Philadelphia's "King" Gabriel Rosado resurrected his career with a sixth-round TKO of Glen "Jersey Boy" Tapia in a scheduled 10-round middleweight bout at the Park Theater inside the Monte Carlo Las Vegas. Both boxers need an impressive victory after a series of disappointing results, but it was Rosado who prevailed in a definitive fashion.
After being rocked by a left hook late in the opening round, Tapia, Passaic, New Jersey, came back in the second to jar Rosado with a right to the head. From the third round on, however, Rosado dominated his 27-year-old opponent, landing the harder blows.
Rosado, 31, pinned Tapia on the ropes in the fourth and punished him with a flurry of punches. By that point Tapia was bleeding from the nose and had a golf-ball size hematoma on his forehead.
A right to the head hurt Tapia (23-5, 15 KOs) in the sixth round, followed by a flush left hook that knocked him to the floor. Tapia, beat the count, but after Rosado landed several more hard shots to the head, referee Robert Byrd wisely stopped the fight. It was Tapia's fourth consecutive defeat.
In the rousing 10-round welterweight bout, 27-year-old KeAndre Gibson won a hard-fought majority decision over the 31-year-old Alejandro Barrera in a blood-splattered battle of attrition.
Barrera, Mexico, bled from the nose and cuts over both eyes, and Gibson, a native of St. Louis now fighting out of Las Vegas, suffered a deep cut on his left eyebrow. At times the fighters traded punches toe-to-toe, much to the delight of the cheering crowd.
Barrera (26-4, 17 KOs) attacked the body throughout, while Gibson (18-1-1, 7 KOs) landed sharp counters and combinations to the head. One judge had it even at 115-115, but was overruled by scores of 97-93 and 98-92.