Middleweight boxer Terrell Gausha improved to 20-0 after 10 action-packed rounds with Luis Hernandez in just his second fight in his home state.
Cleveland, Ohio’s Terrell Gausha looked impressive in his last fight held in his native Buckeye state. That fight, a unanimous decision win over Juan Carlos Rojas Sanchez, was on the undercard of an Adrien Broner main event back in August 2013 at Cincinnati’s U.S. Bank Arena. The promoter was R&R Promotions, and About Billions was only one of The Problem’s many brash ring monikers.
On Friday, February 10, Gausha (20-0, 9 KOs), entered the ring in Toledo’s sold out Huntington Center to face Luis Hernandez (15-4, 8 KOs) as part of a card organized by Cincinnati-based About Billions Promotions. Broner only entered the ring for promoter duties.
For avid fight fans, Gausha’s appearance represented a huge value to the card headlined by Toledo’s own world lightweight champion Robert “E Bunny” Easter Jr. and Cincinnati world titleholder Rau’Shee Warren. Boxing has an adage that the bigger the fighter, the bigger the power punching and at middleweight Gausha ended up being the night’s heaviest weight division to trade leather.
Hernandez attempted to pressure Gausha at the outset of the fight, but the middleweight from The Land (Cleveland) remained poised, and gradually slowed the fight to a pace more to his liking behind his steadying jab. In round two Gausha got the growing crowd’s attention as the stinging right hand of a one-two combination cleanly landed to the head of Hernandez.
Hernandez returned fire in round three connecting with an overhand right that knocked down Gausha as he was caught moving out of range from the punch late. Gausha easily beat the ref’s count not showing any lasting effects of the punch. If anything he was stunned at being caught, and the northeast Ohioan quickly bounced back with a nicely thrown double left hook to Hernandez’s body and head. Hernandez shook his head to Gausha signaling that a knock down required much more.
In round four Gausha tried his best to deliver more. He connected with a thunderous right upper cut in the middle of his biggest flurry to that point in the fight. He also landed a ripping right hook to Hernandez’s body, and with his back to Gausha’s corner the Puerto Rican middleweight motioned for even more from his opponent.
Hernandez returned with his pressure in the fifth round, but caught another big right uppercut from Gausha in doing so. His effort didn’t waver, moments later he successfully moved inside behind a triple jab and fired away with a left hook to Gausha’s body to end the round.
The fight ballooned into a full-on battle after the mid-point. Both men engaged in several heated exchanges in the sixth round. Gausha connected with a huge right hand and soon landed another double left hook combination. He punished the rugged Puerto Rican in a neutral corner in the seventh round, landing several powerful right hands until the action halted following a low blow foul by Hernandez.
The situation continued to worsen for Hernandez over the fight’s final three rounds. By round nine Gausha began clearly outclassing the broken up Hernandez, continually flashing his hand speed advantage and connecting with straight power shots. Round after round of landing the more effective punching gradually allowed Gausha to overcome the deficit created by Hernandez’s earlier 10-8 round.
The two warriors thoroughly entertained the worked up crowd with a hotly contested tenth round. However, Hernandez failed to land frequently enough to threaten Gausha with a second knock down to possibly make the cards more interesting. The Puerto Rican represented his native land well far from home in his opponent’s backyard, and he fully lived up to the island’s legacy in the sport with his spirited effort, but in the end the judges scored the fight in favor of Gausha by unanimous decision. We’ll see what’s next for the well-traveled Gausha, the 27th ranked middleweight in the world per BoxRec.
Tyler McCreary (13-0, 6 KOs) versus Jonathan Perez (36-17, 28 KOs): McCreary, an unbeaten Roc Nation Sports signee, is a longtime friend of Easter Jr. and trains alongside the young champion daily. About Billions and Roc Nation worked together down to the last couple of weeks before the event to add McCreary to the hometown showcase. Toledo’s Golden Child was ecstatic to secure a spot on the undercard, and facing a fighter with Perez’s experience presented McCreary with the perfect opportunity to advance his own career.
