Spence Miles Above Algieri, Wins By Fifth Round TKO

By Marc Livitz: Errol "The Truth" Spence did Saturday what Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan, among others could not. He knocked out Chris Algieri in the fifth round of a welterweight contest at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. In a nationally televised telecast of "Premier Boxing Champions". Spence (20-0, 17 KO’s) took the fight to Algieri (21-3, 8 KO’s) from the opening round. Chris showed nice footwork at times, yet Errol went to the body in an attempt to slow him. He continued to look for his Desoto, Texas opponent in the second. He found himself on the ropes midway through as 2012 Olympian Spence unloaded with hard shots.

Algieri managed to find his way to safety, yet Spence wasn’t going to let up by any means. Chris was nimble on his feet in the third as his Texas foe showed the poise of an Olympian. He was able to counter Spence a few times.

In the first minute of the fourth, Spence pushed Algieri to ring’s center with effective punching and was able to land a well timed left hook to the chin which sent Chris to the canvas for the bout’s first knockdown. The Huntington, New York fighter mouthed a sign of frustration as he collected himself before rising to his feet. His aggravation with being so far bested by an opponent six years his junior reared its full head at round’s end when he tied up Spence before throwing him to the ground.

Twenty seconds into the fifth, Spence caught Algieri with another left hand which floored him as before. He beat the count and was cautioned by referee Benjy Esteves, Jr. to show more signs of effort in order to continue. He’d also rolled his ankle this time. Spence knew this was his time to close the show. He forced Chris into the ropes and threw shot after shot until finally, another hard left hook connected to put him down for the third and final time. Manny Pacquiao knocked Chris down six times in November 2014, yet Algieri managed to fight to the closing bell. This wasn’t the case tonight.

Esteves waved the bout to a close at the :46 mark of round five to award Errol "The Truth" Spence with the fifth round TKO win.

Co-Main Event - Browne Gets Past Kalajdzic

The vacant WBC United States light heavyweight title was up for grabs in the night’s co-main event. 2012 U.S. Olympian Marcus Browne of Staten Island, New York fought fire with more fire in the form of St. Petersburg, Florida slugger Radivoje Kalajdzic. A questionable knockdown in the first round send Kalajdzic to the canvas. He clearly wasn’t touched, rather a turn of his ankle made him lose his balance. For his trouble, Browne popped him on the chest as he was on one knee.

The action was very much back and forth in the captivating contest. After two visible evenly split rounds, Radivoje staggered Browne in the fifth with a pummeling and well timed straight right. Southpaw Browne (18-0, 13 KO’s) was frustrating his foe who originally hailed from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He kept tying up "Hot Rod" Kalajdzic (21-1, 14 KO’s), until he was figured out by the Floridian. Radivoje connected with a nicely timed right to the head midway into round six which sent the undefeated fighter to the floor. He beat the count but was clearly dazed.

"Sir" Marcus tried to jab his way out of trouble and away from Kalajdzic’s powerful right handed shots in the seventh. An unintentional headbutt opened a cut near Hot Rod’s left eye. Brief entanglements resulted in punches landed for both men to close the period. While many thought the contest scheduled for eight rounds would not go the distance, it did in fact go to the final three minutes.

Twice in round eight, Browne was sent to the canvas, however both trips were ruled as pushes. Fatigue was visible on both fighters, more so by just a hair in Browne. The judges would have a tough call on their hands as the bout came to a close. Would the knockdown in round six or one hold the tiebreaker? Scores of 76-74 (Browne), 76-74 (Kalajdzic) and 76-75 to give "Sir" Marcus Browne the win and remain the undefeated fighter out of the two.

Undercard Results from Brooklyn

Mario Barrios UD 8 Edgar Gabejan - Lightweights

Heather Hardy TKO 4 Anna Hultin – Featherweights

Lukasz Maciec UD 8 Jeremy Ramos - Super Welterweights

Earl Newman KO 4 Dustin Craig Echard - Cruiserweights

Radzhab Butaev KO 1 TyKeem Sadler - Welterweights

Be sure to "LIKE" the SecondsOut Facebook page.

April 16, 2016