Location: Washington D.C.
Date: May 13, 2016
Weight class: Welterweight (147 lbs)
Title(s) on the line: None
TV: BET
Line: Hernandez-Harrison -550, Dallas Jr. +400 (5 Dimes, 5/13/16)
Ring Magazine Rankings: Hernandez-Harrison - Not ranked, Dallas Jr. - Not ranked
Style: Hernandez-Harrison: Orthodox, Dallas Jr.: Orthodox
Referee: Malik Waleed
Outcome: Harrison-Hernandez draws Dallas Jr. (split decision draw)
Judge Scorecards: Tammye Jenkins 95-94 (Hernandez-Harrison) | Paul Wallace 96-92 (Dallas Jr.)| Wayne Smith 94-94 (draw)
Master Class Boxing Scorecard: 96-92 (Dallas Jr.)
BET Scorecard: 95-93 (Dallas Jr.)
(click here to view judges' round-by-round scoring)
(click here to view full fight)
Round-by-Round Scoring Recap
Round 2: 10-9 Dallas Jr. (clear), Score: 20-18 Dallas Jr.
Round 3: 10-9 Dallas Jr. (clear), Score: 30-27 Dallas Jr.
Rounds 1-3 were much of the same - Dallas moving well, staying outside of Dusty's range while outboxing Dusty with activity and hand speed. Dallas, the smaller man in the fight, was mostly the aggressor and landed a wide variety punches - most notably consistently landing straight lefts to the body and combinations to Dusty's face. Dusty was patient and stayed mostly behind a high guard defense the first few rounds, at times stalking Dallas but never throwing many punches (and generally not landing more than one punch at a time). Dusty got a bit more aggressive in the 2nd and 3rd rounds landing some good power shots to the body at times, but Dallas clearly outworked him by beating him to the punch with his hand speed advantage and staying out of range with his foot speed.
Round 4: Dallas is still outworking Dusty with hand speed and movement, especially in the early part of the round. Dallas still throwing nice combination punches (some of which land, some of which are getting blocked by Dusty's guard) while Dusty is still generally landing only one punch at a time. Some good exchanges towards the middle and end of the round - Dusty drops his guard and gets more aggressive, landing some solid one-punch power shots in the second half of the round. A couple of nice power right hands by Dusty to end the round. Dallas definitely threw and landed more punches in this round but Dusty appeared to land the more meaningful shots. 10-9 Hernandez-Harrison (close), Score: 39-37 Dallas Jr.
Round 5: Noticeable abrasion on the left side of Dusty's face from combinations landed by Dallas in the earlier rounds. Dusty more aggressive, throwing more punches to start off the round but Dallas still outworking Dusty with a wide variety of punches - some of which are getting blocked but many of which are getting through. Dallas is smaller but is clearly the more skilled boxer. As in the earlier rounds, Dallas is consistently beating Dusty to the punch and largely staying out of Dusty's range with good foot movement. Dusty is dropping his hands (which he also did in the last round) as he is stalking Dallas. In the latter part of the round Dallas lands a nice power right shot with a follow-up left that sends Dusty to the ground. Dusty gets up and round ends shortly after. Clear round for Dallas. 10-8 Dallas Jr. (clear), Score: 49-45 Dallas Jr.
Round 6: Dallas loading up and throwing a lot of big power shots early in the round with Dusty - likely still a bit dazed from the knockdown towards the end of the last round - back behind his high guard trying to defend himself. Dallas landing all the shots in this round, both to Dusty's face and body area. Dallas stalking Dusty trying to end it. Dusty gathers himself towards the middle of the round but hardly throws or lands any punches in the round, staying mostly behind his high guard. 10-9 Dallas Jr. (clear), Score: 59-54 Dallas Jr.
Round 7: Dallas outboxing Dusty early, varying his punches well and moving before Dusty can set his feet and get off. Dusty does land a decent flurry in the middle of the round but Dallas outworking him still. Towards the end of the round Dusty lands a late, cheap shot after the referee tells the fighters to break. (It's possible Dusty didn't hear the referee but he probably should have been deducted a point there.) 10-9 Dallas Jr. (clear), Score: 69-63 Dallas Jr.
Round 8: More of the same - Dallas still outboxing and outworking Dusty. Dallas is mostly just too fast for Dusty. In the middle of the round Dusty lands a couple of left hands that appear to be a bit low and send Dallas to his knees holding his cup. Referee doesn't clearly see the punches and rules (much to Dallas's and the crowd's surprise) a knockdown after Dallas drops to the ground. A bit of a closer round due to Dusty landing a few body shots but Dallas seems to get the better of Dusty through the remainder of the round. Still scored the round 10-8 for Dusty (as opposed to 10-9) due to the ruled knockdown and the round being close. 10-8 Hernandez-Harrison (close), Score: 77-73 Dallas Jr.
Round 9: Dusty coming out this round more aggressive with lead left jabs (probably should have thrown more of these earlier in the fight). Dallas still outboxing Dusty with combinations and speed but Dusty is being much more aggressive here, probably knowing he is behind on the scorecards. Dallas looks a bit tired but is still outworking Dusty, throwing and landing more punches. Dusty lands a couple of nice body shots followed by a right uppercut late in the round. Dallas fires back with some nice combinations. Harrison lands a nice flurry towards the end of the round before Dallas counters with his own flurry right before the bell. Dusty appears to be bleeding from both nostrils. Close round but Dallas still throwing and landing more punches, and is landing the cleaner shots. 10-9 Dallas Jr. (close), Score: 87-82 Dallas Jr.
