NEWARK, N.J. – The Brick City Fight Night Series returned to Newark, New Jersey, as “The Rock”, AKA the Prudential Center, hosted a solid night of world-class professional boxing on Friday, April 10th. Rising Star Promotions presented the show in association with Pro Box Promotions, and it definitely lived up to the names as just about every bout of the evening featured legitimate “Rising Stars” or “Contenders”.
The card was broadcast by ProBox TV’s YouTube channel as part of their “Contender Series”, while the undercard was stacked with very legitimate rising stars. People love to complain about boxing, sometimes…. many times for good reason. They will complain that they don’t know the fighters, the subscriptions they need to pay for, and sometimes expensive pay-per-view fees on top of the subscription fees.
What makes it even worse for the people willing to pay is that in recent years, they are often getting one fight they want to see, sometimes really only one fighter they want to see, and then an undercard full of one-sided mismatches where the “A-side” fighters sweep, and the “B-side” fighters either come for a check or to survive. So, how can you go wrong tuning into fights that showcase top-notch fighters and their goal is to make “50–50 matchups where runners, holders, and low-volume punchers are not welcome!” and you get to see it on YouTube.
Friday’s main event of the evening featured undefeated prospect and 2020 Olympic gold medalist, Hebert Conceicao 11-0, 5 KO’s who had to get up off the deck in the 3rd round and stay sharp and disciplined for every second of the remainder of the fight to capture a 10-round unanimous decision over Venezuelan knockout artist, and former world title challenger, Johan Gonzalez, 36-6, 34 KO’s.
It wasn’t a secret to anyone that Conceicao’s game plan was to box and use his youth, reach, size advantage, and legs, while Gonzalez knew he would need to work a lot harder and take Conceicao out of his comfort zone. Gonzalez more than likely would need to make the fight get a little uglier and disrupt what the taller and rangier Brazilian was trying to do to have a chance to hand Conceicao his first loss as a professional.
The first 2 rounds were relatively close, with Conceicao working behind a nice, long jab, and Gonzalez looking to land a big right hand. In the 3rd Conceicao appeared to be finding his distance and rhythm, and he started grinning a lot, either feeling himself or faking it a little too much, when a little more than 1 minute into the 3rd round, Gonzalez knocked the grin off of his face.
Gonzalez finally timed a right hand and dropped Conceicao for the first time as a professional. For a moment, it looked like he might be in trouble, and Gonzalez was back in the fight. Gonzalez would have a full two minutes to try to finish him off, but he wasn’t able to get him out of there, and Conceicao finished the round strong, but it was now a fight… and you knew for sure Gonzalez could hurt the Brazilian.
Gonzalez entered the fight with a huge edge in experience, so besides his power, his experience also had to be respected. Conceição won his Olympic gold back in August of 2021 in Tokyo, knocking out Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak in the middleweight final, and just over three months later turned pro, making his debut on November 20, 2021.
To put the disparity of professional experience into perspective, at the time Conceicao made his debut back in 2021, Johan Gonzalez was already 31-1 with 31 KOs.
However, there was also a big size disparity. In fact, not long before the time frame when Conceicao was competing in the Olympics, Gonzalez had dropped down in weight for a few fights and competed in and around the welterweight limit. So, when the younger man was competing at 165 in his quest for the gold, the older man was making 147, and Gonzalez has always been more of a junior middleweight than a full-fledged middleweight.
So, the bigger and younger man, Conceicao, did what he had to do and got right back to the game plan and did his best to work behind a disciplined jab and used good movement. Gonzalez, to his credit, kept the fight interesting, but wasn’t able to really disrupt Conceicao’s flow enough to win the fight. Conceicao, he captured a unanimous decision by the scores of 96-93 on judge Ron McNair and Paul Wallace’s scorecards, while judge Lynne Carter had it 95-94. While it seemed wider, I also had the fight scored 95-94. Referee David Fields did an excellent job from start to finish.
In the 10-round co-feature of the evening, ProBox TV fan favorites, Francisco “Bebu” Daniel Veron, 16-1-1, 10 KO’s of Jose Leon Suarez, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Raul Garcia, 15-2-1, 12 KO’s of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, fought in a super-welterweight bout.
Verón was the more polished and faster guy all night. He was a little sharper, a little cleaner, and just more under control. He was outworking Garcia, especially early on, where you could tell Garcia was strong and talented, but he seemed like he was saving himself for late in the fight throughout the early rounds, and he just seemed a step behind Veron.
Some rounds were close, but it felt like Verón was the one edging them with cleaner shots and better positioning.
Garcia had his moments and showed he belonged, but similar to the main event, this was a fight where you wanted to see him take a few more chances and really press it instead of letting Verón settle in.
Veron definitely had a speed advantage, but Garcia was good enough to notice this and started to realize he had to punch with him, or set shots up and time him to really land…he basically had to take chances, and as the fight progressed, it was becoming clear that he didn’t take enough, although he tried more the later it got.
Apparently, the Olympian from Brazil and the Olympian from Argentina on this card had done a lot of sparring and helped each other out in the gym, and apparently, it was helpful on fight night.
In the end, the judges Mark Consentino and Paul Wallace had the fight 98-92, while Lynne Carter had it 97-93, all for Argentina’s Veron, who handed Garcia his third loss as a professional. I also had the fight 98-92 from ringside. Referee Ricardo Vera also did an excellent job.