Under the sizzling lights of Madison Square Garden, on the eve of the much beloved Puerto Rican Day Parade the city’s proud denizens cheered on ferociously for the Doubleheader event pitting some of the Caribbean’s finest pugilists toe-to-toe.
HBO Boxing presented us with a fierce contest, first featuring Puerto Rico’s own Felix Verdejo VS Ivan Najera of San Antonio; the Main Event showcased Nicholas Walters of Jamaica VS Miguel Marriaga of Colombia. Walters came in a pound overweight during weigh-ins and was stripped of his Featherweight title but would go on to easily lay waste to Miguel Marriaga.
Nicholas ‘axe man’ Walters is so called, because of his ability to knock down and defeat opponents, he failed to live up to his namesake. Although, Walters was significantly better in the ring than Marriaga, he seemed to labor longer than we’re used to seeing from 21 time KO holder, in fact, he only managed to lay Marriaga on the mat once.
WATCH the counter-right by @AxeManWalters that dropped Marriaga for the first time in his career. #TweetReplay http://t.co/69FWf7pqBs
— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) June 14, 2015
Even still, due to Marriaga’s lackluster performance–landing 27% of his punches vs Walters, anything barring a KO effort from the 135 pounder would prove not enough to take down Walters. The considerably quiet crowd (versus the madhouse MSG had been converted into during the Verdejo/Najera bout) took the joy out of the arena as the two men threw gloved fists at body in an endless sequence of blows until the 12th round. Much of Walters’ uncharacteristically ‘slow’ fighting tonight was credited to his eight months off, as he pointed out afterwards. When it was all said and done Walters won 119-108, 118-109 and 117-110.
For the first bout between Felix Verdejo and Ivan Najera, the crowd over 3,000 plus–most of whom were Puerto Rican, turned the Garden into a Puerto Rican Day Parade party in its own right with flags waving, songs being sung and shouts of proud countrymen and women bringing forth goosebumps from all in attendance regardless of ethnicity.
Undefeated Felix Verdejo has made a name for himself as one of Puerto Rico’s premiere boxers and Ivan Najera, though not a crowd favorite, was also undefeated and credited for his skills in the ring. The bout quickly turned to favor of Verdejo who dropped Najera twice, the first time in the fifth which fired up the crowd even more and from there was no longer back for team Verdejo. The promising Lightweight from Puerto Rico was scored 100-88, 100-88 and 99-89 to improve his record to 18-0.
WATCH the uppercut from @DiamanteVerdejo that sent Najera to the canvas in round five #TweetReplay #VerdejoNajera http://t.co/hQW3tvcr3l
— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) June 14, 2015