Boxing: Fred Kassi Hand Injury Gives Jarrell Miller TKO in ShoBox Main Event

ShoBox “The New Generation” returned with another quadrupleheader, as rising heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller took on Cameroon’s Fred Kassi in the main event on Friday at Rhinos Stadium in Rochester, New York.

Miller seized control of the action immediately, as the nearly 300-pound fighter kept Kassi honest and let his hands go early and often. Miller rocked Kassi midway through the third round with a sharp right to the head: As soon as the punch landed, Kassi backed off and tried to recover. Miller gave chase and continued to throw a high volume of punches, forcing his foe to cover up without returning any threatening blows.

In between rounds three and four, Kassi (18-6-1, 10 KOs) told his cornermen that he injured his right hand, prompting them to figuratively throw in the towel. Referee Michael Griffin verified that they no longer wanted to continue and called off the battle, handing “Big Baby” a technical knockout victory. The undefeated Miller improved to 18-0-1 with 16 KOs.

Meanwhile, promising lightweight contender Mason Menard dominated Bahodir Mamadjonov en route to a violent ninth-round knockout. Menard had some difficulty early, as Mamadjonov’s tricky style caused problems. Once he figured out how to approach Mamadjonov, it was only a matter of time before his power came through. Menard (32-1, 24 KOs) scored two knockdowns in the seventh round and nearly ended it there. He finally took out Mamadjonov (19-3, 11 KOs) in the ninth, where a flurry to the head dropped Mamadjonov for good and prompted veteran referee Steve Smoger to waive off his count, officially ending it at 2:26 of the round.

Elsewhere, unbeaten welterweight contender Bakhtiyar Eyubov had his impressive knockout streak snapped when veteran Karim Mayfield took everything he had to offer and kept coming. Eyubov (11-0, 10 KOs) kept swinging wildly throughout the contest and began to tire late in the fight. Even with a point deduction against Eyubov in the eighth round for repeated low blows, Mayfield (19-4-1, 11 KOs) could not get over the proverbial hump to steal the win. In the end, two of the three judges favored Eyubov 95-94, while the third had the same score for Mayfield.

Finally, bantamweight contender Antonio Nieves remained unbeaten against Alejandro Santiago, though he did not have his hand raised in victory. In the opening bout of the Showtime telecast, the two fought tooth and nail for 10 rounds, each giving as good as he got. In the end, neither Nieves (16-0-2, 8 KOs) nor Santiago (11-2-2, 3 KOs) did enough to clearly win, their duel resulting in a majority draw. The official scores were 96-94 for Nieves, 96-94 for Santiago and 95-95.