By Thomas Gerbasi

NEW YORK, August 19 – In the fourth fight of his comeback after a victorious battle against cancer, Danny Jacobs stepped up his competition big time Monday night at the Best Buy Theater in longtime middleweight contender Giovanni Lorenzo. The Brooklynite also delivered big in the first boxing event on the new Fox Sports 1 network, knocking out the multiple-time title challenger in the third round, proving that he is finally back to the form that made him one of the most highly-touted prospects in the sport.

Lorenzo strode forward confidently at the bell, sending sweat flying from Jacobs’ head with the first left hook he threw. Jacobs took it well and flurried back, landing a hard overhand right moments later for emphasis. The round settled into a more sedate pace from there, with Jacobs boxing efficiently throughout.

Doing his best to make the bout a brawl, Lorenzo tried to muscle Jacobs whenever he got close, with some well-placed fouls also showing up in his arsenal. Jacobs controlled the action from range though, even if he was missing more than landing on his awkward foe.

A low blow by Lorenzo early in the third brought a brief halt to the action, and when it resumed, Jacobs landed some hard shots and also started to retaliate when it came to the fouling. That was just fine with Lorenzo, and the two began trading hard shots against the ropes. Then out of nowhere, the now bloodied Jacobs unleashed a left-right that sent Lorenzo face first to the canvas. The Dominican Republic native tried to rise, but when he fell back down, referee Steve Willis waved the fight off at 2:05 of round three.

With the win, Jacobs improves to 26-1 with 23 KOs in picking up the vacant WBC Continental Americas middleweight title; Lorenzo, who was stopped for the first time in his career, falls to 32-6 with 24 KOs.

Bronx junior middleweight prospect Eddie Gomez made a statement in his co-main event bout against always tough Steve Upsher Chambers, stopping the Philadelphian in the fourth round to improve to 15-0 (10 KOs).

Gomez almost made it a short night before a partisan crowd, battering Upsher (24-3-1, 6 KOs) with vicious shots to the head and body. Upsher tried to fire back, but he had nothing on his punches that would give Gomez any reason to let up with his first round assault.

Very little changed in the second round, and even flush blows from the Philadelphian drew no reaction from the unbeaten Gomez, who showed patience in potshotting Upsher with power shots while working his jab effectively.

By the end of round three, the result of the fight was no longer in doubt; it was just a question of how much longer the game Upsher would stay upright, and you had to wonder when the corner or referee Steve Smoger would intervene and stop the one-sided battering. Yet just when it looked like the fight was on the verge of being over, Upsher rallied in the fourth, and though he wasn’t hurting Gomez, he did get his attention for a spell. It was the wrong kind of attention though, as Gomez stepped things up and closed the show, with a series of unanswered shots bringing in Smoger to stop the fight at 2:33 of round four.

In a junior middleweight swing bout, “Buddha” Gary Beriguette and Kamal Muhammad traded knockdowns in the opening two frames and continued to brawl for the rest of their bloody four rounder, with Beriguette taking a well-earned four round unanimous decision.

Scores were 39-36 twice and 38-36 for Brooklyn’s Beriguette, now 2-0 with 1 KO; New York City’s Muhammad falls to 0-2.

2012 United States Olympian Terrell Gausha fought off a spirited effort from Logan, West Virginia’s Austin Marcum, stopping his foe in two frames.

West Virginia’s Marcum came to fight against the Olympian, but without the power to hurt Gausha, it was an uphill climb at best. By the end of the round, Cleveland’s Gausha started to find his range and rock Marcum, most notably with a couple hard rights, one unfortunately coming after the bell.

After a flurry by Marcum to start the second, Gausha shook it off and lowered the boom – actually several of them, as he threw a series of crushing body shots that put his opponent on the deck. With Marcum in pain and obviously not in any shape to beat the count, referee Benjy Esteves called a halt to the fight at 1:04 of round two.

With the win, Gausha improves to 10-2 with 4 KOs; Marcum falls to 5-4 with 3 KOs.

2012 US Olympian Marcus Browne moved to 6-0 with six stops after a quick finish of Monroe, Louisiana’s Robert Hill (1-2) in a cruiserweight bout. In control from the time the bell sounded, Staten Island’s Browne stalked, caught Hill in a corner, and sent him to the mat. Hill couldn’t beat Harvey Dodd’s ten count, ending the bout at the 59 second mark.

Unbeaten Bronx junior lightweight Emanuel Gonzalez kept his “0” in the opener, outpointing Alabama’s Michael Doyle over four fairly uneventful rounds.

Scores were 40-36 across the board for Gonzalez, now 12-0 with 7 KOs. Doyle (2-4, 1 KO), who was coming off a first round TKO win over previously unbeaten Neuky Santelises just five days ago, wasn’t able to see lightning strike twice against the patient Gonzalez, who was able to stagger his foe twice in the first round, but wasn’t able to get him out of there.