Stevenson shuts out Nakathila in snoozer to pave way to fall title shot against Herring

Pedraza dominates Rodriguez; Ponce stops Ritson

Shakur Stevenson was far from explosive or dynamic on Saturday night, but he still ran roughshod over Jeremiah Nakathila to claim the vacant WBO interim junior lightweight title and set up a fall fight against full titleholder Jamel Herring.

Stevenson scored a fourth-round knockdown and cruised to a shutout decision — 120-107 on all three scorecards — in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

Stevenson dominated the unknown Nakathila, 31, of Namibia, who was fighting in the United States for the first time, in every single round. The biggest moment of the fight came in the fourth round when Stevenson connected with a short counter right hook to the chin that dropped Nakathila (21-2, 17 KOs) in the final seconds of the round.

The 23-year-old Stevenson (16-0, 8 KOs), a southpaw from Newark, New Jersey, did as he pleased and rarely got hit, although he did sport a bruise under his right eye after the fight, during which he was very wary of Nakathila’s right hand.

Nonetheless, it was easy work for Stevenson, who said afterward that he did not feel well going into the bout.

“To be honest, I didn’t really like my performance,” said Stevenson, a 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist. “I felt I could’ve performed a lot better, but it was an awkward, awkward fighter. You had an awkward fighter throwing hard punches, and he knows how to grab and get away. He was a real awkward fighter. That’s all.

“I tried to (get him out of there) a little bit, but I started getting hit with some solid shots. I ain’t really like it, but next time I’m going to work on moving my head a little bit more and step it up a little more. Every performance ain’t gonna be the best performance but I’m gonna perform better next time.”

Stevenson’s dominance was illustrated in the ComnpuBox statistics, which were overwhelmingly in his favor. He landed 114 of 304 punches (38 percent), including landing 30 body shots, while Nakathila, whose 10-fight winning streak (all by knockout) ended, landed only 28 of 305 punches (9 percent), another testament to Stevenson’s place as one of boxing’s best defensive fighters.

Despite Stevenson’s dominance, the fight was difficult to watch because their styles badly clashed with the right-handed Nakathila and southpaw Stevenson often stepping on each other’s feet. Referee Celestino Ruiz made things even more distracting by constantly yelling at them to “watch your feet!” There was booing from the crowd during the slow-paced fight.

Stevenson entered the bout as the mandatory challenger for Herring’s WBO 130-pound world title but he had stepped aside to allow Herring to face Carl Frampton in an optional defense on April 3. Herring knocked out Frampton in the sixth round and sent him into retirement.

While waiting for the fight with Herring (23-2, 11 KOs), Stevenson took the fight with Nakathila and will face Herring next.

“If I had the choice, I’d take (WBC titleholder) Oscar Valdez, but if I got to beat up Jamel to get to it, I’ll do that, too,” Stevenson said. “Jamel can’t beat me. He knows what it is.”

Top Rank promotes Mexico’s Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs), Herring, Stevenson and the unbeaten Brazilian contender Robson Conceicao (16-0, 8 KOs) and plans to put on Herring-Stevenson and Valdez-Conceicao in the fall. Then Top Rank would like to match the winners in a title unification fight.

Herring was ringside to get a good look at his next challenger.

“I thought Shakur did what he had to do. At times I felt like he could have pushed it,” Herring said. “I thought he could have stopped him, of course, because Shakur definitely has the talent and skills. But I think he just played it a little too safe. But at the end of the day a win’s a win.”

Herring blew off Stevenson’s negative comments about him.

“I don’t take anything personal. I’m mature,” Herring said. “I’ve been through a lot in my lifetime. This here is what I love to do. I love the fight game. I love what I do for a living. That’s just boxing talk to me. The only thing that matters is the fists do the talking at the end of the day. I’m not here to down anybody or go back and forth with anybody. I’m here to live out my dream and accomplish my job.”

Pedraza stops Rodriguez

In the co-feature, former lightweight and junior lightweight world titlist Jose “Sniper” Pedraza beat down up-and-comer Julian “Hammer Hands” Rodriguez and won by TKO when Rodriguez retired on his stool with a badly swollen left eye after the eighth round.

