanton, whose style harks  to Dwight Muhammad Qawi, was more than up to the task. In a Pier-6 brawl in which both fighters exhibited granite chins, Glanton won a well-deserved split decision, winning by scores of 95-94, 95-94, and 93-96.

Take away the knockdown that Glanton scored in the last final two seconds of round six and the bout would have ended in a draw. Glanton caught Apochi against the ropes and strafed him with a left hook followed by a harsh right that snapped his head back. Because the ropes held him up, it was properly ruled a knockdown.

Upset #2

Two previously undefeated fighters – junior welterweight Omar Juarez from Brownsville, Texas, and super welterweight Leon Lawson III from Flint, Michigan, were upset on the undercard. Both were on the wrong end of majority decisions.

Juarez (11-1) was matched against stocky Filipino southpaw All Rivera. Early in the ninth round, he ate a chopping right hand with his back against a corner post, dropping him to his knees, and that proved to be the difference. Take away that punch and the match would have ended in a draw. One judge had it that way (95-95) but his colleagues favored the Filipino: 95-94 and 95-93.

Upset #3

Nathan Gallimore resurrected his floundering career with a majority decision over previously undefeated Leon Lawson III in a 10-round junior middleweight contest. This was Lawson’s first scheduled 10-rounder and he was matched against an opponent whose 21-5-1 record heading in masked the fact that he had repeatedly been matched tough (his last five opponents were collectively 93-4-2 at the time that he fought them).

This was an interesting fight, notwithstanding a lot of wrestling that kept referee/boxing historian/publisher/author/attorney Adam Pollack busy. Gallimore, from Chicago by way of Jamaica, did his best work in the late rounds. The judges had it 97-93, 96-94, and 95-95. The lanky Lawson, 21, a former National Golden Gloves  champion from Flint, Michigan, falls to 14-1.

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