Jarrett Hurd and Jeison Rosario Fight to a Draw in Plant City

Jarrett Hurd and Jeison Rosario, two former world title-holders whose careers had hit the skids, locked horns tonight in a middleweight match-up in Plant City, Florida. On paper, this fight, a must-win for both combatants, was one of the strongest offerings in the bi-monthly series of Wednesday Night fights on ShoBox.

Hurd and Rosario were well-matched, but anyone hoping to see a replay of Hurd’s 2018 barnburner with Erislandy Lara would have been sorely disappointed. This fight was more of chess match. Hurd (25-3-1) didn’t put his punches together like the old Jarrett Hurd. He controlled the early rounds with his jab, but couldn’t sustain the momentum. Rosario, in his first fight with new trainer Bob Santos, backed him up sporadically and clearly got the best of the final round with the fight hanging in the balance. The stalemate brought his record to 24-4-2.

The judges had it 96-94, 94-96, and 95-95, a score that was eminently fair. Neither fighter showed that he was deserving of getting another crack at a world title.

Co-Feature

In his first 10-round fight, bantamweight Michael Angeletti passed the test with flying colors, doing his best work in the late rounds to win a unanimous decision over Geraldo Valdez. The scorecards were 97-93 and 98-92 twice.

A New Orleans native whose family was displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Angeletti (shades of Regis Prograis) fights out of Houston. A former USA national amateur champion, he used his superior length to rack up points, improving his ledger to 12-0 (7). The hard-trying Valdez, a 32-year-old Dominican making his U.S. debut, declined to 16-2.

Other Bouts

Local fan favorite Dominic Valle, a lanky super featherweight, improved to 10-0 (8) with an 8-round unanimous decision over freckled, 24-year-old Colombia native Kevin Piedrahita (9-3). The judges scored it 78-74 and 79-73 twice.

This was an entertaining fight, notwithstanding the wide scores. The spunky Piedrahita rocked Valle on several occasions, notably in round seven. Valle avoided the fate of his older brother Marques Valle, a junior middleweight, who suffered his first loss in this ring in April, upset by Mexico’s Damian Sosa who won a split decision that should have been unanimous.

In the TV opener, Ivan Dychko stopped hapless Craig Lewis at the 2:05 mark of the second frame. A straight right followed by a sweeping left knocked Lewis to the canvas in round two. Lewis, who rose on wobbly legs, lost his mouthpiece and lost it again before Dychko buckled his knees with a chopping right hand, at which time the referee decided he had seen enough. The official time was 2:05 of round two.

A two-time Olympic bronze medalist from Kazakhstan, currently domiciled in Pittsburgh, the towering six-foot-eight, 34-year-old Dychko was fighting in the U.S. for the first time since 2019. He improved his ledger to 14-0 (13 KOs) but his pro career has largely been a waste. With four wins in four tries against the formidable Bakhodir Jalolov, he was well-regarded coming out of the amateur ranks, but he has yet to step up in class against an opponent with a reasonable chance of beating him and he isn’t getting any younger. It was the seventh loss in the last eight starts for Lewis (15-8-1), a 39-year-old Detroiter.

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