It has been years since boxing at Madison Square Garden was a star-studded event, both between the ropes and ringside. But Roc Nation is hoping💧 to change that and bring both famous fighters and famous fans back to the World’s Most Famous Arena.
Roc Nat🤪ion Boxing put on its first-ever event at the Garden Theater, dubbing it “throne boxing.” Jay Z, Rihanna, CC Sabathia and Jake Gyllenhaal all showed up ringside, with DJ Mustard and Fabolous performing in front of 4,253.
In the main event, Washington’s Dusty Hernandez-Harrison stayed undefeated with a unanimous decision over local favorite Tommy Rainoౠne from Plainview, L.I. Hernandez-Harrison improved to 25-0 and claimed the WBC Continental Americas welterweight championship.
“Tommy knows how to make it through when it gets t๊ough. I really wanted to knock him out, but I think I worked too hard at it,’’ said the 20-year-old Hernandez-Harrison, who nearly swept every round on every scorecard. One judge gave the first round to Rainone.
Hernandez-Harrison’s reach and quickness overwhelmed Rainone (who turned 35 on Thursday), who threw barely half as ma✅ny punches and landed just 20 percent of them.
“He was prepared for my straight right hand, which totally took me out of my game,’’ said Rainone (22-6), who had been 9-1-1 in his prior 11 bouts. “Withoutꦅ my straighಌt right, I had no hook, and that was it.’’
Harrison-Hernandez was one of the first boxers inked to Ro🌠c Nation before this week’s merger with Gary Shaw Productions.
“Roc Nation is going to take off and become a power,’’ said Hernandez-Harrison. “Somebodyಞ said on social media that years൲ from now I’m going to be a trivia question (Who headlined their first Garden card?). That’d be pretty cool.’’
In the featured undercard bout, Miami’s Tureano Johnson scored a TKO of Alex Theran for the vacant WBC silver and WBA International middleweig♓ht championships. Theran took an eight-count in the fourth and went down in the fifth, twisti♍ng his left ankle on the latter.
The fight was stopped one second into the sixth, with Johnson throwiꦚng almost twice as many punches to control the fight and improvi🦩ng to 16-1.
“A win is a win. I wish I could’ve showed the crowd💜 what I could really do. Don’t worry about it.🎃 Next time I’ll show what I can do,’’ said Johnson, who landed 102 punches, all but one of them power shots.
“I went back and twisted my ankle, and the docto🎶r said I couldn’t continue,’’ said Theran. “It was a very difficult fight. He was coming at me too much. When he was close, he was hurting me with overhands. It wasn’t my night.’’
Chris Van Heerden (22-1-1) won a split decision over previously unbeaten Cecil McCalla. The South African shrugged off a fourth-round cut over his left eye to hand McCalla (20-💯1) the first loss of his career, and claim the vacant IBF International Welterweigh🎃t title.
Andrew Hernandez (8-0-1) of Phoenix handed🥂 Jerry Odom (12-1) his first defeat — more to the point, Odom handed himself his first loss. He was controlling the bout when he knocked Hernandez to one knee at 30 seconds of the fourth round, but got disqualified for two unnecessary blows, first a left and then a right.