Ardreal Roy Holmes Jr. vs. Marlon Harrington & Ali Zebeirovic Izmailov vs. Britton Lamar Norwood RBR

Hernández Martínez's knees buckled from a straight right by Pankey. Good smooth boxing from Pankey now, orbiting at mid-range, never letting the Mexican trap him on the ropes, throwing hooks and crosses. Hernández Martínez just plodding after him, shelling up as Pankey rips the body with hooks, and then pumping out slow combos that Pankey sidesteps and counters.

10-9 Pankey

48-46 Hernández Martínez

 

I wonder why it took Pankey nine minutes of flight time to find this quality. He really looked like an amateur in those three rounds to start off, like he'd never even hard sparred before.

(of course in fairness they did mention that Hernández Martínez came in 7lb more than him due to being a last minute replacement, couldn't be helped)

 

Pankey's right eye marked up but doesn't seem to be affecting his vision. He's dancing around the ring playing matador, countering in bursts with hooks and crosses. Hernández Martínez getting in some wide reaching body shots in pursuit. Hernández Martínez is put against the ropes, Pankey working some combos and then driven out to ring center by some body shots. They swap hooks and the crowd roars. Pankey closes pushing forward.

10-9 Pankey, close

57-56 Hernández Martínez, knockdown making the difference. Hope they don't rob him.

 

Official cards:

57-56

UD for Hernández Martínez

 

Perfect array of scorecards.

The commentators are right - you couldn't have scripted this better for a movie. Hernández Martínez was on a surprise flight earlier today, implausibly made it onto the broadcast, and upset the A-side ticket-seller in the FOTN. He'll definitely get more calls from promoters for prospect testing duties.

 

Ohhh, the color analyst was Sugar Hill. That'd explain it.

(All night I was thinking "maybe it's just Detroiter cadence but this dude's voice reminds me of Emanuel Steward for some reason...")