By: Sean Crose
Showtime’s longtime fight show ShoBox is back on the air Friday night with a three-match card streamed live from Topeka, Kansas. The first is a scheduled 8-round super-heavyweight bout between Kurt Scoby 10-0 and John Mannu 70-0-1. The first round saw each man try to set the tone of the fight. A great right put Mannu on the canvas at the start of the second half. Mannu stood up, but after a while he was hit again by a blow. Standing up again, he was then thrown onto the mat again. Mannus deserves credit for getting to his feet again, but a thunderous Scby hit sent Aussie’s game down before halftime was over.
Next, Misael Lopez 14-1 faced Edward Vazquez 13-1 in a scheduled 10-round featherweight bout. The first inning was an emotional process for both while the second saw López beat. However, the man came back strong in the third inning while things remained tight in the fourth. Vazquez knocked his man down in the fifth round, and he continued to push for action in the sixth round, even though Lopez fought with his back legs fiercely and effectively. Both men traded well into the seventh inning, though Lopez may have been the more aggressive of the two.
By the eighth inning, the fight was clearly a war of attrition, exciting but brutal. The fight continued into the ninth round as Vazquez fired harder but Lopez fired more often. The tenth and final round saw each man trying to muster up his energy to keep up with the other. It was a fight, one of the judges ruled in Vazquez’s favor with a split decision.
It’s time for the main event. Ardreal Holmes Jr 12-0 aims to maintain his win over Ismael Villareal 12-0 in a scheduled 10-round super-middleweight bout. Things got off to a slow start, with Holmes holding Villareal at bay with a long jab. With that said, Villareal stepped up the action in the second half. Holmes was still able to keep his man in season three. However, by the fourth round, Villareal had started to overwhelm his men a bit.
By the fifth inning, the fight became monotonous, as it was the story of Holmes’ stab. However, Villareal started to succeed in the sixth inning. Holmes begins to step up the action in season seven. Eighth is pretty much the same. Ninth, is good. Villareal tried to do something in the tenth minute, but it was too little, too late. Holmes walked out with a decisive victory.