Perez’s resume includes several title fights below the world-class level, and he won Columbia’s super bantamweight title back in 2012. Early on Perez tried to gain the edge with mind games and trash talk, but McCreary settled down to land a left hook to Perez’s body that ended the fun and games. The seasoned Columbian responded with a right hand upstairs, and the hometown crowd sighed as McCreary stumbled backwards a few steps and gathered himself as he went into the ropes. Perez pressed forward with a combination, but failed to break through McCreary’s tight guard. Perez’s ring generalship, feints and array of punches from different angles held McCreary at bay for moments during first two rounds. Perez landed a left hook in round two, and found some success with overhand rights.
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McCreary adjusted to the veteran in round three, connecting with a double left hook to the body and added in a right uppercut. He also found Perez’s body with some left jabs. Perez tried to pressure McCreary throughout the fight, lunging in with shots and looking for any kind of contact to force the younger fighter into a mistake. In the fifth round McCreary made Perez pay for his strategy as he timed a left hand that scored the Golden Child a knock down.
Over the final three rounds McCreary’s hand speed and combination punching widened the gap on the scorecards. He worked well from behind his busy jab and dropped in some one-two combinations as he saw fit, on his way to earning a unanimous decision in front of a few hundred fans that stayed behind after the Easter Jr. main event. The win came several hours later than McCreary and his team expected, but the wait was long forgotten in the moment the ref raised his as the winner at the end of his first 8-rounder.
Albert Bell (7-0, 2 KOs) versus Andrew Rogers (4-2-1, 2 KOs): Bell, a gym mate of Easter Jr. and McCreary, used his length and jab to fluster the shorter, quicker Rogers from Elkhart, IN. Over the super lightweight contest’s four rounds Rogers fought relentlessly to get inside of Bell’s reach to get to the taller fighter’s body. However, Bell connected with enough sweeping left hooks, left uppercuts, and mixed in some long jabs to Rodgers body to sweep all four rounds. Rodgers went for all in the final round and caught Bell’s jaw with a solid right hand, and connected with a left hook after getting Bell into the ropes, but Bell regained his composure to dance out the closing seconds of the round. Bell got the win but the showed some accuracy and timing issues one would expect with only fighting once since July 2014.
Raynell Williams (12-o, 6 KOs) versus Justin Savi (29-10-2, 19 KOs): Unbeaten Cleveland lightweight Williams, like McCreary, faced his most experienced opponent to date. Savi of Silver Spring, MD faced former WBC World featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez for the WBC International Silver super featherweight title in April 2016. The outcome was stoppage by technical knock out in the middle of the second round.
Following the punishing 3-round technical knockout victory by Jamel Herring, Williams fed off the stoked crowd’s energy, and after a brief feeling out process he knocked down Savi with a crushing right hook. Savi beat the count and resumed fighting, but was soon floored by Williams for a second knock down. Savi climbed off the canvas again, and this time he caught an overzealous Williams with a right hook that momentarily dazed the young Cleveland native. Before the fierce first round ended Williams connected with another shot that sent the veteran fighter, but the referee deemed it a slip.
Williams wasted little energy on the questionable call. In the second round the ref waved off another knock down as a slip, but Williams remained undeterred by not receiving the proper credit for his work. The 28-year old hurt Savi several times throughout the round, scored a pair of real knock downs with the second just beating the bell. Referee James Howe wisely stopped the fight.
After the fight Williams said that he didn’t have any immediate plans for his next fight, and also alluded to his time spent with Easter Jr. in the amateurs as being a major factor in him getting the call to fight on such an important card. He admitted that he foolishly got careless with an experienced dangerous opponent regarding the right hook he got caught with, but he also expressed some pride in his quick thinking to step back, recover, and then finish his opponent the right way.
The About Billions Promotions team held pocket aces with its headliners Easter Jr. and Warren – fighting inside the state lines of Ohio. Easter Jr. is quickly developing into a bankable young champion as a product of his lethal knockout ability and his penchant for entertaining fans with his exuberant spirit. Warren possesses one of the fastest pair of hands in all of boxing. Fans also got to see Adrien Broner in-person just a week before his upcoming fight. With just a couple of events under its belt since its debut in the fall of 2015, About Billions proved that it’s about a lot more based on how it assembled its fight card at the Huntington Center Friday night. It’s about delivering entertaining, competitive fights to create memorable moments for fight fans, while simultaneously positioning its fighters to achieve all the in-ring success they’re willing to tirelessly work for on a daily basis. A promoter that’s consistently about those two things truly has a great shot to be about billions.
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