It was all A-sides on the ESPN+ portion of Saturday’s undercard at Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. And in the last two of those bouts, the undefeated A-sides, Oseleys Iglesias and Abdullah Mason, took care of business in particularly quick and spectacular fashion.
Super middleweight Iglesias, a Cuban defector with an amateur win over David Morrell to his credit, erased formerly sturdy veteran Sena Agbeko 27 seconds faster than Morrell did last December – and along the way became the first ever to knock down Agbeko. The southpaw Iglesias (12-0, 11 KOs), clearly favoring his short right hook as the focal point of his offense, broke through with a hook to the temple with about 20 seconds left in the first round, sending Agbeko to the canvas for a brief count from referee Steve St. Germain.
Agbeko (28-4, 22 KOs) hadn’t recovered much by the time the second round began, and Iglesias pounced with a vicious combination along the ropes, highlighted by a right uppercut that split the guard. Agbeko, his defense and reflexes appearing diminished at age 32, couldn’t get out of the way of anything “El Tornado” swirled his way. Another right hook from the temple turned Agbeko’s legs rubbery about a minute into the round, and St. Germain called a halt at the 1:16 mark with Ghana's Agbeko taking punishment along the ropes and not punching back.
In the preceding bout, 20-year-old lightweight Mason, widely regarded as one of the highest-ceiling prospects in the sport, continued his roll with a two-round blowout of his own against Mike Ohan, Jr., scoring two knockdowns and ending matters after just 3 minutes and 40 seconds of action in a scheduled eight-rounder.
Dazzling and dominating from the start with his speed and combination punching, Mason dropped Ohan (19-3, 9 KOs) with a southpaw counter left uppercut to the nose late in the opening round. A four-punch combination – jab, jab, left cross, right hook – early in the second floored Ohan again, prompting his corner to stop the mismatch.
“The only way is up,” Mason (15-0, 13 KOs) said when asked afterward where he goes from here. Commenting on the first knockdown, he said, “I touched him a few times to the body with that uppercut, and it landed, it landed a few times. So I threw it upstairs. … We executed the game plan how we wanted to.”
The remainder of the ESPN+ stream leading into the Christian Mbilli-Sergiy Derevyanchenko main event offered nothing but one-sided distance fights.
At the end of a hard-fought women’s 10-rounder, local junior lightweight Leila Beaudoin (12-1, 1 KO) captured a unanimous decision over Bolivia’s Lizbeth Crespo (15-8, 4 KOs) by scores of 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92. For Beaudoin, who hails from the town of Levis in Quebec, it was her third straight win since an upset defeat in 2023 at the hands of Elizabeth Chavez Espinoza. Crespo had trouble getting inside on the taller Beaudoin but nevertheless put up a game effort in defeat to the light-punching crowd favorite.
Wilkens Mathieu, a 19-year-old light heavyweight prospect originally from Quebec City and now fighting out of Montreal, hurt trial horse Facundo NIcolas Galovar several times but could never take him off his feet, his three-fight knockout streak ending as he ran his record to 10-0 (6 KOs).
Galovar, one of four Argentine opponents to come up far short on the undercard, sunk to 15-12-2 (9 KOs) as he lost 60-54 on all three cards. Highlights from the obviously talented Mathieu included a crushing left hook late in the opening round, a pair of nasty right uppercuts in the fourth and another violent left in the fifth.
Queens, New York middleweight Jahi Tucker had the look of a promising – if occasionally sloppy – 21-year-old boxer-puncher as he routed Santiago Fernandez over eight rounds. Showing moves that drew a comparison to James Toney from broadcaster Timothy Bradley Jr., Tucker (12-1-1, 5 KOs) had his way with Fernandez (8-2-1, 4 KOs) throughout the bout, punctuating the action with a flush straight right hand with about 20 seconds remaining in the eighth. It was the best punch landed all fight, but the Argentine showed a sturdy chin as he shook it off and kept coming until the bell rang moments later.
Another of the card’s local fighters, southpaw junior lightweight Thomas “The Ghost” Chabot of Thetford Mines, Quebec, was bloodied and made to work a bit harder than the scores would suggest in outpointing Matias Guenemil over eight rounds. The judges tallied 80-72 twice and 79-73, but Guenemil (10-4-1, 5 KOs) landed more than his share of right hands on the mustachioed and mullet-adorned noggin of Chabot (11-0, 8 KOs). Still, Chabot was a clear victor, and could have won even wider had referee Albert Padulo Jr. not mistakenly ruled that a clean body-shot knockdown in the second round was the result of a low blow.
Unbeaten Belarusian lightweight prospect Dzmitry “The Wasp” Asanau (8-0, 3 KOs) opened the show with eight rounds of target practice against tough but hopelessly overmatched Alexis Camejo (8-4-2, 1 KO). All three judges handed in shutout 80-72 scorecards in favor of the 2016 and 2021 Olympian Asanau.