J'Leon Love Gets Off The Deck To Stop Escalera

Photo courtesy of Lucan Noonan / Premier Boxing Champions

Boxing Scene - By Rick Reeno

MGM Grand, Las Vegas - Ronald Gavril (13-1) won an eight round unanimous decision over Jessie Nicklow (24-7).

Cruiserweight prospect Andrew Tabiti (10-0, 10KOs) continued his destruction streak by knocking out Thomas Hanshaw (6-6) in two rounds.

Lanell Bellows won an eight round unanimous decision over Marcus Upshaw (17-14).

Super middleweight contender J'Leon Love (20-1, 11KOs) survived a first round knockdown and came back to stop Jason Escalera (15-4, 12KOs)in the seventh round. 

It was all-out war in the first round, with both fighters trading hard punches at close range. Escalera appeared to get stunned, but then landed a hard counter hook that dropped Love. Once he beat the count, they resumed the back and forth war with Love getting the better of the action.

As the fight played out, Love was landed more and more punches, breaking Escalera down. By the sixth round Escalera was taking a beating. During the seventh, a Love combination practically turned Escalera's entire body and sent him flying backwards into the ropes. After taking a good look at him, the referee waved it off and Escalera's corner was ready to throw in the towel. 

Junior welterweight Charvis Holifield (3-1, 2KOs) stopped Charles Dubray (2-3, 2KOs) in the third round. Dubray went down three times before the fight was waved off. 

 In a much tougher fight than he probably expected, Haskell Rhodes (23-0-1, 11KOs) barley held on to his undefeated record with an eight round split draw against Jared Robinson (15-2-1). Both fighters had their moments, but Robinson came on strong in the last three rounds with some very telling combinations that certainly caught Rhodes' attention. The scores were 77-75 for Rhodes, 77-75 for Robinson and 76-76.