Miami, FL – Jon ‘Bones’ Jones’ stunned ringside reaction – hands on head, mouth open in shock – spoke for everyone who witnessed Yoel ‘Soldier of God’ Romero’s thunderous first-round KO at last night’s Dirty Boxing Championship inaugural event in Miami, FL.
The MMA superstar was one of several big names of the combat sports world who had obtained an invitation to the closed-door launch event for the fight industry’s hottest new promotion, with Paige van Zant and heavyweight boxing contender Jarrell Miller also spotted ringside during the event.
Romero was announced as the surprise headliner for the card just 24 hours before the event took place. He faced Duane Crespo, a US Marines veteran who fought professionally in Muay Thai and MMA before recently gravitating to the PowerSlap promotion owned by UFC president Dana White.
Sparks flew quickly in the heavyweight bout and it wasn’t long before it was all over: a superman punch from Romero staggered Crespo backwards across the ring before a series of follow-up blows ended in an overhand left which slumped Crespo to the canvas.
The stoppage was the fifth KO win on the evening’s eight-fight card, with three bouts ending the first round and two in the second. Among the other finishes, UFC veteran Fabio Cherant was finished in the first round of his heavyweight bout with Rob Perez while GLORY Kickboxing veteran Anvar Boynazarov scored a second-round stoppage.
“I told everyone this was going to be something special and god damn I was not wrong. I knew these rules would make for crazy fights. Every single one of them was a banger. Things got dirty in there for real. We’ve worked super hard on this for a long time now and I couldn’t be happier with how this event turned out. I am 100% positive now that fight fans are going to love this,” said ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry, Chief Violence Office at Dirty Boxing Championship.
Dirty Boxing CEO Adam Kovacs added, “This was surely the greatest fight promotion debut in combat sports history! The ring, the rules, the atmosphere, the fights – everything was absolutely electric. It was an incredible night. That Yoel Romero finish, holy sh-t. That gave everyone goosebumps. It wasn’t just big names from fight world ringside, we had a lot of people from a lot of different industry sectors and we’re already having some very interesting conversations in the aftermath of this private show,”
Dirty Boxing Championship is the brainchild of ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry and his business partners Adam Kovacs (former Karate Combat President), serial entrepreneur Josh McClean and the accomplished Kawa brothers of First Round Management.
Saturday night’s event took place behind closed doors in front of a specially-selected group of invitees from across the sports, finance and broadcast world. Videos from the event will be released to the official Dirty Boxing Championship social media channels in the coming days, commencing with Romero’s headline bout.
Full Results:
Yoel Romero (CUB) def. Duane Crespo (USA), KO, R1
Heavyweight Bout, Main Event
Solomon Renfro (USA) def. Jeremiah Truhlar (USA), Unanimous Decision, R3
Welterweight Bout (170 lbs)
Rob Perez (USA) def. Fabio Cherant (USA), KO, R1
Heavyweight Bout
Maike Linhares (BRA) def. Eddie Perez Bruno (USA), Unanimous Decision, R3
Catchweight Bout, 160 lbs
Anvar Boynazarov (UZB) def. Thiago Belo (BRA), KO, R2
Featherweight Bout (145 lbs)
Corey Jackson (USA) def. Chris Burton (USA), KO, R2
Lightweight Bout (155lbs)
Claudia Zamora (USA) def. Monica Medina (USA), KO, R1 (Body Shot)
Bantamweight Bout (135 lbs)
Guilherme Bastos (BRA) def. Tyler Scott (USA), Decision, R4 Extra Round
Welterweight Bout (170 lbs)
Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Executive Writer, Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. Has a passion for Combat Sports and also a podcast host for Sitting Ringside. He’s also a former MMA fighter and Kickboxer.
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