Before a small but enthusiastic crowd, San Francisco native Karim Mayfield upped his record to 13 and 0 with an impressive fifth round stoppage of Sergio De La Torre.
Fighting a few hundred feet from where legendary heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano fought fifty five years ago, welterweight Mayfield took control from the onset, nailing the game De la Torre with stinging right hands and a few left hooks. Using his jab as a range finder and then popping it, Mayfield continued to dominate. He knocked the bearded De La Torre down twice in the third round with a blistering combination and for good measure another left hook. To his credit the iron chinned De La Torre managed to get up and fight back, but he had neither the power nor skill to bother Mayfield. The fourth round was more of the same as the explosive Mayfield continued to pummel his overmatched opponent. As the fifth round started De La Torre tried to be more aggressive but the quicker Mayfield easily moved away and countered clocking his foe with a few right hands and uppercuts.
Near the end of the round Mayfield again connected with a big left hook followed by a right hand that had De La Torre staggering. With De La Torre on the ropes and being pounded, the referee wisely waved off the massacre at exactly the three minute mark of round five.
In the preliminaries, super middleweight Anthony Hirsch dispatched Jovanni Rubio near the end of round two. Hirsh started slowly but then found a home for his lead right, connecting on Rubio’s chin six consecutive times. The second round was more of the same as the bigger and stronger Hirsch battered Rubio around the ring. With the victory Hirsch’s record improved to 12-3-3, while Rubio’s fell to 6-12-3.
In a battle of bantamweights Bruno Escalante and Jonathon Alcantara engaged in a technical fight that was very hard to score. This reporter had Alcantara based on agression and harder punches slightly ahead at the end of the four round rounder. But when the decison was annonced it was Escalante who was declared the split decison victor. Escalante's record is now 1-1 while Alcanatara's dropped to 4-2.
The night opened with super welterweights Ben Rivera and Shawn Wate tangling in a pretty entertaining four rounder. After a close first round, Rivera took over and was awarded a unanimous decision and his first victory as a professional.
The night clearly belonged to Karim Mayfield, whose explosive punching is certainly something to keep an eye on. At twenty nine years old Mayfield is a man on a mission.