Rodriguez (21-1, 14 KOs), 26, of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, was taking an enormous step up in competition against Pedraza, who won his third fight in a row. Pedraza (29-3, 14 KOs), 32, of Puerto Rico, put himself into the title picture at 140 pounds with an impressive performance.

He swelled up Rodriguez’s left eye early in the fight and it got worse as the fight went along. After the eighth round, Rodriguez told his corner he could not see out of the eye and winced when his cutman tried to work on it, leading to the end of the fight.

“As the fight went on, I could see him weakening, and I took advantage,” Pedraza said.

Pedraza was ahead 77-75 on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage.

“My experience was too much for him,” Pedraza said. “I was hungrier than him, and he was just another obstacle in my journey to become a three-division world champion. That is my goal.

“I want all the big names at 140 pounds. With this performance, I sent a message to those big names. The ‘Sniper’ is on the hunt. I want to make history for Puerto Rico.”

Ponce demolishes Ritson

Relentless junior welterweight Jeremias Ponce delivered a tremendous beating to big-hearted Lewis Ritson en route to an unusual 10th-round knockout in an IBF title elimination bout on Saturday before an allowed capacity crowd of about 1,000 at the Vertu Motors Arena in Ritson’s hometown of Newcastle, England.

With the victory Ponce (28-0, 18 KOs), 24, of Argentina, became a mandatory challenger for undisputed champion Josh Taylor.

“It’s one step closer to my dream. It's the dream that you always have as a fighter,” Ponce said of getting a title shot. “I’m one step away from that now.”

Ponce scored three knockdowns in the 10th round before referee Steve Gray waved it off at 1 minute, 24 seconds. However, Gray’s performance was hugely controversial.

Ponce dropped Ritson to all fours with a right hand to the body in the opening seconds of the 10th round and moments after the fight resumed, Ponce nailed Ritson again. That’s when Dave Ritson, Lewis’ father and trainer, threw in a white towel as a sign of resignation. But Gray shockingly picked it up and threw it out of the ring and motioned for the fight to continue. As Gray was throwing the towel out of the ring, Ponce landed another right hand to the body that dropped Ritson (21-2, 12 KOs), 27, again.

Ritson beat the count but went down for a third time under a hail of shots and finally Gray waved off the fight.

Officially, only the referee is allowed to stop the fight but it is highly unusual for a referee not to end the fight at the corner’s request. It is rare, but not unprecedented. In a famous example, in an action-packed 2007 interim lightweight title bout, also in England, Michael Katsidis had knocked down Graham Earl twice in the first round and again in the second round when Earl’s corner threw in the towel. Referee Mickey Vann ignored it and allowed the fight to continue. Moments later Earl dropped Katsidis, who eventually won by fifth-round knockout.

Another notable example was when Miguel Cotto stopped Yuri Foreman in the ninth round to win a junior middleweight world title in 2010 at Yankee Stadium.

Foreman, who was fighting with an injured right knee, was having trouble keeping his balance and getting clobbered when trainer Joe Grier, threw in the towel in the eighth round and the ring filled with people believing the fight was over. But referee Arthur Mercante Jr. refused to recognize the towel, the ring was cleared and the fight continued.

In Ritson’s case, he had taken a horrendous beating so it was shocking that Gray did not recognize the corner’s wishes. Ponce was surprised.

“It was a bit confusing when we were in the ring because I thought the fight was over as soon as I saw the towel come in,” Ponce said. “Then I saw the ref throw it out. To be honest it was a bit of a shock. He's probably hurt in the rib area now and he wouldn't have been if he stopped the fight when we saw the towel come in.”

Ponce had a big first round, damaging Ritson with a body shot, and never let up. He gave Ritson credit for his immense toughness.

“It was a very tough fight, a lot tougher than I expected it to be,” Ponce said. “I expected a war with Ritson and he's a tough fighter, tougher than I expected. Yes, I did think it was over in the first round. It was a great body shot that I hit him with. Any other boxer would have gone down. I hit him right on the button and it would have hurt him. He showed his toughness that he was able to recover from that.”

Stevenson-Nakathila and Pedraza-Rodriguez photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Ponce-Ritson photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing