Angelo Leo Overpowers Neil Tabanao In ShoBox Main Event
An action-packed evening at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas featured a back-and-forth contest, a pair of dominant performances and the rise of a potential contender at super bantamweight.
In the latest show from Showtime’s ShoBox: The New Generation, 122-pound prospect Angelo Leo got a big win against Neil John Tabanao, winning the fight by unanimous decision (100-89, 100-90, 100-90). Leo picks up his second win of 2019 and his record now stands at 17-0.
Neither man really did much in the first few rounds, but once the third round commenced, the two boxers exchanged a flurry of body shots up against the ropes. This opened up the chance for Leo to start throwing more to the body. Leo had some trouble in the sixth round when he and Tabanao had an accidental clash of heads that left Leo favoring the right side of his face for a bit before returning to fight. As the fight got into the later rounds, Leo had an easier time landing punches and dominated the last few rounds.
In the co-feature bout of the televised portion of the card, Xavier Martinez let his hands go from the start and teed off on John Moralde, stopping him in the third round. Martinez hurt Moralde in the first round and spent the next two rounds hurting a near-immobile target in Moralde. Martinez dropped Moralde about a minute into the third round and after Moralde got back up, Martinez continued firing away shots for a couple of seconds before referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight.
Also on the card was a competitive scrap between Andres Cortes and Jahmal Dyer. Cortes landed some timely right hands that hurt Dyer early in the fight, but it was Dyer who scored the lone knockdown in the fourth round. Despite Dyer getting a knockdown, it was Cortes who ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision (78-73, 79-73, 78-74) to improve his pro record to 11-0.
