“989 Assassin” came in at 313 and got the KO6.
Returning to the ring for the first time in 10 months, heavyweight Jermaine Franklin knocked down 2004 U.S. Olympian Devin Vargas twice, forcing his corner to surrender on Thursday night's “Big Time Boxing USA” event on DAZN in Detroit.
It was the 30-year-old finalist Franklin's second straight win after consecutive losses to Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua and five straight losses for Vargas, who, 42, fell to 22-11 (9 KOs) after a 17-0 start to his career and then went 5-11 after the fight that was all but decided.
Franklin came into the bout at Wayne State Fieldhouse promising a knockout, and it initially looked like that would come early on. The youngster from Saginaw, Michigan, hurt Vargas with a right hand in the first round and then outmaneuvered the bloated “Destructive Devin” as he defended. But Vargas showed impressive resilience throughout the bout and fought his way through the goings on.
The pattern repeated in the second round, with Franklin hurting his opponent with left-right combinations but not quite finishing him off. Still, punches rarely land as tightly as the one Vargas received late in the round. But the former Olympian held his own, keeping his mouth wide open for much of the third round, keeping the fight close.
But Franklin (23-2, 15 KOs) broke through in the fourth round. A powerful right uppercut hurt Vargas and sent him quickly to his knees in his corner, where Franklin's punches landed on top of the knees. The bout seemed all but over when Vargas barely beat Detroit referee Ansel Stewart's count of nine, but the fight continued and Vargas, despite a bloody nose, fought back before the end of the round.
But after two rounds, Franklin landed punches to force the finish. A right to the body hurt Vargas, then a hard left-right combination in the corner put him down again. He quickly got to his feet, and the bell rang before Franklin could follow up, but Vargas and his trainer decided he'd taken enough beating for the night, and the bout was stopped between rounds.
“I felt like I made the fight harder than it needed to be,” Franklin said after the fight. “I'm not going to lie, I got excited the minute I landed that first power punch and I couldn't calm down. It took me away from my game plan.”
Franklin weighed in at 254 pounds, nearly 20 pounds heavier than he was for the Joshua fight. “I slacked off on my diet a little bit, so I've put on a little bit of weight,” he admitted with a smile. Franklin said he wants to be busier in the future, and “hopefully I'll fight three or four times a year.”
Franklin's promoter, Dmitry Sarita, called Joseph Parker his preferred opponent for Franklin, but said, “If we can't get a big fight, we're going to keep him busy with Big Time Boxing USA.”
The side event featured a competitive and fascinating bout between unbeaten junior welterweights Joshua “Double J” Pagán and Roger “The Hitman” Hilley, in which Pagán, in his first eight-round bout and first pro fight against a southpaw, overcame a first-round adverse cut to win by unanimous decision and bring his record to zero.
The 30-year-old Hilley, who boldly wore his “Hitman” nickname in Detroit under the watch of Tommy Hearns, came out fast, closed the distance on his taller opponent, pounded him hard in the corner and delivered a cut to the 24-year-old Pagán's left eyelid with a clean right hand inside the first minute of the bout.
But Pagan's cornerbacks did a good job of limiting the bloodshed and he settled down and used combinations over the next few rounds to overpower Hilly and win the fight in a crushing fashion. Aside from some left and right positioning that led to the occasional clash of heads, the mix of styles was enjoyable. Pagan had perhaps his best round in the eighth, boxing off his toes and landing pot shots and combinations while Hilly struggled to get the job done.
All three judges scored the bout 78-74 for Pagán, of nearby Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hilley, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, dropped to 13-1 (8 KOs) with the loss.
“I've been cut in sparring before,” Pagan (10-0, 4 KOs) told DAZN's Al Bernstein after the fight. “I've been cut in other fights too. I knew I had to stay calm and stick to my game plan. Big credit to Roger Hilly. He was by far the toughest guy I've ever faced. … I just had to outwork him.”
In the opening bout of the broadcast, super middleweight contender Ali Akhmedov easily took on 40-year-old veteran Encarnacion Diaz, knocking the Costa Rican southpaw down twice before earning a stoppage in the second round.
Kazakhstan's Akhmedov (21-1, 16 KOs) dropped Diaz (18-5, 11 KOs) to the mat with a left hook midway through the second round, then sent him down again with a right cross shortly after. Referee Ben Rodriguez called the bout off after Diaz showed no signs of getting up from his knees at the count of eight, ending the bout at 2 minutes, 14 seconds into the round. It was Akhmedov's fifth straight win since his 2020 loss to Carlos Góngora by 12 knockouts.
Akhmedov's quick knockout set up time for a four-round middleweight swing bout between former sparring partners Josiah Shackleford and Jashar Banks, both 30-year-old Detroit natives. Shackleford (3-1, 2 knockouts, 1 no-kicks), fighting for just his fourth fight of 2024, controlled the fast-paced bout from start to finish and overpowered Banks late in the fourth round. But Shackleford couldn't overpower Banks in his pro debut, settling for a 40-36 unanimous decision.
