Bethlehem, Penn. (Friday, July 17, 2015) – Making his promotional debut on Friday night, Uprising Promotions super middleweight Samuel Clarkson (15-3, 9 KOs) was outstanding in a dominant third round TKO stoppage of once-beaten Jerry Odom (13-2, 12 KOs). The Texas native put on a brilliant display that was highlighted by a heavy dose of crushing uppercuts, dropping Odom three times inside of three frames before referee Shawn Clark was forced to stop the bout at the 1:15 mark of the third round. The performance was also on the biggest stage of Clarkson’s young career, opening a Friday night telecast of ShoBox: The Next Generation at Sands Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
“I want to take my hat off to Odom. He’s a very tough competitor,” Clarkson said of his opponent. “We expected him to come out the way that he came out. The first round, I wanted to feel him out. The second round, I noticed he was leaning in with his head, and my corner was telling me to look for the uppercuts. ‘He’s expecting the straights. Throw uppercuts.’”
With the victory, Clarkson has now won eight of his last nine bouts, with the lone loss over that timeframe being to super middleweight contender Jesse Hart via decision. However, that loss was something that contributed to the win on Friday night, according to his father/trainer Samuel Clarkson, Sr.
“A lot of people have tried to train for us based off what they saw in the Jesse Hart fight, where Hart, because of his size and length, was able to move forward on us,” he remarked. “I told Sam ‘Hey, they’re training based off that fight, so you are not going to have to look for him. He’s going to come straight ahead, and he doesn’t move his head.’ After we saw he kept leaning the same way after the jab, we just set up and looked for the uppercut because he’s not trying to slip any punches. He didn’t expect us to be so strong, so I just told Sam to keep sitting down on his punches. We knew that he would eventually succumb to so much volume.”
In the opening stanza, Clarkson was very defensively sound and began landing clean shots on the inside. In the second frame, he continued in a very poised demeanor and saw everything from Odom before it got to him, slipping punches and retaliating with counters of his own.
With about 30 seconds left in that round, Clarkson briefly leaned on the ropes to lure Odom to him being springing into a thunderous right hand over the top that had his opposition on the retreat. Knowing Odom was in trouble, Clarkson remained calm before walking him into a quick three-punch combination that had him leaning forward with his hands high. The setup was perfect for the Dallas native, who immediately slipped under a lazy jab and unloaded a fierce right uppercut that flattened Odom just before the bell.
“He went in to throw a punch, and he leaned in with his head,” Clarkson recalled. “I just slipped, and I let it go. I caught him right on the button with it. I knew he was hurt. He didn’t really recover from it. He stood up, he made the count, but he really wasn’t all the way back.”
Clarkson would need less than two minutes of the third round to close the show. Right after the bell got the frame underway, he continue to come forward with a poised approach, unloading a barrage of hooks and uppercuts with both hands. 30 seconds into the stanza, a right hook, right uppercut combination put Odom on the floor again. Odom got back to his feet and walked right back into confrontation, where Clarkson was more than happy to greet him with a heavy dose of punches that quickly saw Odom down for a third time when a right hook sent him through the ropes.
When the action resumed after the third knockdown, Clarkson blasted off a left hook that followed up with a right hook, and Odom was in a world of trouble. The Uprising Promotions fighter then saw his opportunity to finish off the job, firing two vicious right uppercuts that snapped back the head of Odom and sent him stumbling to the ropes. At that point, referee Shawn Clark had seen enough and stepped in to wave off the fight.
“Going into the third round, he was really vulnerable to the uppercut, so that was our game plan from then on out,” Clarkson stated. “I just kept following up with uppercuts and listening to my corner. I just want to give all glory to God.” An exuberant Uprising Promotions President Ronson Frank was ecstatic with what he saw from Clarkson on Friday night.
“It was an outstanding win,” he said of the bout. “I was impressed with Samuel’s poise and how he took his time. He and his corner went into this fight with a very good game plan of coming up the middle and countering Odom’s wide shots. What can I say? His performance says it all. I am extremely excited right now.”
The win by Clarkson marks the second consecutive impressive outing by an Uprising Promotions fighter. The young promotion also saw super featherweight Angel Luna (11-1-1, 6 KOs) knock Jose Lopez (15-1-1, 11 KOs) from the ranks of the unbeatens on the undercard to Cotto vs. Geale in June.
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.
