Impressive wins for ‘The Hitman’ Russell,’Big 12’ Brown

It was a successful return to the ring for Jamaican super middleweight boxer Kemahl ‘Hitman’ Russell last Saturday night, after an absence of five years when he scored a fourth-round TKO (technical knockout) victory over Marcos Cornejo of Argentina in a fight scheduled for eight rounds. His countryman Ricardo ‘Big 12’ Brown also had a good night, as he scored a first-round KO victory over Mexican Jesus Angel Nerio to take his record to 7-0.

These fights were two of the preliminary bouts on a six-fight card promoted by Tyler Buxton’s United Boxing Promotions, which took place at the Pickering Casino Resort, in Ontario, Canada.

Russell, who is 34, and now has a 14-1 record, last fought on March 16, 2018 when he scored a second-round TKO victory over Michi Munoz Zavala in defence of his NABF junior middleweight title. Since then he had eye surgery, and was only recently cleared to resume his boxing career. Saturday was therefore an important one for him and he passed the test.

He fought well and showed that his boxing skills are intact. He used his jabs to set up his opponent and mixed these with hooks to the body and uppercuts.

Cornejo defended well, and blocked many of the punches to the body, but Russell was relentless and kept the pressure on him all the way. Russell, who was slowly building to a crescendo, was in full flow with jabs to the head and hooks to the body, when Cornejo’s corner signalled to referee Donovan Boucher at the one minute 29 seconds mark, that their fighter had enough, and he stepped in and called a halt to the fight.

Russell was clearly disappointed at the ending, and he confided afterwards that he would have liked “a more dramatic end to the fight”, but he was happy that he had made a successful return, and is looking forward to another fight soon.

Brown, who is developing a record as a knockout artist, was not intimidated by the 15-10-1 record of his opponent, and ended his fight after one minute and 51 seconds of round one. He told The Gleaner yesterday that acting on the instructions of his corner, he had planned to use his jabs to test his opponent and get some rounds in. “I wanted to see what he had to offer.”

In one of the exchanges, however, his opponent caught him with “a good overhand right to the head that hurt”, and he decided that he was not going to take any chances with him. He therefore responded immediately with a furious attack that included a stiff jab to the head and a heavy body shot that hurt his opponent badly; he fell to the canvas and referee Mark Simmonds stepped in and called a halt to the fight.

Brown, like Russell, said that he hopes to fight again soon and that it will be within the next two months.

“ I want to keep busy and keep winning, because that is the only way to get into the rankings,” he ended.