Junior middleweight Xander Zayas fights veteran Patrick Teixeira tonight, live on ESPN, in a 10-round main event at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Primetime for tonight’s event on ESPN begins at 11:00 pm ET/8:00 pm PT. First action begins at 7:30 pm ET on ESPN+.
Boxing News 24 will provide live updates and results of the action below.
An undefeated welterweight prospect Delante ‘Tiger’ Johnson (13-0, 6 KOs) won a tough decision over eight rounds Tarik Zaina (13-2-1, 8 KOs). The scores were 79-73, 78-74 and 77-75.
Of those three, the score of 77-75 was the real one for the team, as Tiger, 25, just won, and looked poor throughout.
Zaina took several shots to the head and did a great job of combining her punches. It wasn’t until the eighth round that Tiger finally came alive and got Zaina’s attention with hard shots.
Flyweight Andy Dominguez (11-1, 6 KOs) lost Christopher Rios (10-2, 7 KOs) by eight-round majority decision. The scores were 76-76, 78-74 and 77-75. The two fighters traded blows throughout the entire fight, making it difficult to say who deserved to win.
Junior middleweight prospect Jahi Tucker (11-1-1, 5 KOs) beat Quincy LaVallais (17-5-1, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision in eight rounds. Tucker, 21, beat LaVallias at will in the first round of the fight, hurting him at times.
Somehow, LaVallias went the distance despite taking a ton of punishment. The scores were 80-72, 80-72 and 80-72. The referee gave LaVallias a timeout in the eighth round after Tucker hit him in the lower back. Tucker did a lot of showboating in the fight and showed immaturity.
Tucker’s lack of punching power was a problem for him, as was his poor defense. LaVallias hit him with a lot of clean shots, and he was lucky he wasn’t a bigger striker than this guy.
Undefeated super featherweight prospect Ofacio Falcon (12-0, 6 KOs) lost Antonio Dunton El Jr (5-3-2, 2 KOs) by unanimous decision in six rounds. The scores were 59-54, 60-53 and 60-53.
Falcon defeated Dunton El Jr. down with a jab in the second round. Dunton El Jr. He was off balance when he was hit, which caused him to fall.
During most of the war, Dunton El Jr. he pressured Falcon, but he couldn’t get to him due to a quick retreat, which resembled Shakur Stevenson’s quick feet. It wasn’t fun to watch for the most part, but Dunton El Jr. he made it interesting with his undefeated Falcon style of attack.
Heavyweight prospect Ali Feliz (2-0, 2 KOs) was the worst matchup Lemir Isom Riley (4-3, 2 KOs), knocking him out in the first round.
The 20-year-old Feliz landed a big right hand that dropped Riley to the canvas. Referee Eddie Claudio then stepped in and waved it off at 1:25 of the round.
Feliz’s performance was great. He has shown that he has the power to make him fight with the top heavyweight in this division. However, Top Rank will bring Feliz a little bit because of his age and limited height of 6’2″.
Bruce ‘Shu Shu’ Carrington (11-0, 7 KOs) fights Brayan De Gracia (29-3-1, 25 KOs) in a 10-round unification bout at featherweight.
Unbeaten 21-year-old Zayas (18-0, 12 KOs) is being tipped by Top Rank to be the next star in the junior middleweight division.
It’s too early to tell if Zayas can follow in the footsteps of Puerto Rican giants Miguel Cotto and Felix Trinidad, but tonight’s fight with Teixeira (34-4, 25 KOs) will give fans a better idea.
Brazilian Teixeira has won his last three fights by knockout for the first time since 2022.
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