(Friday, May 10,) Undefeated Cuban welterweight Livan “Machine Gun Kid” Navarro (11-0, 7 KOs) dominated former top contender Breidis Prescott over eight one-sided rounds tonight in the Hard Rock Event Center at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Fighting in the 10-round main event of Rumble at the Rock V “Night of the Undefeated,” presented by Kris Lawrence and The Heavyweight Factory, Navarro beat Prescott like a heavy bag and took shockingly little in return.
The badly faded Prescott (now 31-17, 22 KOs) of Miami via Barranquilla, Colombia, tried in every round, but has lost the reflexes to land consistently against high-level competition. The free-swinging and entertaining Navarro landed with power to the head and body with shocking regularity. The scores were 78-74, 79-73 and 80-72.
WBA No. 7-rated featherweight contender Hairon Socarras (22-0-3, 14 KOs) of Miami via Marianao, Cuba, scored an impressive fifth-round stoppage over Monteria, Colombia’s Jesus Martinez (25-7, 12 KOs).
Fighting with confident aggression, the determined Socarras clubbed to the body with his fast hands and eventually dropped his tough Colombian foe with a short left hook in the fifth. Martinez elected not to come out for round six, so referee Frank Santori Jr. waved it off. Under Florida rules, the official ending came at 2:59 of round five.
In a four-round light heavyweight special attraction, Fort Lauderdale’s popular “Bad” Blake Davis moved to 2-0, 1 KO with a four-round unanimous decision over Quintell Thompson (2-8-1, 2 KOs) of Columbia, Missouri.
Davis got off to a great start, dropping Thompson with the follow-up of a strong right hand, but Thompson hung tough and kept it interesting with his lunging left hooks. The tall and rangy Davis landed enough right hands and uppercuts to deserve the nod. The scores were 40-35 across the board.
20-year-old super lightweight Logan “The Korican Kid” Yoon (16-0, 12 KOs) of Honolulu won a fairly routine eight-round decision over Robert Frankel (37-21-1, 8 KOs) of Denver.
Yoon, who held the WBO-NABO Youth Super Lightweight Championship and was the WBO #13-rated world contender before suffering a knee injury last year, got back to work and put in some solid work to shake the rust off. There were no knockdowns. The scores were 78-74, 80-72 and 80-72.
In yet another spectacular all-out war that “Rumble at the Rock” has become known for, 2012 Cuban Olympian Irosvani “El Assassino” Duvergel (6-0, 3 KOs) of Miami via Guantanamo, Cuba, scored a thrilling six-round unanimous decision over the aptly named Jerhed “Underdog” Fenderson (5-11, 2 KOs) of Las Vegas.
After a pair of fairly normal rounds won by Duvergel’s activity rate, war broke out in the third.
Fenderson dropped Duvergel hard with a sweeping left hook midway through the round and appeared ready to move in and finish the Cuban.
Not so fast.
The always-exciting Duvergel landed a picture-perfect left hook of his own that dropped Fenderson “timber” style. Before round’s end, he scored another knockdown as well.
With the crowd on its feet, Duvergel battered Fenderson in rounds four and five. He scored a body shot knockdown on Fenderson in round four and seemed to have righted the ship.
Not so fast.
In round six, Fenderson came alive again and battered the spaghetti legged Duvergel from pillar to post for all three minutes.
Duvergel made it out of the round and stayed undefeated (scores 59-53, 59-54 and 59-54). Credit to both warriors. They are already scheduled to rematch in July.
Welterweight prospect Derrieck “Pretty Boy” Cuevas (21-0-1, 14 KOs) of Miami via San Juan won an ugly eight-round unanimous decision over former contender Albert “Tornado” Mensah (27-8-1, 15 KOs) of Tampa via Accra, Ghana (scores 78-74, 80-72 and 80-72).
Florida referee Sam Burgos’s seeming inability to recognize holding or most types of fouls turned what could have been an interesting crossroads battle into an earmuffed Mensah being pinned against the ropes and Cuevas pounding on him like some hanging meat in a Rocky movie, though not landing with consequence.
Mensah would occasionally attempt a flurry to keep Cuevas honest, but not enough to make a serious bid to win. Not much of a learning experience for Cuevas, as he probably won’t encounter that type of defensive passiveness much on his way up the food chain.
In the opening bout of the night, two-time Olympic medalist Ivan “The Kazakh Giant” Dychko of Boca Raton, Florida, via Rudniy, Kazakhstan, stayed undefeated with a TKO 3 (1:48) over former heavyweight title challenger Ray “The Rainman” Austin of Cleveland.
Referee James Warring waved off the scheduled six-rounder after Austin indicated he had injured his left arm. Before that Dychko was landing frequently and cruising to victory. The once capable Austin need to have a long look in the mirror. Dychko is now 8-0, 8 KOs. Austin falls to 29-10-4, 18 KOs.