Pollard Wins BKB Heavyweight Crown; Mosley Jr. Obliterates Kelly

Lack of passion? Nah! @ShaneMosley_Jr puts Kelly down FAST and let's the crowd hear about it!! #BKB pic.twitter.com/0DSLshBBQD

— BKB (@BKB) June 28, 2015

LAS VEGAS -- It wasn’t the main event everybody was hoping for, but Julian Pollard was able to dominate last-minute replacement Rodney Hernandez in the main event of Big Knockout Boxing 3 tonight in the Mandalay Bay, winning the vacant BKB heavyweight title along the way.

Hernandez stepped in on two days’ notice for the injured Tyrone Spong and he fought far better than virtually anybody expected. He dropped his gloves and dared the heavy-hitting Pollard to tee off at times and he hung tough for every minute of every round. Pollard wasn’t able to put his foe away, but he won enough of the rounds to earn a unanimous nod on the judges’ scorecards over the seven allotted rounds. Pollard won via tallies of 69-64 and 68-65 (twice) to become the organization’s first heavyweight king.

In the co-main event, Adrian Granados stood toe-to-toe with always-exciting veteran Jesus Soto Karass for five unforgettable rounds and won a somewhat surprising unanimous decision in the process. Granados threw far more punches than Soto Karass, but the grizzled vet was able to tear into Granados in every round. The action was among the best in any combat sport this year as they went at it old-school style from the opening bell until the battle ended.

In the end, two of the three judges favored Granado’s higher volume of clean punches; he won via split decision. The official scores were 48-47 for Soto Karass, which was offset by two scores of 49-46 for Granados.

Shane Mosley Jr. blew away Jason Kelly, dropping him twice and scoring a TKO in just 51 seconds. A terrific overhand right dropped Kelly about 25 seconds into the match and when the fight continued, a perfect right/left from Mosley floored Kelly for good. Referee Jay Nady stopped his count halfway, noticing that Kelly was in no shape to continue.

Ed Paredes and Janks Trotter each were knocked off their feet twice in their sensational war (Trotter twice in the third, Paredes twice in the fifth), which resulted in a sizzling come-from-behind win for Trotter. He won by the margins of 47-44 (twice) and 47-45.

As for the rest of the card, Urmat Ryskeldiev conquered Marcus Willis via unanimous decision; Arturo Quintero took out Travis Castellon in the fourth; Antonio Johnson won every round against Anthony Castellon for a decision win; and Chris Spang opened the event with a five-round unanimous nod over Sammy Horowitz.