Battle at the Boat 125 took place at Emerald Queen Casino on January 17, 2020. Six professional boxing matches were contested. Two fighters who appear to be headed toward bigger things, Jose Cervantes and Nick Mills, provided the highlight moments of the evening.
Louis De Alba v. Marco Garcia – 136 lbs
The first fight of the evening saw Louis De Alba notch his first professional win via split decision in an evenly contested match. The first round was clearly De Alba’s round as he scored early with a clean counter left hook. De Alba also did some nice bodywork during the round, at one point targeting Garcia’s midsection and landing four or five hard shots. De Alba clearly was looking to counter this round and had success doing so. The second round saw Garcia start aggressively. However, De Alba continued to have success on the counter landing several clean shots. Undeterred, Garcia continued to press forward and was able to pin De Alba to the ropes during the round but did limited damage from that position. Garcia’s best moment in the round came late when he landed flush with a clean straight right hand. The third round was likely for Garcia as he was aggressive early and appeared to be landing more shots. This was the best round of the fight as the second half of the round saw a high output from the fighters, with both landing clean shots. The fourth, and final, round saw De Alba having more success with counter shots as he landed a couple nice counter left hooks, one of which he landed after he was backed into a corner by Garcia. The split decision for De Alba was scored 40-36, 39-37, and 37-39.
Juan Jackson v. Joe Aguilar – 170 lbs
Joe Aguilar scored an impressive TKO victory at 2:09 of the second round in his professional debut against Juan Jackson. Jackson started well, and appeared to win the first round, as he had success working his jab early and landed what appeared to be the most telling blows with a couple straight right hands. However, Aguilar stopped the fight in the second round in dramatic fashion. The beginning of the end came when Aguilar rocked Jackson, sending him crashing to the canvas. After the referee re-started the action, Aguilar aggressively pursued the stoppage and pressured Jackson up to the ropes. There Aguilar unleashed 4-5 hard punches that landed clean before the referee waived off the fight. With the loss, Tacoma’s Jackson drops to 2-3.
Michael Johnson v. Nick Mills – Heavyweight
Nick Mills has announced that he’s looking to do big things as a heavyweight boxer and his third professional victory (second by TKO) in the last eight months has the 25-year-old looking like a prospect to keep your eye on. Mills opponent, Michael Johnson, looked to start the fight by establishing control with his jab. The 6’5” Johnson had a significant reach advantage over the 5’11” Mills, but was unable to keep Mills from closing the distance and landing big shots throughout the fight. Mills hurt Johnson in Round 1 when he landed a hard right during a four-punch combination that stumbled Johnson. Mills went to work as the aggressor in Round 2. One of his best moments of the round came when he landed a hard left hook while lunging in and closing the distance on Johnson. Early in Round 3, Mills again hurt Johnson with a hard counter left hook. Mills seized the moment as he began to tee off with alternating hooks, mostly to the body. Having seen their man take enough punishment, Johnson’s corner threw in the towel and the referee called the fight via TKO stoppage at 1:22 of Round 3. With a heavy workload between both his MMA and budding boxing career, it will be interesting to see what Nick Mills has in store for 2020.
Jose Cervantes v. Cody Brown – 144 lbs
There can be no question that Jose Cervantes brings serious power at 144 pounds and has the look of a fighter that could make a big name for himself. Cervantes scored his second TKO victory in just over two months. Cervantes started the fight very aggressively, and showed his impressive power with a quick knockdown as he countered Cody Brown with a left hook and a hard right hand. After the referee re-started the fight, Cervantes quickly almost scored another knockdown with a straight right hand that had serious steam on it that knocked Brown off balance and nearly sent him to the canvas. A few seconds later, Cervantes once again flashed his fight ending power with a straight right hand that sent Brown to the floor. The referee made the TKO stoppage at 1:01 of the first round. Coming on the heels of his impressive professional debut in which he scored a second round TKO of highly accomplished former amateur Nik Vasquez, Cervantes appears headed to a bright future.
Niko McFarland v. Antonio Neal – 145 lbs
Niko McFarland took home the unanimous decision victory (59-55, 59-55, and 58-56) over Antonio Neal. McFarland displayed some impressive inside boxing skills during this fight, as for long periods of time both fighters were happy to stand toe-to-toe and trade on this inside. The best round of the fight was Round 3, as both fighters fought at a high pace and landed effectively. McFarland appeared to rate the edge in this round though, as it appeared he landed more shots. During one sequence, McFarland landed a clean right hand to the head, followed by a stinging shot to the body a short time later. Round 4 could have been fought in a phone booth considering how closely these fighters were willing to contest the bout. McFarland was impressive in a short burst at the very end of the round landing several hooks. In Round 5, McFarland had some of his best moments and appeared to have Neal in a bit of trouble as McFarland hammered Neal with some hard hooks.
Dannie Williams v. Andre Keys – 141 lbs
The main event of the evening went the full distance of ten scheduled rounds with Dannie William’s taking the unanimous decision (96-94, 96-94, 97-93) over Tacoma’s Andre Keys. Both fighters took a fairly cautious approach to the bout, which was a bit light on action at times. Williams had some of his best moments of the fight in the second and third rounds. Late in the second round, Williams landed a clean uppercut, after landing four hooks to the body, while fighting on the inside. In the third round, Williams again scored with good bodywork on the inside. Keys best moments came in Round 9, which was a strong round for him and saw some of the best action of the fight. Keys landed a good counter right hook during the round. He also landed a stiff jab that snapped William’s head back. Later, Keys caught Williams rushing in with a strong right hand counter. Despite the late push it was too little, too late for Keys. The loss set his record back to 12-2. Williams improved to 24-3.
