Mullings turns tables on Smith
Sakima Mullings defeated Ricardo ‘The Surgeon’ Smith in their long-awaited grudge match, in one of the five under cards at ‘Jumble in JamRock’ fight card at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Saturday.
Mullings, whose only defeat came at the hands of the ‘The Surgeon’ in the semi-finals in the inaugural season of The Contender boxing series, looked stronger and sharper and dominated his opponent every round to come out deserved winner by unanimous decision in the eight-round welterweight contest.
The 30-year-old said it was a fight he definitely knew he could win and he couldn’t give up the opportunity.
“I took this fight because it was something that people have been asking for, for a while. Ricardo is a great fighter as you can see by my face, and he put up a great fight. But when the opportunity came I couldn’t let it pass me,” he said.
He added that he was willing to face Smith a third time once the purse was encouraging.
Smith stated that he let Mullings dictate the fight and never managed to turn the table. “I let him do his game and I didn’t capitalise on it…and I let him do things to me that he was not supposed to,” he said.
In the night’s opening fight, a 10-round Super Bantamweight duel between Mexico’s Maria Villalobos and Venezuela’s Alysia Sanchez, Alysia took that title, even though the audience was in favour of the sprightly Villabolos, and voiced its disapproval of the result.
The second fight between Peru’s Mauricio Reynoso and Costa Rica’s Jaime Barboza was just as entertaining and after laying several bloody punches to Reynoso’s nose and head, Barboza was unanimously declared the winner of the WBA Fedelatin Super middleweight crown.
The final undercard fight saw Kina Malpartida from Peru successfully making the sixth defence of her Super Featherweight title against a frisky challenger Marlene Hernandez.
Kina, a composed, no-nonsense boxer who had the crowd cheering for her from the moment she stepped in the ring, revelled in the good fight her opponent gave.
And although she was floored for a second in the fourth round, she recovered to take the match by unanimous decision.
“When I suckerpunched Hernandez and she doubled up on me in the corner I knew she was not going down without a fight. I love those battles, and I respected her even more as an opponent, but I was still very confident in my timing and response and expected another win for my defence,” she said.