Veterans Marcus Browne and Jesse Hart resumed their careers successfully, each returning to action for the first time since 2021 on the non-broadcast portion of the Emanuel Rodriguez-Melvin Lopez bantamweight championship card on Saturday at the MGM Grand National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

32-year old 2012 US Olympian Marcus Browne (25-2, 16 KO), Staten Island, New York, came in at a career-high 198 ½ pounds, snaring a ten-round unanimous decision in cruiserweight action. 32-year old Adrian Taylor (13-2-1, 5 KO), 204, of Dallas, Texas, gave Browne a good workout but little in the way of a threat as Browne outboxed him from bell to bell. At the end of ten rounds, Browne has earned unanimous shutout scores of 100-90 from all three judges.

The referee was Sharon Sands. 

The loss ends a seven-fight unbeaten streak for Taylor. For Browne, it marked his first action since a December 2021 knockout loss to lineal light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev.

34-year old light heavyweight Jesse Hart (29-3, 23 KO), 172 ½, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, won his third fight in a row, but first since December 2021, with a stoppage in round two. Hart made easy work of 34-year old Elio Heraldo Trosch (15-11-2, 7 KO), 174 ½, of Santiago Del Estero, Santiago del Estero, Argentina. The time of the stoppage was 2:37 in the second round. The referee was Eric Irizarry. 

Hart’s last defeat came to future light heavyweight titlist Joe Smith in 2020. Hart challenged Gilberto Ramirez for a super middleweight title in 2018, losing a decision.   

In junior middleweight action, 18-year old local talent David Whitmore (3-0, 2 KO), 149 ½, of Washington, DC scored a first-round stoppage of 27-year old Jordy Tientcheu (0-2), 145 ½, of Monroe, Michigan. The time of the stoppage was 2:41 of the first.

21-year old super middleweight hopeful Daniel Blancas (7-0, 4 KO), 166 ½, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, kept his undefeated record intact with a shutout unanimous decision over six rounds. It was the eight loss in nine starts for 36-year old Devaun Lee (11-10-1, 6 KO), 166, of Queens, New York. All three judges awarded Blancas 60-54 on points. 

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com