In the main event held at the Robert Treat Best Western Hotel in Newark, New Jersey, Ossie Duran, a 34 year old Ghana middleweight fighting out of Paterson, New Jersey, won the USBA Northeastern Regional Middleweight title with a tenth round stoppage over Latif Mundy of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though the more experienced and aggressive Duran appeared to win every round on the scorecards, Mundy remained very competitive till late in the tenth. Mundy suddenly appeared defenseless, with Duran pummeling him with head shots on the ropes near a corner, forcing referee Lindsay Page to stop the bout at 2:29 of the tenth and final round.
Duran, now 26-8-2 (10), outclassed Mundy by using his ring experience to both throw and land more punches by volume, using a lot of overhand left and right leads to the head, as well as doing going bodywork throughout the contest. Mundy had a good defense, and landed some good counters.
Mundy’s best chance was to try to stay close to Duran and try to score on the inside, but he was unable to sustain any inside exchanges. Duran stood in front of Mundy nearly the entire contest, but Mundy, now 10-3 (4), who kept moving, lacked the skills to land blows of significance on the target. Neither fighter changed their game plan.
Duran, who had gone ten rounds or more fifteen times going into the contest, knew Mundy had never been past the eighth round, and patiently wore him down before finally getting to him near the end of the bout. Mundy still has potential, but is not yet a ten round fighter. (more…)