By Cliff Rold

It probably didn’t do anything to secure him the rematch he craves with WBA Jr. Welterweight titlist Amir Khan, but 27-year old Colombian Breidis Prescott (25-2, 19 KO) of Miami, Florida didn’t hurt his cause with a lopsided unanimous decision over 29-year old Mongolian Bayan Jargal (15-2, 10 KO) of Arlington, Virginia on Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Prescott came into the contest at the division limit of 140 lbs., Jargal lighter at 138.

Jargal showed educated defense in the opening round, blocking and making Prescott miss until late in the round.  Prescott made it count, stunning Jargal first with a left, and then another, to the head.  Jargal kept his feet but Prescott, a couple inches taller at 5’11, stood taller in more than a literal sense at rounds end.

It would be as much genuinely compelling action as the bout could produce until Prescott seemed to hurt Jargal with a series of nasty right hands in the fifth round.  Controlled by the jab in every round between, Jargal had shown gameness by continuing to come forward.  In the fifth, with both eyes showing bruises, Jargal again kept his feet and finished the round pressing the action. 

Jargal was again pressing to start the sixth, managing to land a few short rights as Prescott leaned against the ropes.  Prescott walked the action back to mid-ring and returned to circling the ring behind the long left stick. 

Jargal had perhaps his best round of the night in the seventh.  Despite the impaired vision certain in his swollen left eye, Jargal’s sheer will and toughness kept him in range to land the right as Prescott calmly continued to box. 

Still well behind, Jargal made Prescott work hard in the last three rounds but never made a serious case for the fight saving miracle he needed.  Prescott played safe in the tenth, a smart move as the scores for Prescott were academic at 99-91, 99-90, and a shutout 100-90.

Prescott came into the bout rated #11 by the WBA, slowly working his way towards a possible mandatory crack at the man he is most associated with in Khan.  In September 2008, Prescott blitzed Khan for a first round knockout, the popular former British Olympians lone pro defeat.  The momentum of the victory was squandered in a pair of consecutive 2009 defeats but Prescott has now won three in a row.  

In the televised opener, 23-year old 2008 U.S. Olympian Demetrius Andrade (13-0, 9 KO), 155 ¾, of Providence, Rhode Island, continued his slow climb into serious Jr. Middleweight professionalism, showing off a sharp left hand en route to blasting out overmatched 32-year old Omar Bell (8-2, 5 KO), 155, of Montego Bay, Jamaica. 

Andrade, fighting calmer and with more leverage in his shots than has always been the case in recent fights, won the battle of the jabs in the first round, his stiff southpaw right snapping off of Bell at will.  In the second, a left uppercut underneath, the culmination of a number of lefts in the round, left Bell on the floor.  Bell appeared at first like he was going to attempt to rise, thought better of it, referee Dick Flaherty finishing the ten count with Bell on his haunches at 1:31 of round two.  

Also Televised

Jr. Middleweight: Kevin Rooney Jr. (1-0) UD4 David Navarro (0-3)

 

The card was televised on ESPN2 as part of its “Friday Night Fights” series, promoted by Star Boxing.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com