By: Sean Crose

Showtime’s longtime fight program ShoBox returned to the airwaves Friday night with a three fight card which was broadcast live from Topeka, Kansas. First up was a scheduled 8 round super welterweight affair between the 10-0 Kurt Scoby and the 70-0-1 John Mannu. The first round saw each man trying to set the tone of the fight. A terrific right sent Mannu to the canvas as the start of the second. Mannu got up, but was sent down again by a body blow a moment later. Getting up once more, he was subsequently sent to the mat yet again. Mannus deserved credit for getting up once again, but a thunderous Scuby sent the game Aussie down and out before the round came to an end.

Next up, the 14-1 Misael Lopez battled the 13-1 Edward Vazquez in a scheduled 10 round featherweight affair. The first round was a feeling out process for both while the second saw Lopez hit the mat. Yet the man came back strong in the third while things remained tight in the fourth. Vazquez banged away at his man in the fifth, and he continued to press the action in the sixth, though Lopez fought on the rear foot viscously and effectively. Both men traded well in the seventh, though Lopez may have been the more active of the two.

By the eighth the fight was clearly a war of attrition, entertaining but brutal. The war continued into the ninth where Vazquez fired the stronger shot but Lopez fired more frequently. The tenth and final round saw each man try to summon up the energy to keep up with the other. It was some fight, one the judges ruled in favor of Vazquez by a split decision.

It was time for the main event. The 12-0 Ardreal Holmes Jr aimed to maintain his winning ways against the 12-0 Ismael Villareal in a scheduled 10 round super middleweight bout. Things started slow, with Holmes holding Villareal at bay with a long jab. With that being said Villareal pushed the action in the second. Holmes was still able to keep his man at bay in the third. By the fourth, however, Villareal was starting to get to his man a bit.

By the fifth, the fight was becoming monotonous, as it was a story of Holmes’ jab. Still, Villareal started having success in the sixth. Holmes began pushing the action in the seventh. The eighth was pretty much more of the same. The ninth, as well. Villareal tried to make something happen in the tenth, but it was too little, too late. Holmes walked out with the decision win.

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