Weekend-in-Review: Vera, Matthysse Score Impressive KOs

Corey Erdman / January 28, 2013 - 2:12pm

Brian Vera TKO-10 Sergiy Dzinziruk, Jose Hernandez TKO-8 Tony Luis

The theme of the night in Verona, NY was "don't mess with Texas."

In the broadcast opener on ESPN Friday Night Fights, Jose Hernandez of Fort Worth, TX., came in on late notice and stopped Canadian Tony Luis.

The bout, fought at 140 pounds, was a high-tempo affair waged almost exclusively on the inside. However, in the moments Hernandez discovered he didn't have to obey the unwritten rule of standing chest to chest on this evening, he would step back and crack Luis with hard right hands.

Our own Jimmy Tobin was ringside with me, and offered this take on the momentum swing in his post-fight recap.

This success was short-lived, however. Hernandez, perhaps feeling his stamina would betray him over the remainder of the bout, gambled on the efficacy of his assault, and fought desperately in the seventh round. In the eighth, Hernandez shook Luis with a left hook, and dropped him with the follow up. Luis would beat the count, only to be drowned by Hernandez along the ropes, taking enough flush punches to prompt his corner to throw in the towel. The official time of the stoppage, 2:47 of the eighth round.

Texas kept on rollin' in the main event, as another underdog, Brian Vera, pummelled former junior middleweight titlist Sergiy Dzinziruk en route to a 10th round stoppage.

Dzinziruk was favored by a reasonable margin heading into the night, with a stellar pedigree at 154 pounds that included a five-year title reign. But since moving up to middleweight and to the United States, he had faltered twice.

Vera proved that either he doesn't belong, or he just doesn't have it anymore.

The Texan hurt his opponent right from the opening bell, dropping him twice in the first frame--once with a body shot, and later a hard right hand. That right hand seemingly didn't miss all night long, but in the middle rounds, Dzinziruk bravely fought back and started to get his jab working.

It was all futile, as Tobin describes:

In the tenth round however, after he had bludgeoned his opponent nearly to the point of a stoppage in the the previous round,Vera would slam the door on his Dzinziruk's comeback. Trapping the Ukrainian in the corner, Vera wailed away with both hands; Dzinziruk, mouth agape, slumped into the ropes, and collapsed to the mat. He would rise, but the last of his fight had left him. Referee Benjy Estevez Jr. waving the fight off at 1:50 of the tenth round.

As Vera told Fight Network earlier in the week, the plan is for him to get a crack at WBA middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin later this year.

Who wouldn't want to watch that for however long it lasted?

Demetrius Andrade UD-10 Freddy Hernandez

Elsewhere in New York state, Demetrius Andrade remained undefeated in besting Freddy Hernandez over 10 rounds.

It was Andrade's first fight under "it" trainer Virgil Hunter, and though he didn't necessarily look drastically different, he may have turned in the most impressive performance of his career. The former Olympian dropped Hernandez in the sixth round, and had him hurt in the final stanza as well.

Heading into the night, Andrade reportedly had a lot of trouble getting down to 154 pounds, and was speaking as if he was moving up to middleweight from here on. If there is a way he can stay at junior middleweight though, he will be a nightmarish matchup for anyone in the division with his athletic, rangy attack and solid defense.

Lucas Matthysse KO-1 Mike Dallas Jr.

Maybe it was just Mike Dallas' quiet, unassuming attitude, but he looked downright spooked heading to the ring at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, NV. on Saturday night.

If he was, his fears were justified by Lucas Matthysse rather quickly.

Matthysse landed a short right hand near the end of the first round that rendered Dallas unconscious before he hit the mat. As soon as referee Robert Byrd saw the fighter laying face first on the mat, he waved the contest off immediately.

Perhaps the most compelling action of the night happened outside of the ring. During the undercard, it was reported that Matthysse had swallowed an amino acid vitamin in front of Dallas' trainer Virgil Hunter, prompting an intervention from the Nevada athletic commission. It was determined that the supplement was nothing illegal, and the fight would continue.

Not long after the fight was over, we found out the Zab Judah-Danny Garcia bout being hyped all night long on the Showtime Championship Boxing telecast was delayed as a result of an injury Garcia sustained in training.

So while the quick evening was supposed to be a catapult for Matthysse to perhaps the face the winner of Garcia-Judah, he'll have to wait until April 27 to find out who that is.