Early Results From Texas: Carrington, Green, Bahdi Win

Fans were just starting to find their seats as the Most Valuable Promotions card got underway at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. But 400,000 fans took in the action on the Netflix YouTube streaming broadcast as three bouts took place before the main card.

Carrington Checks Coolwell

Opening the card, featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington of Brooklyn, New York (14-0, 8 KOs) dominated a determined Dana Coolwell of Queensland, Australia (13-3, 8 KOs).

Carrington promised a crowd-pleasing performance, and though he couldn’t get a stoppage, he scored two knockdowns and a shutout on all three scorecards by 80-70.

Carrington scored both knockdowns with left hooks in combination. The first sat Coolwell down hard on his backside in round four. The second came with 90 seconds left in the fight, as Coolwell took a knee to avoid the worst of the damage being dished out by Carrington. It was a solid performance for Carrington, and a fight Coolwell will learn from moving forward

Green Wins WBO Super Middleweight Title

Shadasia Green got a stiff challenge from Melinda Wotford. Photo: Netflix

In the main event of the streaming card, Shadasia Green of New Jersey (15-1, 11 KOs) became the new WBO Super Middleweight champion in a narrow split decision over Melinda “The Whip” Watpool of Toronto (7-1, 2 KOs). Scores were 96-94 twice for Green, and 97-93 for Watpool.

Green was fortunate to get the victory. She has serious power and promised an “ass whooping” at Thursday’s weigh-in. In the early rounds, Green measured the proper distance to snap Watpool’s head around and back with hard right hooks and straight rights through the guard from the opening rounds.

Then Watpool adjusted and took a page from the book of unified champion Franchon Crew-Dezurn, who crowded and bullied Green for his first pro loss. Watford moved in on Green, successfully stepping up her activity and backing Green up.

Green sat down on her punches in the seventh round, but Watpool landed solid combination counterpunches. With two-minute rounds flying by, Green ran out of time to rely on a single power punch. She settled for the majority decision and won the title.

Compliments to Watpool, who showed no fear of her more powerful and experienced opponent and will only benefit from her good performance and exposure at this event.

Bahdi Gets By Casamonica

Lucas Bahdi couldn’t match the excitement of his last knockout win against Armando Casamonica. Photo: Netflix

Super Lightweight Lucas Bahdi of Niagara Falls, Ontario (18-0, 15 KOs) took on last-minute opponent Armando Casamonica of Italy (14-1, 3 KOs), even though Casamonica came in three and a half pounds over the weight limit. It seemed it might end up being a big mistake.

The judges let Bahdi escape with a majority decision. Scores were 98-92, 96-93, and 95-95. Casamonica threw up his hands in disgust at the scores. I had it scored six rounds to four rounds for Casamonica.

Bodhi, who scored the knockout of the year against MVP prospect Ashton Sylve, hoped to capitalize on his opportunity Friday. Bahdi started off boxing smartly. Casamonica’s size was apparent in the ring, and he had enough power to keep Bahdi honest.

The Italian’s footwork and frequent turns into a southpaw stance made Bahdi struggle to find opportunities and was reluctant to pull the trigger. Casamonica began sitting down on his punches, and Bahdi stood up to them well but didn’t always respond effectively. He’ll go home to Canada with the win and some lessons learned.

Bahdi landed 124 of 641 total punches (19%), and Casimonica 113 of 577 (19%).