Payano & Miller cruise to UD verdicts in FS1 Toe-To-Toe event in Las Vegas

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Premier Boxing Champion

The PBC main event on Fox Sports 1 ‎featured Juan Carlos Payano (19-1) taking on Alexis ‘Beaver’ Santiago (24-5-1) in a 10-round super bantamweight battle from the Sam’s Town casino in the Fight Capital of the World’.

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Premier Boxing Champion

‎The headliner took a rough turn early in the bout after the two warriors moved past their feeling out process following the first 6 minutes or so of the match. Payano rarely took a step back flicking his jab and using his right hand as a range finder. The Dominican put his head in his man’s chest opting to use thudding left and right hooks rather than the solid jab he began with to get into his foe’s chest. Payano stood in the pocket, willing to engage and this made for an ugly affair at close range since both men just leaned in and winged away punches.

Santiago ‎backed up more and more as the second half of the fight materialized. Not only was the Arizona native giving up ground he would throw one punch to his man’s double if not triple punch output. Payano came on stronger and stronger as the 10-round affair moved on and in the end cruised to a relatively easy unanimous decision verdict.

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Premier Boxing Champion

The judges scored it 100-90, 99-91 and 99-91 for Juan Carlos Payano who had this to say: “I felt like I was winning every single round. There were small moments on the inside that I gave away but I think I did the better work each round”

MILLER KEEPS CLIMBING LADDER WITH STYLE POINTS

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Premier Boxing Champion

The co-main event of the Toe-To-Toe Tuesdays series on Fox Sports 1 tonight featured Cincinnati’s Jamel Herring (16-2) take on Las Vegas native, Ladarius ‘Memphis’ Miller (14-1) over the course of 10 rounds in a lightweight bout that hijacked the night. The fans were on their feet just about every round, they cheered on their respective man and blew the roof of the Sam’s Town Live arena. It was clear both warrios brought big fan bases to the show because any little connect drew massive cheers from each section.

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Premier Boxing Champion

Miller picked his shots in a Philly Shell-style southpaw stance as he looked for big right hand counters while Herring stood tall and ripped away with left hooks to the body for the bulk of the rounds. Neither man took a step back and held the line as they mounted their offense. Miller was a little quicker, and a little sharper during each exchange almost anticipating what his foe would do before he could do it.

Memphis’ Miller’s lightning fast left hooks were the story of the match as well as his mean right hand counters. Herring held his own with a crisp ‎double left hand and piercing straights but they lost sting as the bout wore on. Both men had phenomenal conditioning and went toe-to-toe as billed on the night’s event poster for 30 action packed minutes. However, Miller’s fine-tuned lightweight motor enabled him to step on the gas and double his foe’s output in the final rounds, take a clean punch and give two in return when needed and allowed him to pressure thus keeping his foe on his back foot canceling out the Ohio native’s offense.

‎In the end the judges made it unanimous for Miller with scores of 98-92, 97-93 and 97-93.

Miller humble in victory or defeat sad this to say post fight: ” I take my hat off to Jamel Herring. His jab was very good. I knew we were both going to land that punch but I wanted mine to be more effective. He was more one-dimensional and when he couldn’t walk me down, he didn’t know what to ‎do”.

Not happy with the decision, putting the second blemish on his professional ledger, Jamel Herring stated that: “I thought it was a close fight. I thought when I came forward and pressed the fight he started retreating and moving. ”

RAKHMANOV CRUSHES LOPEZ IN 2

In the swing bout of the evening Sanjarbek Rakhmanov (8-0) came at Noe ‘Skinnyboy’ Lopez (6-2-1) like he remembered that he left the stove on and needed to rush back home. After no feeling out process whatsoever, the Las Vegas native walked his man down using both stances. As a conventional fighter he jabbed then whipped a hard overhand right. As a southpaw he cracked his man with vicious hooks to the body.

After a Round 1 which was in essence a Rakhmanov showcase of power and speed, the undefeated boxer hunted his prey down from one side of the ring to the other. Again, switching stances and loading up. This time he caught Lopez along the red corner with a nice left hook to the body that even Noe nodded to in approval. Then, moments later, walked him down to the blue corner where he unleashed a barrage of punches and caught his man with a clean hook to the body in the corner.

The Texas native went down to a knee and never recovered from the blow. Referee Robert Byrd called a stop to the action officially at (1:34)‎ of Round 2. The KO win keeps Rakhmanov unbeaten as he works his way towards the televised portion of his event.