Round 10: Both fighters come out with some urgency. Dallas still more active and landing more punches but Dusty landing some good shots of his own. In the middle of the round, Dusty backs Dallas into the corner and lands a nice combination. Some good exchanges here overall - probably most entertaining round of the fight. Dusty lands a nice flurry in the latter part of the round; both fighters exchange combinations combinations to end the round. Dallas probably landed more punches in this round (as he did in nearly every other round) but Dusty landed some solid power punches here. 10-9 Hernandez-Harrison (close), Score: 96-92 Dallas Jr.
Postfight Analysis
I'm generally not one to play the "robbery" card as I recognize that a range of scores is usually reasonable - but this was absolutely a robbery. Dallas very clearly outboxed Dusty - both throwing and landing more punches while displaying superior skill and hand speed over the course of the 10 rounds. Dallas moved very well on his feet and largely stayed out of range vs. a relatively inactive, somewhat flat-footed Dusty who rarely landed more than one punch at a time. I actually felt Dallas won as many as 9 out of the 10 rounds and - with the exception of the 8th round (where Dusty was awarded a questionable knockdown) - felt that every round that could be scored for Dusty was a close round, while there were several rounds that Dallas won pretty clearly. In particular, I'm not sure why 2 out of the 3 judges scored the 3rd and 7th rounds for Dusty, rounds I felt were clear rounds for Dallas.
Watching from ringside, I felt bad for Dallas after the fight. This is a guy who's been robbed before in a previous fight vs. a top contender in Mauricio Herrera. This is also a guy who suffered a 1st round KO loss vs. feared power puncher Lucas Matthysse, a fight he took on a few weeks notice shortly after his father passed away from leukemia. After the KO loss and his father's passing he spent a couple of years away from boxing, only recently returning to put on perhaps one of the better performances of his career this past Friday... only to be robbed again. Dallas came into this fight vs. Dusty the more experienced, skilled fighter and it clearly showed on fight night.
On paper, it's understandable why Dusty is such a highly regarded prospect. Dusty is a 3-time National Junior Golden Gloves champion. He at one point a few years ago turned down an opportunity for the Olympics to become the youngest professional fighter in the United States at 17. He is athletic, has excellent height and length for his weight class, and is well-rounded in terms of having pretty good boxing skills, speed, and power. He's been praised by the likes of Mike Tyson and Andre Ward and is considered by some to be the best boxing prospect out of the Washington D.C. area since Sugar Ray Leonard. At 21 years old, Dusty also already has multi-year sponsorship deals from Fila and GEICO.
But Dusty's impressive amateur pedigree and skills on paper have - thus far - not translated well to his professional career. He's undefeated (29-0-1) but has been matched up vs. embarrassingly soft competition to this point in his career. Prior to fighting Dallas, Dusty had yet to face a fighter ranked even in the top 250 (as ranked by BoxRec) in his weight class and less than 10 of the 30 fighters he's fought thus far in his career have a winning record. Despite the putrid competition Dusty has actually been knocked down multiple times in his career, which includes getting knocked down 3.5 years ago in his hometown by a fighter who currently has a record of 3-24, and his most recent fight vs. Dallas - a solid boxer but B or C-level fighter who hadn't fought any legitimate competition in over 2 years.
What's especially concerning is Dallas, who only has 10 KOs in 26 fights, was the smaller boxer in this matchup but at times took the fight to the bigger, stronger Dusty and was able to score a 5th round knockdown (which could've even been a stoppage if there had been more time left in the round). If smaller guys like Dallas and no-name journeymen like Michael Balasi and Marqus Johnson can score knockdowns vs. Dusty you'd have to assume the top guys at 147 with legit punching power, or even decent punching power at 154 (a weight class where Dusty has fought quite a bit in the past and will presumably return to as he gets older) won't have too much trouble putting Dusty to the canvas with his questionable chin and poor head movement.
Dusty is very young and, at 21 years old, still has plenty of years to improve but chin resistance and speed (two attributes that were noticeably lacking in his fight vs. Dallas) usually don't improve over the course of a career. Dusty will have to work quite a bit on improving his punch output, head movement, and overall boxing technique if he wants to compete with the top contenders at 147 and 154. Dusty looked good in spots vs. Dallas with his pressure and power punching, but this was primarily due to his size advantage - he for the most part was outclassed and looked flat-footed vs. Dallas, who is a solid fighter but far from one of the elite guys in Dusty's weight class.
We'll have to see what the future holds for Dusty, but he may need to take a step down in competition and further hone his skills against weaker competition if he wants to avoid risking a loss in the very near future.
The draw this past Friday in D.C. was unfortunately the latest in a line of very questionable scorecards out of the D.C. area - going back to the Amir Khan/Lamont Peterson fight in 2011 (controversial split decision for Peterson after two questionable point deductions from Khan for pushing) and the Badou Jack/Lucian Bute draw last month.
