Who knows if 'the City of Broad Shoulders' will ever truly become a 'fight city' ever again, but it was a good night of boxing from the Credit Union 1 Union. The main event was a good scrap and the fans were enthusiastic. Maybe, just maybe, Golden Boy Promotions and others will return to this market. There seems to be something here that can be built.
The nights featured bout had hometown product, Kenneth Sims, facing the rough and rugged Oscar Duarte. These two battled over 12 hard-fought and fast paced rounds. Duarte applied steady pressure throughout while Sims was forced to hold his ground and let his hands go when he had the chance.
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Both Duarte and Sims landed their share of leather, but it did seem like Duarte's punches were a bit harder. But to Sims' credit, he never backed down. And while Sims is the native of Chicago, Duarte had plenty of support from the Mexican contingent that showed up. Yeah, where there is boxing, Mexican fans are bound to show up.
After 12 rounds it was Duarte winning by the scores of 115-113, 114-114 and 116-112. The scores reflected just how competitive this contest was.
"I am very happy, it was a great fight, a war," said Duarte. "I am very happy about this victory and I am very happy to be closer to be fighting for a world title. Sims Jr. brought much experience and had great conditioning. He came very prepared. However, I felt that I was very prepared and that I was in control of the rounds. It was a fight where I learned a lot. I am ok with doing a rematch with him, wherever he wants to do it. If he wants to run it back in Chicago, we can do it here again too, but I would come ready to knock him out."
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It will be interesting to see what direction Golden Boy goes here given that this bout was billed as a WBA 140-pound elimination bout. The champion there is the talented Gary Antuanne Russell, who is represented by PBC.
As for Sims, he was defeated but not necessarily deflated by the outcome.
“I thought I won. It was a good fight, tough fight, but I thought I won.” said Sims. “He brought pressure like I expected. Relentless pressure. It was nothing that I didn’t expect. I mean, I could’ve sharpened my defense. It was a good fight. He’s a tough fighter. It was amazing (the fans). I love my hometown, I love my city. It’s good to see they love me too. Absolutely (run it back). I want it right back because I won that fight. It was a close fight, but I won it. We can go right back to it."
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Before Duarte-Sims, a real slugfest took place between two well-known boxers who have seen better days. The conventional wisdom was that Regis Prograis would simply be too big and strong for Joseph Diaz in their 142-pound catchweight contest. After all, Prograis was the natural junior welterweight coming in, and Diaz began his career at featherweight, and won a world title at junior lightweight. Beset by personal issues, Diaz had lost more fights than he won the past few years. While Prograis, the former WBC junior lightweight champion, has fallen on hard times as he was dethroned by Devin Haney, and then out-boxed by Jack Catterall last October.
Still, the expectation was that he would be way too much for the relatively light hitting Diaz, who is much more of a boxer than puncher.
But a funny thing happened on Saturday night -- Diaz didn't read the script. Not only did he not get overwhelmed by the natural size advantage, he actually stunned Prograis a few times with his punches despite getting cut from an accidental clash of heads in round four that had blood flowing near his left eye. The two went back and forth over 10 entertaining rounds. When it was all said and done, it was Prograis squeaking out a unanimous decision by the scores of 98-92, 96-94 and 96-94.
Truth be told, you came out of this thinking that maybe Diaz still has some life left as a lightweight, and that Prograis may not have much left as a junior welterweight. Here, it wasn't really so much about the result, but the process. Still, Prograis escaped and will get another good payday.
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“It was like when you have the jitters coming into a fight, then after that you get hit with the first one — and then it’s a fight,” said Prograis. “I knew it was gonna be a fight with him. I went to my corner and they said, ‘Listen, just keep your jab out.’ And that’s what I did. That’s how I got the job done. People are gonna say what they wanna say, but I felt like I needed this. JoJo’s a veteran. He’s real tough, and he came to fight. We went 10 rounds — 10 hard rounds — and that’s something I definitely needed in my bag,” he added. “For me, I want to get back to being a champion. I want the big money. Big money or a world championship — that’s what I want next.”
The best thing you can say about this card was that you wouldn't mind seeing any of the four fighters again. Now, imagine if this card took place in a stale casino setting. According to some people who were there about 6-7,000 fans were in attendance. That's a solid turnout. Watching this card on DAZN (hey, it wasn't pay-per-view!!!) it seemed like a lively atmosphere. Some fans reached out to be via social media and said that they had a great time at the fights.
Maybe, maybe just maybe, they should come back here.
