Gabriel Rosado Scores Sixth Round TKO over Glen Tapia

Published by Shawn C.

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 19, 2017) *Gabriel “King” Rosado* (24-11, 14 KOs) earned
himself another shot against the top ten of the middleweight division after
stopping *Glen “Jersey Boy” Tapia *(23-5, 15 KOs) in the sixth round of the
scheduled ten-round main event of the latest edition of *Golden Boy Boxing
on ESPN* at Park Theater at Monte Carlo. Rosado, of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, took the center of the ring at the start of the fight,
asserting his veteran skills before landing a powerful lead left hook in
the sixth round. The hook began a series of more blows that dropped the
native of Passaic, New Jersey, who got to his feet once more before another
flurry of punches forced the referee to end matters at 1:15 of the same
round. Tapia was taken to the hospital shortly after the bout ended.

“Tapia’s the type of guy that when you hurt him, he’ll come forward,” said
*Rosado*. “It was very important to get the win. It was important to make a
statement, to be impressive, to put myself back into the mix. I want Canelo
Alvarez, Danny Jacobs, or a rematch with David Lemieux. I want to prove
that I still have something.”

Tonight at Park Theater at Monte Carlo, Golden Boy Promotions invited first
responders and other servicemen and women from the Las Vegas community to
its boxing event in the wake of the October 1 incident.

“Las Vegas has been like a second home to me, and everyone at Golden Boy
was devastated by the tragic events of October 1,” said *Oscar De La Hoya, *CEO
of Golden Boy Promotions. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the city of
the Las Vegas and those affected.”

In tonight’s co-main event, *KeAndre “The Truth” Gibson* (18-1-1, 7 KOs) of
St. Louis, Missouri returned to the ring with a 10-round majority decision
victory against *Alejandro “El Elegido” Barrera* (27-4, 17 KOs) in a
welterweight fight. Gibson began the fight cautiously, which actually
worked against him as it provided Barrera with the confidence to hurt him
in the third round.

However, by the fourth round, Gibson changed his approach: after landing a
right hand and a left hook that wobbled the Mexican warrior, Gibson spent
the rest of the fight working more on the inside with his high guard and
looking for counterpunches from the outside. Though one judge
controversially scored the fight a 95-95 draw, the score was overruled with
scores of 97-93 and 98-92 for Gibson.

“I feel good, you know. I feel great,” said *Gibson.* “I beat an
experienced guy, though I think that I could’ve done a better. I’m going to
box a little more next time. I’m going to control my distance more and
relax. It was a good fight.”

“I feel sad because of the defeat,” said *Barrera. *”I should’ve done more
defensive movements, so I’ll work on that for next time.”

*Bekman Soilybayev *(12-0, 4 KOs) remained undefeated as he defended his
WBC International Super Featherweight Title with a 10-round unanimous
decision win against *Fernando Vargas *(32-15-3, 24 KOs) of Tijuana,
Mexico.

Like a bull, Soilybayev, of Almaty, Kazakhstan, pushed forward aggressively
in the early rounds, throwing a thudding jab before ripping hard shots to
the body. When using his jab, Soilybayev was successful, but when
abandoning his jab, he left himself susceptible to shots to the midsection,
which he himself landed on Vargas as well. Despite taking serious blows,
Vargas’ toughness allowed him to be competitive in every round, though
Soilybayev won with scores of 110-99, 99-91 and 98-92.

“I felt good. I went the distance, and I didn’t get tired,” said
*Soilybayev. *”It was just like we practiced. I did all the things I’d been
training for. But I do need to keep working at it and work harder to be a
world champion. Moving forward, I’m going to work a little harder and
polish my skills. I’ll do whatever my trainer says and work hard.

Las Vegas’ *Randy Moreno *(10-1, 9 KOs) opened the ESPN 3 undercard stream
with an easy second-round technical knockout victory against Miami,
Florida’s *Raul Chirino *(12-7, 6 KOs) in a scheduled six-round lightweight
fight. In the first round, Moreno used a sharp jab to the chin and body of
Chirino, before closing the distance to land shots on the inside, including
hard uppercuts through Chirino’s guard. In the following round, Moreno
landed a hard right hand that dropped Chirino, which set up another
knockdown that would force referee Jay Nady to stop the fight at 1:35 of
the second round.

“I feel good. I feel very happy I got the win,” said *Moreno.* It’s my
first fight back in Vegas for a while, so I’m happy to take home a victory.
I could’ve done some things differently, and I’ll work on them in the gym
for next time. When I got the TKO and saw him go down, I felt relieved and
happy, especially because I was fighting in my hometown.”

*Rosado vs. Tapia* was a 10-round middleweight fight presented by Golden
Boy Promotions. The event was sponsored by *Tecate*, *”THE OFFICIAL BEER OF
BOXING” *and Hennessy, *”Never Stop, Never Settle.”* The event was held at
Park Theater at Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The ESPN 3 live
stream of the undercard bouts began approximately at 6:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m.
ET. The ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes transmission began at 8:00 p.m. PT/11:00
p.m. ET.