All of the dark bouts of the evening were eventful, but it was the performances of Russia's Alexander Pichkounov and Virginia's Imani Lee that highlighted the under card.
In the opening bout of the evening, hulking Maurice Jackson (Pictures) was simply too much for the shorter Daniel Green to handle and wound up scoring a razor-thin split decision. Even though the Southern Californian Jackson was badly gassed as early as the midway point of the second round, it was his Manson Gibson-esque sidekick attacks that paved the way for victory.
Green tried his best to duck under the long reach of the massive Jackson, who looks like a huge Harold Reynolds (of ESPN's Baseball Tonight), but he came up short. Jackson wound up winning via tallies of 29-28 (twice) and 28-29 to improve to an impressive 34-0 (26). Green, for his efforts, dropped to 24-6 (8).
Fernando Calleros scored arguably the biggest win of his career by handing kickboxing superstar Danny Steele a one-sided shellacking. Steele, from Honolulu, just couldn't keep the aggressive Calleros off of him and wound up losing every round soundly.
Calleros, from El Paso, Texas, battered his foe from the outset, capitalizing on Steele's sluggish performance with a series of head and body combos. Steele hasn't looked this bad before and it's curious to find out if his 80-plus fights have finally caught up to him. Calleros dominated and easily won by scores of 30-27 on all three official scorecards to boost his professional record to 32-8-2 (16). Steele dipped to 70-13 (45).
In the lone women's bout of the night, Michelle Ishio was able to keep her undefeated record in tact after she toppled Playboy vixen and Las Vegas resident LaTasha Marzolla.
The fight was an example how women's kickboxing should be, as the two ladies elicited a ton of cheers from the crowd. The two exchanged hard kicks and punches from the outset, but Ishio was a step quicker along the way. Marzolla is the stronger of the two and landed her fair share of power shots. However, she couldn't seem to time Ishio's attacks.
What sealed the victory for Ishio, though, was a stunning knockdown in the third round. Marzolla ate a perfectly timed high front kick and fell onto her back. Ishio, fighting out of Southern California, won when the three judges all scored in her favor 30-27. She improved to 7-0. Marzolla fell to 4-3 but fought as well as she could. It was a good fight and much closer than what the judges officially scored it. Sherdog.com had it 29-28 for Ishio.
Imani Lee scored the first impressive victory of the night when he toppled opponent John James in the second round. After a relatively cautious opening stanza, the larger Lee dropped James with a straight right early in the second.
James was unable to recover and was dropped three more times (one of the knockdowns didn't officially count) before eventually being stopped. The official time of the TKO came at 2:29 and allowed Lee to bolster his pro ledger to 10-3 after scoring his sixth knockout. James, who fights out of Vegas, fell to 37-8 (26).
And lastly, the bout between Alexander Pichkounov and Patrick Barry was hands down the highlight of the dark bouts.
In a fight that was as close as they come, it was a late flurry in the closing seconds of the fight that won it for Pichkounov. Barry was probably going to win the fight on points, but Pichkounov, from Russia, delivered a thudding left knee to Barry's jaw that staggered him in the process.
Barry stumbled backward and Pichkounov unloaded a furious combo, almost scoring a knockdown. Barry was able to survive the onslaught, but the damage was done and the fight was scored in Pichkounov's favor, though it was close. One judge saw it 29-28 for Barry, but that score was nullified by the other two who had it 29-28 for Pichkounov, who now stands at 5-0-2. Barry dips to 11-1 (7).