Steven Nelson outworked DeAndre Ware en route to a sixth-round stoppage on the Jamel Herring-Jonathan Oquendo card in the MGM Grand “bubble” in Las Vegas.
Nelson, a stablemate of Herring and Terence Crawford in Omaha, Nebraska, was busier than Ware beginning in the second round and landed more and more hard shots as the fight progressed.
Nelson was cut to the side of his left eye as the result of a head butt in the second round, although it wasn’t much of a factor. However, another clash of heads caused a deeper gash directly above the same eye and bled profusely.
Still, Nelson kept coming forward. And his determination paid off in Round 6. He hurt Ware with a right hand about a minute into the round. Then, about a minute after that, he wobbled him with a left.
Nelson (17-0, 14 KOs) followed with a barrage of hard shots for which Ware (13-3-2, 8 KOs) had no answer, prompting referee Jay Nady to stop the scheduled 10-round super middleweight fight. The official time was 2:24.
“When the second cut came, I thought, ‘Man, you know how fighters are. When they see an injury they attack.’ I said, ‘You know what? I have to get to work.’ The plan was the to feel him out, don’t rush too much,” Nelson said.
“In the first few rounds I wasn’t doing too much but I picked it up. The head butt was the perfect time to pick it up.”
Nelson, a 32-year-old Army veteran, was a late starter in boxing. He believes he’s ready for a title shot right now. And he mentioned a name: titleholder David Benavidez.
We don’t know what Nelson’s ceiling is but he certainly has confidence.
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