Junior welterweight prospect Brandun ‘The Crow’ Lee 22-0 (20) kept his knockout streak alive with a highlight reel KO of Samuel ‘Tsunami’ Teah 17-4-1 (7) at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut on Wednesday night.
The 21-year-old from La Quinta, California stopped Teah with a crunching right hand at 1:43 of the third frame. It marked his 13th straight stoppage dating back to June 2018. Eight of those victories have occurred in the opening round and none of the fights have lasted past three.
The first two stanzas were competitive with Liberian-born Teah, 33, using his jab to good effect and landing a stiff right hand in round two. But Lee’s prodigious power came to the fore in the following round as a three-punch combination sent Teah to the matt. It was the first time he had been down in his career.
Lee smelled blood. Teah made the mistake of exchanging on the inside. Despite Teah landing a flush left hook Lee took the punch well and fired back with his own looping right hand. Teah hit the deck heavily and referee Johnny Callas immediately waved off the fight without a count. It was the right call.
“Honestly I don’t think I learned a whole lot tonight. I knew he couldn’t outbox me. I knew he couldn’t outpunch me,” Lee said after his win.
“I knew the knockout was going to come and that one was definitely one of my top one or two favourites so far in my career.”
On the undercard super featherweight Jordan ‘Short Dog’ White 11-1 (9) scored a dramatic sixth-round knockout of previously unbeaten Misael Lopez 11-1 (5) in their eight-round bout.
According to CompuBox, White outlanded Lopez 146-92 in total punches. It was the accuracy of White’s power punches that made the difference with 47% connecting. Lopez was on the canvas twice in the sixth before being counted out at the 2:40 mark by referee Arthur Mercante Jr.
Undefeated lightweight Victor Padilla 9-0 (8) recovered from a flash knockdown in the opening round to stop Thomas Velasquez 10-1-1 (6) in the fifth of their scheduled eight-round contest. Padilla had Velasquez on the canvas in round five then forced referee Danny Schiavone to step in and stop the contest with his follow-up barrage. The time was 1:56. Velasquez was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards at the time.
Lightweight Steven Ortiz 12-0 (3) claimed an eight-round unanimous decision victory over Jeremy Hill 14-1 (9) with scores of 79-73 and 77-75 twice.
The 127-pound clash between David Navarro 2-1 (2) and Diuhl Olguin 15-16-4 (10) ended in controversial fashion when Navarro was cut from what was ruled a punch just 21 seconds before the bell to end the sixth and final round.
Referee Arthur Mercante Jr stopped the bout and awarded the victory to Olguin by TKO. Navarro, who was up 50-45 twice and 49-46 on the judges’ scorecards, claims the cut was from an elbow.
“This is a very unfortunate situation for a promising young kid with a big future. I plan to immediately work with my team to petition this ruling to be overturned,” said Tm VanNewhouse, who manages Navarro under the Split-T Management banner.
Welterweight Brian Norman Jr 19-0 (16) stopped Benjamin Whitaker 15-5 (3) in the fifth round of their eight-round bout.
