Francisco California, October 3, 2011 – This past Saturday at the Fitzgerald Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield (15-0-1, 9 KO’s) remained undefeated with a dominating performance over Patrick Lopez (20-5, 12 KO’s) to capture the vacant Jr. Welterweight NABO title. Mayfield impressed the crowd with his power punching style knocking Lopez down three times before the final bell rang to score a unanimous decision. Scorecards read 99-88, 97-90 and 98-90.
“I wanted to come out and prove to the fans that I’m one of the best fighters in the world,” said Mayfield. “Lopez was tough, but I knew I had the ability to win this fight impressively. Now that I’m the NABO Jr. Welterweight champion, I can see myself fighting on a bigger stage against any of the top fighters in the division. My message to all the champions and top ten fighters at Jr. Welterweight is…lets get it on.”
Prize Fight promoter Brian Young went on to say, “Karim’s stock is elevating with every victory and I believe he has the skill and talent to become a world champion. You can add Karim Mayfield’s name into the mix at Jr. Welterweight which is one of the best divisions in boxing right now. We are going to evaluate what fights can be made and work hard to get Karim in a big fight.”
For more information please visit www.prizefightboxing.org.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
