Showtime Boxing Undercard Results from Brooklyn: Jacobs Victorious in Return

By: William Holmes

Golden Boy Promotions put on the first ever boxing card at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. , and they stacked the undercard with local fighters with promising careers.

The first fight on the undercard was in the junior middleweight division between two Brooklyn natives, Body Melson (9-1) and Jason Thompson (5-6-1). The crowd was sparse at the opening bout, but the action was tight. Melson was the aggressor while Thompson was content on counter-punching. Thompson scored a knockdown in the fourth round on Thompson with a straight right hand. In round three Melson was able to stun Thompson with a combination and knocked him down by the ropes. It was a close fight, and neither fighter seemed satisfied when the fight was rule a draw. The official scores were 56-56.

The second bout of the night was between Luis Collazo (31-5) and Steven Upsher (24-1-1) in the junior middleweight division. This bout featured two good fighters with little power between them, as Collazo had 16 KO’s or TKO’s on his record while Upsher only had 6 KO’s or TKO’s. Upsher appeared to have a hard time dealing with the defensive style of Collazo, as Collazo at one point put his hands down and mocked Upsher’s inability to land effective punches on him. Collazo effectively picked Upsher apart, and clearly deserved the decision victory. The official scores were 80-72, 79-73, 77-75.

The third fight of the night was between Bronx native Eddie Gomez (10-0) and Saul Benitez (2-2) in the junior middleweight division. Benitez was the much taller fighter and he appeared unwilling to mix it up on the inside. Gomez eventually caught up to Benitez and viciously knocked him out in the second round with a left hook. Benitez remained on the floor in the middle of the ring and was slow to get back to his feet after he was counted out. Gomez showed brutal and surprising power tonight. The end came at 1:23 of round 2.

The last fight on the undercard was an eight round bout between Brooklyn, NY native and cancer survivor Danny Jacobs (22-1) and Josh Luteran (13-1) in the super middleweight division. Both Jacobs and Luteran weighed in at 161 lbs and looked like they can easily drop back down to the middleweight division with no problems. This was Jacobs’ first fight since March 5th of 2011, and he came back with a bang.

A brutal left hook right uppercut combination by Danny Jacobs ended Luteran’s night early in 1:13 the first round. Luteran remained on the canvas for several minutes and Danny Jacobs looked genuinely concerned for Luteran’s health. Danny Jacobs beat cancer, and now he won his first fight back.