By Vladimir Lik

MORE LIVE RESULTS TO COME.................

New York’s Reshat Mati (3-0, 2 KO) scored a whopping first round TKO victory over Benjamin Borteye (4-4, 4 KOs). The official time of the stoppage was 1:06 of the opening round.

The 20-year-old welterweight prospect from Staten Island pulverized Borteye with a dazzling combination right out of the gate dropping Borteye with an overhand right hook bringing the partisan crowd to its feet. The Albanian Mati seized on the opportunity to swarm Borteye landing clean left  and right hands until referee Miguel Rosales jumped into stop the bout.

This was Mati’s second consecutive appearance at Madison Square Garden. Last October Mati defeated Juan Carlos Sepulveda on the Daniel Jacobs-Sergiy Derevyanchenko undercard.

Local crowd favorite and welterweight prospect Julian Sosa (13-0-1, 5 KOs) defeated Dieumerci Nazu (11-6, 8 KOs) by TKO after the referee under the direction of the ringside physician didn’t allow Nazu to come out of his corner following the third round. The official time of the stoppage was 2:59 of the fourth round.

The 23-year-old Sosa dropped Nazu with a counter right hook in the third round when both fighters were slugging it out in the middle of the ring. The Brooklyn native, who typically sells over 500 tickets to his fights, landed quick-as-lightning combinations which kept Nazu off balance.

Sosa caught Nazu once more upstairs after softening up the body with a combination of left hooks. Following a long discussion in Nazu’s corner following the round the decision was made to stop the bout much to Nazu’s chagrin.

In heavyweight action Nkosi Solomon (1-1) notched his first win as a professional by scoring a four-round unanimous decision victory over Cade Rodriguez (2-4, 2 KOs). The official scores from ringside were 40-35 x 3.

The 6’3’’ Solomon scored the bout’s lone knockdown by dropping Rodriguez with a monster counter right hand in the third round. Rodriguez beat the count and tried to get back in the fight landing a bruising overhand  of his own to get Solomon’s attention. In the final round the 24-year-old  Solomon tried to put Rodriguez down on the once more but the Georgia-native was resilient enough to stay clear of Solomon’s right hand.

For the 23-year-old Solomon, originally from Guyana now living and training in Brooklyn, this is his second professional bout after signing with Matchroom boxing following a highly decorated amateur career. In a shocker, Solomon lost in his professional debut last October in Chicago when Matt Cameron dropped him twice en route to a unanimous decision victory. 

In the opening bout of the Demetrius Andrade-Artur Akavov world title undercard, Washington D.C.’s Cornell Hines (4-0, 2 KOs) defeated Fahrud Fatulla (1-3) by a four-round unanimous decision. The official scores at ringside were 39-37 x 2, 38-38.

The 25-year-old Hines had some good moments in the second and third rounds but was unable to muster enough combinations to really hurt Fatulla. Hines took the foot off the gas pedal in the fourth round allowing Fatulla to smother him to the ropes. Hines managed to sneak in an uppercut counter punch to keep Fatulla at bay until the final bell.