After being knocked out by Deandre Latimore on Friday Night Fights in 2008, junior middleweight Sechew Powell avenged the defeat with a majority decision on tonight’s ESPN telecast.
Powell busted up Latimore’s face over twelve rounds, giving him a badly swollen right eye in the process, and, by scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114, got the win, which makes him the mandatory challenger to Cory Spinks’ IBF title.
Still only 23 years old, Latimore has plenty of time to bounce back from the defeat – the third of his career. After beating Powell two years ago, Latimore instantly leaped into a bout with Spinks for the vacant IBF title, which Spinks eked out by split decision.
Spinks was supposed to defend his title against Cornelius “K-9″ Bundrage on the March 26 Friday Night Fights, but the card was cancelled when Don King, the promoter, and ESPN failed to reach an agreement. Assuming Spinks goes through with a fight against Bundrage, Powell would be next in line for a shot.
On the Friday Night Fights undercard, up-and-coming undefeated super middleweight prospect Edwin Rodriguez stopped George Armenta with a body shot 47 seconds into the first round. While Armenta had five previous defeats on his resume, including a 2004 decision loss to Powell, he had never been stopped. Two weeks before the fight, Rodriguez predicted a knockout for the Inside Fights boxing staff and delivered.
In other action, undefeated welterweight Prenice Brewer pounded out a unanimous decision over Chris Fernandez in a six round fight by scores of 59-55 twice and 58-56.
