Kevin Rivers Looks Good In Return, Pat Harris Jr Debuts
Photos by Wallace Barron for Keystone Boxing
by Gautham Nagesh
FORT WASHINGTON, Md.–Unbeaten featherweight Kevin Rivers Jr. looked good in his return to the ring, while junior welterweight Patrick Harris Jr. made his debut short and sweet at Rosecroft Raceway on Friday night. The pair both impressed, but for different reasons, on the show promoted by Gene Molovinsky of Keystone Boxing, with his son Ross serving as matchmaker.
Rivers (above) hasn’t fought in a year, and showed some rust early against the game Xavier Montelongo Jr. before settling down to win a clear six-round decision. Harris (below) needed just 45 seconds to dispatch George Palmer of Oklahoma, who had no business in the ring with a terror like Pat Jr. Unbeaten local junior middleweight “Swift” Jarrett Hurd was similarly efficient, taking just two minutes to stop Joshua Robertson in the main event.
Rivers looked hungry before the fight, like he was chomping at the bit. It had been almost exactly a year since his last fight, an easy win over my fellow Jackson High School alumnus Rasool Shakoor. A celebrated amateur, Rivers might be the most talented prospect in the DMV, but he has had trouble getting fights. The rust showed in the first round, when Rivers had trouble landing any clean punches.
Some credit must go to Montelongo, who knew he didn’t have the power to stand and trade fire with Rivers. Montelongo spent most of the first round darting in and out, moving constantly to avoid hard exchanges. But Rivers made him stand and fight in the 2nd round, and by the 3rd the two were going at it in earnest, trading shots at will. Rivers still looked faster and stronger, but Montelongo, to his credit, refused to back down.
Rivers kept battering his opponent with right hands and uppercuts, forcing Montelongo to clutch and grab to stay upright. Rivers is a product of NoXcuse Boxing, which means the Roach family of trainers was in his corner. They begged for body shots, which Kevin delivered, albeit not as frequently as they would have liked. Rivers’ form improved noticeably as the fight wore on, and the hard rounds against Montelongo were exactly what he needed.
There was more good action in the 4th, and Montelongo looked increasingly in danger of tasting the canvas for the first time in his career. Somehow the Californian stayed upright, despite several shots from Rivers that appeared to hurt him. Rivers dug hard to the body in the 5th round with uppercuts and left hooks, but still Montelongo fought back and refused to quit.
By end of the 5th Montelongo looked beaten, and his corner implored him to try and steal the round with a late flurry by aping Sugar Ray Leonard. Little did they know that Rivers, like Leonard, is a native of Palmer Park, Md., and the true heir to the area’s greatest fighter. Rivers simply teed off in the 6th with left hooks and uppercuts, blackening Montelongo’s eye and threatening to crack his granite chin.
Rivers did his best to close the show, but Montelongo showed incredible will to finish the bout. The final scores were academic, since Rivers had dominated the fight throughout. Hopefully we will see him back in the ring at least a couple more times this year. Rivers is more polished than most local prospects, which means he’s probably more ready for a test than most fighters with just 9 wins (6 KOs) under their belts.
Harris, the son of Headbangers trainer Patrice Harris Sr., needed much less time to notch his first win as a pro. He steamrolled Palmer in the first round, landing a hard right hook that shook the Okie badly and forced the referee to stop the fight. Harris is another top amateur with plenty of pedigree, plus the Headbangers stable around him to boot. Palmer had nothing for him, and we expect to see him sign with a top promoter or manager before long.
Hurd has steadily improved while fighting on Keystone cards in recent years, and he showed more power than we have previously seen while stopping Robertson. The Lynchburg, Va., native is a former Marine with plenty of heart, but we knew Robertson simply didn’t have the tools to stay upright against Hurd. His loss to Jesse Nicklow at Club One Fitness last August was a clear sign of things to come.
Hurd came out patiently as always, working the jab and biding his time. Robertson managed to land a right hand, but mostly he was a target for Hurd’s straight right. Robertson sports a nasty scar on his torso, which Hurd targeted with a hard body shot early on. That hurt Robertson, and when he retreated, Hurd followed him to the ropes and unleashed a volley of right hands.
The crowd sensed the end, and came out of their seats in a fit of bloodlust and anticipation. Hurd delivered, raining right hands on Robertson until the referee was forced to step in and stop the fight. The climax was sudden and violent, and afterward the crowd was immediately sated. They filed out in orderly fashion, having gotten what they paid to see.
We arrived late as usual, missing a close win for debutante Maurice Adams Jr. of D.C. over serial opponent Arthur Parker at bantamweight. I didn’t seen the fight, but if Adams can’t handle a 1-10 fighter, he may want to consider another line of work. Ditto for Mason Wickett, who is now winless in six fights. The Arkansas native was trucked in to face another local fighter making his debut, Emanuel “Jab” Johnson of Waldorf. Johnson had some nice moments, and won by scores of 39-37 from all three judges.
The first entertaining bout of the night came courtesy of junior welterweights Myke “The Professor” Fox and Benjamin Olinga. Fox is a pure boxer like his brother Alantez, and very tall and rangy for 140 lbs. He weighed in at 136.5 lbs. for this fight, and could be a terror at lightweight if he can lose the extra 2 lbs. Fox used his jab and feet to keep things at distance as expected, while Olinga stalked him in a leopard-print loin cloth and tried to make it a rough fight.
Fox was a full head taller and able to land at distance with ease. His straight left hand found Olinga often, while in contrast, Olinga was rarely able to get inside where he could be effective. When he did draw close, Fox smartly tied him up so Olinga couldn’t work. Fox would then resume peppering Olinga with straight left hands from distance once they separated.
Fox is clearly a very skilled boxer, but also somewhat reluctant to engage. He rarely sits down on his punches, which might be why he seems to lack power despite sporting the prototypical puncher’s frame. As mentioned, he would be someone to watch at lightweight, for his size and skills if nothing else. At junior welterweight, he may have trouble keeping some of the division’s better fighters from walking through him.
The highlight of the night belonged to hometown featherweight Marq Johns, who flattened Tony Green Jr. of Detroit with a left hook in the first round. Green came in swinging wildly from the outset, perhaps to make up for his slight build. It made little difference. Johns dropped him with a body shot, then followed that by beating Green to the punch on an exchange of left hooks. The shot flattened Green, who tried to sit up, only to drop back to the canvas. Official result was KO-1 for Johns, his third knockout in four fights (one draw).