Boxing News – In the co-main event of Fundora vs. Lubin, Tony “Superbad” Harrison cruised to a unanimous decision.
The former super-welterweight champion scored a near shut out of contender Sergio Garcia (33-2, 14 KOs) across 10-rounds.
“I pitched a shutout against a guy who just fought a guy in the main event right now,” said Harrison. “Muscles are the way in the street, but skills pay the bills.”
Garcia applied pressure from the outset, looking to swarm Harrison and trap him on the ropes in an attempt to become the third fighter ever to stop the Detroit-native. However, Harrison adjusted quickly to the tactics, and by round four, he was peppering Garcia with hard jabs to stop him in his tracks again and again.
“All I needed to do was land one good punch, but I didn’t,” said Garcia. “Harrison fought his fight and was very smart with his jab and his elusiveness, major credit to him.”
As the fight progressed, Harrison varied his attack and had consistent success landing powerful blows to Garcia’s head. Harrison dominated the punch stats, connecting on 197 shots to Garcia’s 103, despite Garcia throwing over 100 more punches (592-491). Harrison’s sharpness was also reflected in his 51% connect rate on power punches.
“He was swinging for the fences,” said Harrison. “When he was missing shots, all I heard was ‘whoosh!’. I felt it. I was trying to throw a few more counter shots in between. My composure was everything.”
Garcia remained game throughout and was determined to keep coming forward until the final bell. Still, the veteran Harrison showed ring savvy as the Spaniard’s punches were never able to bother him. After ten rounds, all three judges scored the fight in favor of Harrison with two scores of 100-90 and one tally of 98-92.
“I can put on a show all I want, but the bottom line is that I need wins, and I have two losses in a row instead,” said Garcia. “Reality is that I’m not at a championship level yet, but I’ll keep fighting.”
“The first thing I’m going to do, I haven’t seen my kids in six months,” said Harrison. “I want to see my kids. My step two, I have a gym called Superbad Fitness. Every time it rains, it pours in the inside of my gym.
“My job is to find guys that can donate to our non-profit to save about a hundred kids that work out in my gym every day. That’s step number two for me. Step number three for me, I’m going to take a vacation.”
SALGADO vs. PERRELLA
In the opening bout of the telecast, super welterweights Kevin Salgado (14-0-1, 9 KOs) and Bryant Perrella (17-3-2, 14 KOs) fought to a split draw after 10-rounds of action.
The tactical affair saw Perrella establish his jab from the outset, a punch he landed 64 times throughout the contest. Perrella, who is trained by Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr., combined consistent movement with the jab, which slowed Salgado from putting together a consistent offense.
“I thought my game plan and execution were great,” said Perrella. “But I boxed smart. I broke him down. I’m not going to run from him. He was winging big shots whenever I would step in, just trying to knock me out with one punch. I kept the jab in his face. Jabs to the body. Left hands. I hurt him. Everything was going great, and it looked like I was sweeping all the rounds.”
For Salgado, he kept the fight close with a consistent body attack, out landing Perrella 44 to 27 on body shots and a 37 to 34 edge in power punches. Perrella landed the most impactful fight of the punch, connecting on a sharp left uppercut that caused Salgado to stumble in round five.
All three judges agreed on only three of the ten rounds throughout the closely contested duel, eventually leading to the split-draw by scores of 97-93 for Perrella, 96-94 for Salgado, and the 95-95 draw. After the fight, both men believed they had done enough to have their hand raised.
“I was shocked by the decision,” said Perrella, who fought to a draw against Tony Harrison in his last outing before Saturday night. “Two draws in a row. I put my all into this, and I get robbed at the end of the day. It’s a tough pill to swallow. I easily outboxed him. He barely landed any punches. I don’t know what more I can do. I did my best. It is what it is.”
“I felt like I won,” said Salgado. “All Perrella did was run around and away from me. Maybe if I had pressured a bit more, that last judge would have leaned more in my favor. Perrella kept throwing his jab but almost never connected.
“I think that tonight was definitely a positive step in the right direction towards becoming the next Mexican star in the United States, and I look forward to pleasing the fans with more Mexican-style fights in the future.”
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