Gary Russell, Jr. Defends WBC Title With Second-Round KO; Brother Antonio Scores Second-Round Stoppage on Undercard; Hawkins Wins By Sixth-Round TKO In Vegas; Corley Drops Majority Decision In Mexico!

An overall successful night for Beltway Boxers on the road on Saturday.  Let's start at the Foxwoods in Mashantucket, CT where Capitol Heights, MD's "Mr." Gary Russell, Jr. made the first successful defense of his WBC Featherweight championship with a crushing second-round TKO over Patrick "The Punisher" Hyland of Dublin, Ireland.  The bout was shown on Showtime.

Russell used his trademark speed to simply overpower Hyland and knock him down three times in the second to win the contest. The bout was stopped at 1:33.  Russell is now 27-1, 16 KO's while Hyland drops to 31-2, 15 KO's.

On the undercard, Russell's younger brother, Antonio, began his 2016 campaign with a second-round stoppage of his own against Alberto Serna of Mexico.  Antonio Russell, the 2015 Beltway Boxing Rookie of the Year, dropped Serna twice with right hooks in the first round, then landed a quick combination to finish the bout at 39 seconds of the second.  Antonio Russell is now 6-0, five KO's while Serna is 2-5, one KO.

Meanwhile at the D Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, Baltimore, MD welterweight Malik "Iceman" Hawkins put on a punishing display en route to a sixth-round TKO of Errol "The Spider" Sidney of New Orleans, LA.  Hawkins kept Sidney off-balance with brutal left jabs and right hooks. Hawkins continually worked Sidney into corners -- so much so that hall of fame pro wrestling announcer Jim Ross, who called the bout for the CBS Sports Network, said that Sidney was in the corner so much, he would have to pay property tax.

Hawkins finished the job in the sixth with a crushing right uppercut that dropped Sidney to the canvas.  Referee Jay Nady stopped the bout at 1:02.  Hawkins remains undefeated at 7-0, six KO's.  Sidney is now 6-2-2, two KO's.

At the Gimnasio Nuevo León Unido in Monterrey, Mexico, former WBO Junior Welterweight champion DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley lost a 12-round majority decision to Adrian "Diamante" Estrella of Monterrey.  The bout was for Estrella's interim WBC Latino Lightweight title.

In an interesting situation, open scoring was used for this bout and after eight rounds, the scoring had the contest 80-72, 77-76 and 78-74 for Estrella. In round nine, Corley dropped Estrella with a right hand. Estrella survived the round and was pretty much on his bicycle for the rest of the fight. In the end, judges saw it 114-114 and 117-112, 116-111 for Estrella.

Corley falls to 44-27-1, 26 KOs while Estrella rises to 26-1, 23 KOs.