On Friday night Roc Nation Sports provided a nice co main and main event from their seven fight card from the Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut. In the main event cruiserweight undefeated IBF Inter-Continental Champion Murat Gassiev displayed a dominate performance in way to a TKO victory over Felix Cora Jr. In the co main feature Ray Robinson defended his WBO NABO welterweight title over Sherzodbek Alimjanov. The two bouts were shown along with music entertainment on Fox Sports 1 courtesy of the Jay Z owned promotion.

21-year old Murat Gassiev has a bright future (20-0) in the world of boxing and is rumored move up to heavyweight is something to be desired. Tonight he took on the veteran Felix Cora Jr. (25-6) and from the start you could tell the body would be the main focus. In  the first round Murat attacked the right side of Cora Jr. softening him up for a vicious amount of flurries to his head whenever he was pressed against the ropes. Murat cruised ahead in the rounds early but Felix found some life in the sixth. That was forgotten early as the seventh round on was dominated by Gassiev including a moment when we thought the fight would be stopped. With a minute left in the ninth round, Gassiev landed two left hooks that sent Cora Jr stumbling down. There was a weird moment where a standing eight count seemed to be in question, but the referee Eddie Cotton told the fighter to continue on. Murat landed one more shot and soon Cotton stepped in to call the fight. A dominate performance for a fighter that will be making a lot of noise in the near future.

New Ray Robinson (20-2) had no problem defending his welterweight championship on Friday night against the charging Sherzodbek Alimjanov (19-2). Alimjanov found his footing early and moved Robinson back, but soon the left uppercut of Robinson found the mark on Sherzodbek. Still Alimjanov pressed forward landing a left jab of his own but usually found himself on the receiving end of Ray’s right. The taller champion used his range and great lateral movement to avoid the push of Sherzodbek luring him into counters and combinations. From round six on Robinson cruised and looked great on his way to winning by a unanimous decision.

The Fox Sports 1 presentation is great for the Roc Nation brand and it looks as if they have some exciting fights on the horizon. Up next for the promotion is a Middleweight Championship bout between Miguel Cotto and Daniel Geale. That takes place on June 6th from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. The full results from the card are listed below>

Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA
   
Murat Gassiev    20(14)-0-0 W Felix Cora Jr 25(14)-6(3)-2TKO
Ray Robinson    19(9)-2-0  W Sherzodbek Alimjanov22(13)-2-0
Dusty Hernandez Harrison 25(13)-0-0 W Chris Gray13(1)-19(4)-1   
Wellington Arias Romero 5(3)-0-1 SC Matt Doherty1(1)-0-0    bout subject to change & commission approval
Khiary Gray-Pitts 6(4)-0-0 W Pedro Gonzalez 2(1)-1-0KO   
Sonny Fredrickson 7(5)-0-0 W Ramon Ellis4(2)-14(3)-2
Nick Valliere 4(2)-0-0 W Roberto Lopez 4(1)-8(1)-2    e: 1:14
 

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Travis Brown
Travis has been covering the sport of mixed martial arts for the past three years. He has been a fan of combat sports all of his life and looks to bring his bettors perspective to the Vavel family. Mixed Martial Arts is a global sports and there is no better place for it than Vavel.